Videowise vs Tolstoy: What Shoppable Video Platform Should I Use?

Shoppable video is changing the way brands engage with customers—turning passive viewing into active buying. As you explore your options, you’ll see so many options it is hard to see what is the best option for you. While they are both great tools to embed product details and purchase options directly into your videos, they differ in their standout features, pricing models, etc. Let’s take a look at each.

Chapter 01What are the main features of Videowise?

Videowise positions itself as an all-in-one video commerce platform designed to elevate the e-commerce experience. From our perspective, this solution is for e-commerce merchants that care deeply about video performance and site speed. In addition, the platform provides a really interesting technology that shrinks video files by up to 97% while maintaining relatively good quality.

Features we love

First, Videowise offers a comprehensive suite of features aimed at enhancing product discovery and boosting sales. Some of our favorite features:

• AI-Powered Personalization: The software leverages AI to personalize content, and enhance the overall shopping journey. This means that the platform can analyze viewer behavior and preferences to deliver tailored video experiences, potentially leading to higher engagement and conversions. For example, if a viewer shows interest in a particular product category, Videowise can dynamically adjust the video content to showcase more relevant items.
• Automated Social Listening: Streamlines the process of gathering user-generated content (UGC) and obtaining usage rights. This feature, therefore, simplifies the process of leveraging authentic customer content to promote products and build social proof.
• Story Style video embed: create a social like experience product discovery with interactive image galleries that look like Instagram stories.

Chapter 02What are the main features of Tolstoy?

Tolstoy presents itself as a video commerce platform aiming to boost sales and reach new customers through interactive video experiences. From our understanding, the platform is a strong option for small e-commerce merchants with limited video content. It allows them to capture leads via integrated forms within their videos and build engaging shopping journeys using video quizzes.

Features we love

• Interactive Videos Journey: Enhance viewer engagement with interactive elements like polls, quizzes, and branching narratives. Its unique approach to interactive video lies in its video branching capabilities. Because, this allows businesses to create personalized narratives based on viewer responses, gathering valuable data and tailoring the shopping journey accordingly. Imagine a video asking viewers about their skin type and then branching to different product recommendations based on their answers.
• Video Quizzes: Create interactive quizzes within videos to gather valuable customer insights and personalize the shopping journey.
• Lead Generation: Capture leads and contact information directly within videos through integrated forms.
• Shop App Integration: Bring your video to the Shop App from Shopify

Chapter 03What alternatives are worth considering for Shoppable Video?

eStreamly – Shoppable Livestream and Video

Chapter 04eStreamly

eStreamly transforms your videos into a powerful merchandized watchable sales experience. The white-label in-video checkout lets viewers buy directly from your content, turning every video into a mini-store. This is therefore, seamlessly integrated across social media (Instagram, Facebook, and more), your website, emails, SMS, and even mobile apps, eStreamly delivers the fastest, most secure path from video view to completed purchase. Perfect for video-savvy mid-sized merchants with a strong social presence, eStreamly streamlines your video commerce across all marketing channels, giving you complete control of your data, speed, and security.

Features we love

• Shoppable Videos: Create interactive videos with in-video checkout capabilities. eStreamly allows businesses to repurpose live shopping content into shoppable videos, extending the reach and impact of their live events.
• Deep Analytics: Track key metrics such as viewer engagement, traffic attribution, conversion rates, and sales data.
• White-label player: Drive trust and customize the platform to match your brand identity, company URL and create a seamless shopping experience from video to checkout.
• Direct to DM: Engage customers on any Instagram or Facebook post with automated DMs. Just post a teaser and ask followers to comment. They’ll instantly receive a shoppable video via DM—making it easy to monetize organic content and showcase products without sending them to a link-in-bio or external site.
• Video landing pages: Augment your social media ads and drive conversion in the platform by making shoppable video landing pages. Never ask your viewers to leave where they are to shop without losing critical user data. Content discovery eStreamly searches for highly engaged content and feeds that to the users as a one click upload.

eStreamly’s shoppable videos can be used to highlight key features and benefits, technical specifications, and use cases of products. For example, businesses can create videos that showcase the different settings on a vacuum cleaner, provide detailed information about the materials used in a piece of clothing, or demonstrate how to use a new software application

Chapter 05Comparison of Shoppable Video Platforms.

Here’s a look at the key features of Videowise, Tolstoy, and eStreamly.

Chapter 06What is Shoppable Video?

Shoppable Video technology is a type of interactive video that allows viewers to purchase products or services directly from the video content. This can be done through clickable links, product tags, video native checkout and payment. Using shoppable video is becoming increasingly popular as a way for businesses to engage with customers and drive sales. It allows businesses to showcase their products in a more engaging way, and it makes it easier for customers to purchase the products they see in the videos. Estreamly created an easy way to measure business impact with a shoppable video ROI calculator.

Chapter 07Conclusion:

Chapter 08What is the best shoppable video platform for my e-commerce business?

Shoppable video is transforming the e-commerce landscape, offering a powerful way to engage customers and drive sales. Videowise vs Tolstoy? Those platforms alongside others like eStreamly offer unique features and value propositions to cater to different business needs. When choosing a solution, consider your priorities, budget, and desired level of interactivity.

For businesses seeking a comprehensive solution with AI-powered optimization, Videowise is a strong contender. If you are a smaller merchant, Tolstoy with their interactive storytelling might be more appropriate for you. For mid-size merchants looking for a comprehensive solution across customer touch points eStreamly is a great option.

As shoppable video continues to evolve, we can expect to see even more innovative features and integrations emerge, further blurring the lines between entertainment and commerce. By embracing this dynamic technology, businesses can create truly immersive shopping experiences that captivate audiences and drive business growth.

Nicolas Ballliache

eStreamly contributor

Co-Founder of eStreamly, a video shopping SaaS helping brands turn content into sales through live shopping and shoppable video. Find me over on LinkedIn where I write about AI, Video Commerce, Live Shopping and Shoppable videos.