Rich Content 101: What It Is, Why, and How to Use It

Rich content is a type of media whose main goal is to engage with users and make them interact with products or services before purchasing. It can be presented in any format: from more traditional videos and images to the newest forms of content that use VR, AR, AI, and ML technologies.

Today, rich content is one of the main trends in marketing that can have a huge impact on brand awareness and conversion. That’s why, in this article, we’ll discuss all the main aspects of this type of content and see how you can benefit from it.

Let’s dive in without further ado.

Need a hand in creating rich content for the retail of finishing materials? Contact us, and the Wizart team will help you with this task! 

Why rich content is important

The global pandemic had a drastic effect on the behavior of online users and shoppers. The e-commerce field got a significant boost in the last couple of years, and experts predict that it will grow by another 56% by 2026.

In 2022, 27% of consumers prefer shopping online. That makes a well-thought online presence critical for the e-commerce business model.

However, one of the main issues in the e-commerce industry is the imagination gap. It is hard for users to understand sizes, materials, exact colors, and other specifications of the product just by photoshopped images and text descriptions. People want to see, touch, and try on your products before making a final decision. This fact leads to high return rates and the phenomena of “bracketing” when people buy many versions of the same item and return those that don’t suit them.

Rich content for e-commerce is intended to solve this problem. Here are some stats you need to know about consumers' behavior to build a successful rich product content strategy:

• 87% of consumers said that proper product content is extremely important when deciding to buy.
• 71% of consumers prefer to shop using AR tools because they help to make better decisions.
• Interactive content generates 2x more conversions.

The most popular types of rich content

We’ve analyzed the biggest retailers working in the market of finishing materials, and here are the most popular types of product content they mentioned:

• 3D virtual home designs - 76% of respondents use 3D technologies to get a better visualization of color variations, shadows and lighting options, texture, and roughness of the surface.
• Product videos - 71% of DIY retailers use videos on their product pages as rich content to highlight the most important features, explain their benefits, and show how to use the product.
• VR walkthrough rooms - 66% agree that a 360-view VR room with a custom design helps users to understand product characteristics and imagine how it will fit their interior.
• Enhanced product specifications - 63% of DIY retailers use rich content for creating additional product attributes about color, pattern, style, material, installation method, and country of origin to provide potential customers with all the important data and help them make an informed decision.

As you can see, rich content can be released in any format of media. However, if you want to get the most out of this trend and stand out from your competitors, you need to focus on more advanced AI-powered rich content tools rather than static images, gifs, and video generation tools.

Benefits of rich content

Incorporating rich media into your content strategy may bring you several significant benefits and increase important metrics, including conversion rate and revenue. Here is what you may expect:

• Higher engagement rate. The main purpose of rich content tools is to engage users, interact with them, and start a conversation. And engaged visitors to your store will remember this experience, share it with friends and family, and increase your overall brand awareness.
• Lower bounce rate and increase in time on page. Rich content grabs users' attention as soon as the page loads. Due to its features, people are less likely to leave your page. They will want to stay longer, investigating content and playing with interactive elements.
• Seamless shopping experience. Everyone, who works in e-commerce, knows that the path from opening your website to the thank you page after checkout should be simple and seamless. And one of the main stages, where you can lose users’ attention, is when they are doing research, comparing different products and brands, and looking for the most suitable option.
• Shortening of the buying process. Rich media brings the experience of online shopping closer to the experience of going to a physical store. As a result, it helps your potential customers make the decision faster than they normally do. 
• Lower return rate. Thanks to rich content for retail, your sales will grow, and your return rate will decrease. The clients will have a better understanding of your products and services, so they will make better decisions in terms of what they need.
• Get ahead of your competitors. At the moment, only 1% of retailers offer AR or VR as a part of their shopping experience. Implementing such a kind of media will help you stand out from the crowd and make visiting your website a memorable experience.
• Cutting costs on physical samples. If you are working in the DIY market, rich media can replace physical samples both online and offline. Thus, you can save money on developing and shipping samples and make your business more environmentally friendly.

How to create rich content

Creating rich content may be a challenging task because its success depends on multiple versatile factors. And unless you have a team of designers, content creators, and web developers, it may be a good idea to outsource this process.

We at Wizart offer a service of rich content creation for companies that work in the finishing materials market. And here are the tasks we can help you with:

Develop realistic texture:

Prepare custom interiors based on the photo of the interior and your needs:

Develop local renders in high resolution (8K) on pre-rendered interiors:

Prepare 3D models of objects and interiors:

Prepare script and video using 3D models of ready interiors:

Develop a 360-view panorama using 3D models of ready-made interiors:

and much more! 

Contact us to get more details about the rich content service by Wizart.