.png)
Integration
All
How to add stories to an e-commerce site : complete guide
Thomas Billiau
•
October 9, 2025
Integrating video into the shopping journey is no longer just a visual enhancement—it has become a key conversion lever for any e-commerce business.
With the wide range of apps available on the Shopify App Store, choosing the right solution based on features, company size, and marketing goals can be challenging.
This comparison provides an in-depth analysis of the five best Shopify video applications.
PlayShorts has quickly established itself as a reference solution for Shopify merchants looking to boost their e-commerce site with video without compromising site speed.
The tool stands out for its ease of use, extensive feature set, and high-quality integration. Whether you are a newly launched brand or an established company, PlayShorts is one of the most highly rated applications on the market.
PlayShorts’ main strength lies in its ability to cover every touchpoint of the customer journey through a comprehensive feature suite. The tool doesn’t just display videos—it creates an interactive visual ecosystem.
Video Integration
The app allows you to deploy video content in multiple formats throughout the shopping journey:
UGC Search & Content Curation
Finding relevant content for product pages can be difficult. The UGC Search feature helps identify, collect, and display videos created by customers or influencers from platforms like TikTok and Instagram.
PlayShorts also enables you to request usage rights from customers for free, allowing you to reuse their content on product pages.
Shoppable Video
Add CTAs directly into videos to create a more immersive experience.
Products featured in videos are clickable and can be added to the cart without interrupting playback, ensuring a smooth and frictionless shopping journey.
Multilingual Support
Display different videos depending on your store’s language, adapting content to each customer’s language for a better shopping experience.
Advanced Dashboard
The advanced dashboard provides detailed analytics, including views, engagement rate, CTR per video, individual video performance, and—most importantly—revenue generated directly by each video widget.
PlayShorts is clearly our top pick in this comparison among all available solutions in this category.
This verdict is based on several solid pillars. First, its highly competitive pricing compared to other solutions is a major advantage, especially in an economic context where every euro invested must deliver ROI.
The tool is also very easy to use while remaining extremely comprehensive. The brand offers numerous tutorials, enabling marketing teams to get up and running quickly.
Its reputation speaks for itself: rated 5 stars on Shopify and used by major brands, PlayShorts has proven its reliability and ability to handle high traffic volumes. It successfully combines technical performance with accessibility.
Tolstoy is a well-known player in the Shopify app ecosystem, often recognized for its interactive video capabilities. It is a robust solution aimed primarily at brands looking to create complex and interactive user journeys.
Tolstoy offers a solid range of features that allow merchants to diversify their video content strategy, with a strong focus on multiple touchpoints.
Comprehensive Video Integration
Like its direct competitors, Tolstoy enables video deployment across strategic areas of the store. Its Story-style integrations are smooth and closely mirror social media UX patterns.
Shoppable Video
Tolstoy’s shoppable video feature is well implemented, allowing products to be tagged directly within videos. Customers can see products in action and add them to the cart with fewer clicks, increasing conversion efficiency.
Dashboard & UGC Search
Tolstoy’s dashboard provides essential metrics to manage a video strategy, including interactions, completion rates, and assisted conversions.
It also includes UGC Search tools, which are crucial for brands relying on community-driven marketing and social proof.
Strengths
Tolstoy is a powerful and feature-rich tool. Its wide range of integrations (Stories, Carousels, Email, Pop-ups) makes it ideal for brands with a mature video strategy.
Shoppable video, analytics, and UGC Search all meet current market standards.
Weaknesses
However, the platform can be difficult for beginners. Its interface is dense and requires a learning curve to fully master.
The biggest drawback is pricing: the jump from €39 to €199 per month after the first paid plan is steep for growing stores just exceeding 5,000 visitors.
Videowise positions itself as a premium solution targeting large enterprises and high-volume brands seeking a powerful video infrastructure.
The platform focuses on compression technology, loading speed, and advanced features such as Live Shopping.
Video Integration & Multichannel Distribution
Videowise supports standard formats such as Stories, Carousels, Email, and Pop-ups, with strong optimization to prevent performance issues. The integrations are responsive and mobile-friendly.
Live Shopping & Video Channel
This is where Videowise truly differentiates itself. Live Shopping enables real-time sales events directly on the site—a fast-growing e-commerce trend.
The Video Channel feature creates a dedicated video hub, similar to a “brand Netflix,” offering an immersive browsing experience.
UGC Search & Shoppable Video
Videowise includes UGC Search and fully shoppable videos, with product overlays that open without leaving the video.
Strengths
Videowise is extremely comprehensive. Live Shopping and Video Channels elevate it beyond standard video tools, making it a full multimedia platform.
Weaknesses
It is expensive and mainly suited for large stores. The pricing gap between the €19 and €299 plans leaves mid-sized merchants underserved, and ROI may take longer for smaller teams.
ReelUp positions itself as an affordable alternative, aiming to make video commerce accessible to small and mid-sized Shopify stores.
Versatile Video Integration
ReelUp covers essential needs with Stories and Carousel integrations on homepages and product pages. While less advanced, they remain mobile-friendly and functional.
Shoppable Video
Products can be linked directly within videos, simplifying the purchase process.
Advanced Dashboard
The analytics dashboard tracks views, clicks, and conversions, offering a clear view of video impact.
Strengths
ReelUp is well suited for small e-commerce stores. It’s easy to use and avoids overwhelming users with unnecessary complexity. Its value-for-money, especially on mid-tier plans, makes it attractive for steadily growing shops.
Weaknesses
Its simplicity also brings limitations. Customization options are fewer, such as one video per story and occasionally poorly integrated CTAs, which can affect UX on certain Shopify themes.
Whatmore is a challenger aiming to combine strong integrations with a broad feature set.
Video Integration
Videos can be deployed across the entire site, including product pages, collection pages, and the homepage.
Shoppable Video
Customers can add products to the cart directly from videos.
Advanced Dashboard
The dashboard provides insights into engagement and sales, highlighting top-performing videos.
Whatmore offers many features and integrates well with Shopify.
However, it can be complex to use. The abundance of options results in a dense interface, making navigation harder for beginners and requiring more setup time.
After analyzing the five leading solutions, the right Shopify video tool ultimately depends on your needs, budget, and technical expertise.
We recommend PlayShorts as the best overall solution for most e-commerce businesses.
It delivers the best value for money, allowing small stores to start professionally while offering enough depth for large brands.
PlayShorts is easy to use, scalable, and packed with features (UGC, Shoppable Video, Multilingual support, Advanced Analytics) without sacrificing performance or simplicity.
To ensure a smooth and professional experience, it’s not recommended to upload raw video files directly into your theme. Instead, use dedicated video integration solutions like PlayShorts. These tools handle hosting, compression, and optimized widgets (Stories, Carousels) while enabling interactive features such as in-video purchasing.
You don’t need expensive tools like Adobe Premiere. For e-commerce needs (vertical, fast-paced, subtitled videos), CapCut offers a powerful free version that’s easy to use on both mobile and desktop.
A high-performing video must be visible, contextual, and actionable. Use tools like PlayShorts to place videos strategically—UGC testimonials on product pages for trust, or demo stories on the homepage for inspiration.
Ensure the video is shoppable so customers can add products to their cart directly from the video, reducing purchase friction.
