[intro]In this Guide, you’ll learn how to add videos to your Products - which is an ideal way to show your customers how your products look in real life. This is an ideal way to demonstrate how your products look when worn, or are used, or are made. [/intro]

Before you begin

You will need to have created a YouTube channel for your EKM online shop by following the steps in this Guide and uploaded a video for this specific product to your channel. The video must have a thumbnail image assigned to it, which must measure 1920 pixels wide by 1080 pixels high for horizontal YouTube videos, or 1080 pixels wide by 1920 pixels high for a custom short thumbnail (which needs to be edited into the video itself). The Thumbnail image is what the Product Page will display and what the customer will click to enable them to see the video.

[tips]As the thumbnail is displayed at a small size on the Product Page, it would be a good idea to use a large-sized, clear font to ensure that it can still be read when it is a smaller size, if you wish to use text on your thumbnail image.[/tips]

Adding your video to your Product

1. Within the Add/Edit Product window, click Images & Videos on the left-hand side:

2. In the empty image space for your Images, click the pencil symbol:

[caution] Don’t be tempted to add a video into the first slot of your Product Images. For customers viewing your EKM online shop whilst out and about on their phones and mobile devices, they’ll need to see your Product Images first. Adding a link to a video will use more of their data allowance if they click to see the video, which does not make for an ideal customer experience, so ensure that the video is in the last available slot after the rest of your Product Images so those that want to watch the video can, but the video won’t take precedent over the Product Images.[/caution]

3. In the drop-down menu, click Add Video:

4. You’ll then see this window appear:

5. In a separate browser tab, log in to your YouTube account and navigate to the video you would like to link to this Product. 

Horizontal YouTube Videos

6. If your video is over three minutes' duration and has an horizontal orientation, you will need to copy the URL from the video directly from the address bar of your browser:

YouTube Shorts

6. YouTube Shorts are videos with a duration of less than three minutes and have vertical orientation. If your video is a YouTube Short, you need to click the Share button to the right of the video:

You'll then see this modal. Click the Copy button on the right-hand side:

7. Return to the browser tab displaying your EKM online shop, and paste the YouTube URL by clicking in the field provided and pressing the CTRL and V keys on your keyboard. Then you need to click the green Add button on the right-hand side:

8. The video will then upload in the image slot, and you’ll see the thumbnail that you originally uploaded to your YouTube video displayed underneath a large ‘play’ symbol. Click Apply To Variants (if your Product has any Variants) and then Save & Close:

Set Values Manually

Alternatively, you can set manual values on your video, which will display a thumbnail image of your choice next to the rest of your product images, ensuring uniformity on your product page. This option works with both standard horizontal YouTube videos and vertical YouTube Shorts. To do begin, you need to create a Thumbnail image measuring 1024 pixels square to match the recommended size of the rest of your product images for consistency. You then need to upload this image to the Design Images section of the File Manager on your EKM online shop, and copy the URL onto a Notepad (.txt file) or TextEditor (for Mac users) before you begin. 

1. Follow the same instructions as detailed earlier in this guide, but instead of clicking the Add button in the Add Video modal, click Set Values Manually:

2. In the modal that appears, you need to add the following information:

  • YouTube Video URL - Obtain the URL for your YouTube video and paste it into this field. 
  • YouTube Video ID - The video ID is the sequence of letters and numbers after the = symbol in the URL, so you can copy and paste this from one field to the other. 
  • Video Height - 1024
  • Video Width - 1024
  • Placeholder Image - Here, you need to paste the address of the image you added to your File Manager in the beginning.

3. When you have completed these fields, you need to click the green Add button:

4. As before, click Save & Close on the Add/Edit Product window:

[warning]Don’t be tempted to link to a video that is not on a YouTube channel that you own. This is because you will be redirecting the customer to someone else’s YouTube channel and away from your own branded profiles online. It also means that your customer may subscribe to their channel instead of yours, the YouTube channel owner can control which end cards and subtitles are visible and should they remove that particular video in the future, you would be unaware unless you regularly check the Product Page yourself.

It’s best practice to only link to your own YouTube channel, so you have full control over the quality of the linked videos, subtitles and end cards and can encourage your own customers to subscribe to you and not lose them to competitor content on YouTube. [/warning]

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[contact]If you need our help with your EKM online shop, contact the Customer Support Team, who can point you in the right direction. Our opening hours are 9 am - 5.30 pm Monday to Friday, for telephone calls, live chats, and emails. Outside of these hours, you can leave a message for us in the live chat window or email [email protected], and we will answer as soon as possible. If you'd like to suggest a feature or an upgrade on any of the EKM platforms, please let us know on the EKM Suggestions Board. [/contact]