What is shoppable video? Definition, formats and where it goes

Shoppable video is a video that carries a link to the products it shows, as a tag, a card or a button the viewer can act on while watching. A video with no path to the product is product content, however good it looks. Shopify's own guide to shoppable video puts it the same way: interactive video "with embedded product links", where buyers can purchase "without needing to navigate away from the video content".

The definition hinges on one thing: the link sits inside the video experience, at the moment the viewer wants the product. A "shop now" button under an embedded clip does not qualify.

The three parts of a shoppable video

Every shoppable video, on any platform, combines three parts:

1. The video itself: a clip, a sequence of short slides or a live stream.
2. The product link: a tag on screen, a product card, a sticker or a shopping button.
3. The action: open the product page, add to cart, or buy in the app, depending on the platform.

The first part is creative work. The second and third decide whether the video sells, and they depend on the tool that plays the video.

The five formats of shoppable video

Tagged video

A single video with product tags that appear on screen while it plays. It is the format most platforms use on social media, and the one Shopify's guide describes first: "pop-up product tags that appear during video play".

Stories

A sequence of short, full-screen slides, photo or video, that the viewer taps through. Each slide can carry its own product. The format comes from Instagram, and shoppers already know its gestures: tap to advance, hold to pause, swipe to close. Our page on shoppable stories covers how the format works on a store.

Carousel or video feed

A horizontal row of vertical clips, often placed on a home page or under a product gallery. Tapping a clip opens it bigger with the products attached. Tolstoy and Videowise, two shoppable video apps on the Shopify App Store, both list carousels among their layouts.

Floating video

A small video bubble pinned to a corner of the screen, which expands when tapped. It stays visible while the shopper scrolls. Tolstoy's App Store listing, for example, offers floating videos next to carousels and stories.

Live shopping

A live broadcast where the host presents products and pins them as they go. It is the most demanding format to produce, since someone has to be on camera at a fixed time.

Where shoppable video goes

On your own product pages

This is where the viewer is closest to buying. They already chose the product and have questions left: size, texture, how it works. A short video answering one of those questions, with the product card at hand, fits that moment. The article on shoppable video that converts covers what to film and what to measure there.

On your home page and collection pages

Here the video does discovery work: new arrivals, a drop, a styling idea across several products. Each clip or slide points to a different product.

On social platforms

Each platform has its own native tool, and the product link looks different on each:

• Instagram: product stickers in Stories, with up to 5 products tagged per story, according to Instagram's help center. Since September 2025, Instagram shops send buyers to the seller's own website to pay.
• TikTok Shop: the seller links a product before posting, and an orange shopping bag icon appears in the lower-left corner of the video. Viewers buy without leaving TikTok.
• YouTube: eligible creators tag products. A "Shopping button" appears on long videos, a product sticker on Shorts.

On social platforms, you follow each platform's rules and eligibility. On your own store, you choose the format, the placement and the product link.

Shoppable video vs regular product video

A regular product video shows the product. A shoppable video shows the product and lets the viewer act on it from inside the video. The difference is small in production and large for the shopper, who no longer has to leave the video, scroll back to the price and find the right variant.

The same clip can be either. A 15-second video of a jacket, uploaded to the product gallery, is product video. The same clip in a story with a product card showing the jacket's current price is shoppable video.

To see how brands handle this in practice, our selection of shoppable video examples looks at real product pages.

Shoppable video on Shopify

Shopify's native video tools, product media and the theme's Video section, play a video but attach no product card to it. Shoppable formats come from apps. Our guide to adding video to a Shopify product page lists what the native tools do.

Storiq is one of those apps. It adds full-screen stories to your product pages through a theme app block. On paid plans, a slide can carry a product card with the image, title and price read live from your catalog, and each story's opens, completion rate and clicks show in your dashboard.