Online real estate company Zillow is accommodating its mobile users by rolling out a video walkthrough feature that allows sellers to easily create videos on their smartphones.

The addition is meant to provide a more immersive way for consumers to envision themselves in a home and give them more information about a home’s key features and special attributes than photos alone can not provide. The walkthroughs are another chapter in digital development for the real estate company, one which benefits both sides by providing more information for mobile users not yet at the point of transaction and another resource within an agent’s toolkit.

“This can definitely open up opportunities to disintermediate parts of the cost stream,” said Marci Troutman, CEO of Siteminis. “As long as brokers present a real value in the buying, selling and renting of properties, the strategy of giving consumers a real hot mobile experience in a somewhat research-intensive buying process can absolutely be a positive to grow business for the agencies.

“This type of marketing will be part of a brokers toolkit going forward. Most likely this additional type of activity will not replace as much as enhance and add activities to the brokers’ marketing efforts.”

Video walkthroughs
The video walkthrough feature is a direct response to a trend Zillow noticed in consumer behavior: renters are increasingly searching for homes on their mobile devices. In fact, two-thirds of Zillow’s traffic comes from a mobile device, and on weekends that number climbs to more than 70 percent.

Walkthrough videos are mobile-optimized and are best seen on Zillow’s application. They are relatively simple to create in Zillow’s main app and its Premier Agent app by recording footage in short segments as opposed to one continuous video, so that agents can show different views and shots of the home more easily.

The videos have a time limit of two minutes and do not have sound, making them granular and comprehensive enough for even the most casual of home browsers. The format is the same for every listing, giving renters a consistent viewing experience and allowing them to more easily compare homes.

“All businesses can benefit from creating strong user-centric mobile experiences,” Ms. Troutman said. “This effort in mobile user experience improvement is not just a priority to any business that sells to consumers, but is fast becoming a competitive advantage.

“The more effective information is delivered to a consumer, the more brand loyalty is developed and that leads to higher conversion rates—whether through mobile ecommerce or at the register in the bricks-and-mortar location.”

Mobile toolkit
The video walkthrough feature is advantageous to all parties involved, bringing consumers and sellers closer together and allowing them to reap benefits in equal measure. The progression of both Zillow’s business plan and the marketplace at-large says that the next step to give consumers an even closer look would be to somehow bring virtual reality into the mix in an economical way.

Zillow’s introduction of video walkthroughs comes after the debut of a pair of new features, one of which integrates Facebook’s targeting platform to help agents optimize their campaign efforts (see story).

Zillow may have taken a page out of Sotheby’s book in introducing video walkthroughs: the real estate firm will be including an option to view listings via 3D and virtual reality capabilities in which users can tap around the screen to tour homes of interest (see story).

“Certainly the use of mobile devices in the decision and purchasing cycle is increasing,” Ms. Troutman said. “Online shopping dollar estimates for this holiday season are over 300 billion dollars US (which is up 40 percent over 2015) and mobile governs about 30 percent of those dollars.

“Consumers are more comfortable buying higher ticket goods on a mobile device—although the Zillow Video Walkthroughs are not designed to accept purchases, but to assist the buyer and the agent to better profile properties in a convenient and relevant manner through mobile,” she said. “This is important because people shopping high ticket goods—cars, real estate, etc.—will be frequently on the move, or at least not tethered to a desktop: think sitting on the couch or in bed at home.

“Omni channel at its best!”