This State of the Industry report, sponsored by Hue, explores how fashion and beauty brands are adopting shoppable user-generated video to promote authenticity and drive sales and ROI.
For fashion and beauty shoppers, video is increasingly part of the customer journey.
Consumers have turned to videos created by people like them to learn more about brands and products as they shop, particularly online. In response, savvy brands and retailers are leveraging authentic, personalized video content to convert shoppers and drive revenue.
One of the most innovative tactics is integrating these organic, user-generated videos directly into the online shopping experience. For the purpose of this report, shoppable user-generated video is creator-made content that features products and includes built-in shopping functionality, allowing users to discover and purchase products directly from the video. In these videos, creators and customers alike candidly share details about their experience with specific products — whether it’s fit, texture, color or other descriptors — and add credibility and authenticity to the on-site shopping experience.
For this State of the Industry report, Glossy and Hue surveyed 81 brand, retailer and agency respondents — primarily in the fashion and beauty industries — to learn how they are leveraging video, particularly shoppable user-generated video, to help consumers discover and purchase products. Ninety percent of respondents are actively using or testing shoppable user-generated video. With video strategies constantly in flux, this report will also cover how respondents are using shoppable user-generated video throughout the funnel to drive conversions.
“People no longer just want to see a polished ad — they want to see real people like them with similar body types, lifestyles, skin tones and more, in real contexts, using products they can immediately shop,” said Janvi Shah, co-founder and CEO of shoppable video platform Hue.
“Shoppable UGC brings those expectations together: It turns content that’s already influencing purchase decisions into a direct path to conversion,” she said. “With platforms prioritizing video and consumers demanding immediacy, this is the moment for brands to lean into the format — or risk falling behind.”
Fashion and beauty brands use a variety of video ad formats, from advertising-based video on demand through streaming platforms to short-form clips and testimonials on social media and e-commerce sites.
Nearly three-quarters of respondents (74%) cited direct sales and higher conversion rates as their top goals for video placements in general, including advertising — a signal that the traditionally awareness-oriented format has evolved into a performance driver. Other priorities included increased brand or product awareness (59%), engaging creative formats and increased brand engagement (57%), lead generation (47%) and attention (44%).
This shows fashion and beauty brands are using video ads to support both top- and bottom-funnel goals, highlighting the versatility of video depending on the particular format, placement and channel.
This versatility is reflected in the breakdown of the teams and functions involved with video production and deployment. Creative teams (74%) have a significant role in video production and deployment, followed by marketing (56%) and social media (46%). However, ad ops (40%), media buying/planning (21%) and e-commerce (20%) teams also play significant roles — demonstrating the interdisciplinary approach many brands are applying to their video strategies.
The importance of video in general is also reflected in respondents’ marketing budgets. Nearly half (48%) said that video marketing and advertising accounts for at least 26% of their total marketing budgets in 2025.
Emphasizing the need for brands’ videos to do more than just capture eyeballs, 60% of respondents are actively using shoppable user-generated videos, while another 30% are piloting this format. Ten percent of respondents do not currently use shoppable user-generated video, but plan to within the next year — further demonstrating the popularity of this format.
“It’s not a secret with the growth of platforms like TikTok that shoppable UGC works best when it doesn’t feel like it’s trying to sell something,” said Christina Ko, product manager at Revolve. “We’re seeing creators that genuinely love a product and give it their stamp of approval, almost like getting a recommendation from a friend. It resonates and is effortless, instead of a brand forcing a conversion.”
Shoppable user-generated videos are primarily served on social media platforms (89%). This echoes previous findings from Glossy+ Research, which reported that 56% of brands and retailers reported that user-generated images and/or videos comprised more of their social content.
Notably, 56% of respondents host these shoppable videos on their owned-and-operated websites — outpacing other platforms and channels, including mobile/in-app (48%) and CTV (37%).
Brands also have different goals for these user-generated placements on owned-and-operated sites (or third-party retailer sites) than video advertising in general.
Most respondents (78%) cited direct sales and higher conversion rates as their top goal for user-generated placements on e-commerce sites. Jewelry brand Alex + Ani was able to achieve this by launching a shoppable UGC experience across more than 500 products, delivered natively on product display pages (PDPs). After four weeks, an A/B test showed the video content increased conversion rates by 9.3% and revenue-per-visitor by 11%.
Similarly, respondents are also using these UGC placements to increase engagement (57%) and create stronger connections to product discovery through video (54%) rather than brand awareness or viewability.
“Being primarily e-commerce, it’s difficult to provide a tactile experience for a lot of customers,” Ko said. “UGC video lets them sit back and get a feeling of what to expect and how something is going to feel. Providing information is one of the ultimate goals.”
To extend the impact of the information shared and extract more value from this format, Ko recommended repurposing content. For instance, the same video can be reused across email, paid social and an e-commerce site.
Among those brands and agencies sharing shoppable user-generated video on their owned-and-operated website, nearly three-quarters (70%) are spending at least 10% of their overall budget on this specific format and placement. This investment underscores the significant role of shoppable user-generated video in their marketing mix, especially when viewed separately from other video formats.
“Traditional video ads were built for awareness, but they’re fundamentally passive and aspirational,” Shah said. “Shoppable UGC is active and participatory — it’s built around creators and consumers, not just brands.
“The content feels natural to the customer, not disruptive, and the shoppable commerce layer makes it actionable in real time,” she said. “It’s also far more scalable, because a brand can activate entire communities to generate content rather than relying solely on expensive production cycles.”
Shoppable video content can have a significant impact throughout a fashion or beauty brand’s owned-and-operated site, moving visitors along their shopping journeys.
Seventy-two percent of respondents use this shoppable video content on their owned-and-operated sites as part of the conversion stage, while 61% use it for the consideration stage.
“We’ve found that the shoppable UGC is most impactful when it’s the second or third visit and the user is highly considering making a purchase,” said Charlotte Paffe, vp of e-commerce at Andie Swim. “This is social proof and real word of mouth, seeing real women try on the suit. It’s really helping move people along the funnel and giving them confidence to continue on to purchase.”
Two-thirds of respondents use shoppable user-generated video during the awareness stage. It’s also worth noting that 14% deploy shoppable user-generated video as part of their retention strategies — potentially an indication that this content is an untapped resource for building loyalty.
“Shoppable UGC is an incredibly effective way to build trust early, but what stands out is the small percentage of respondents — just 14% — who are using it for retention,” Shah said. “That signals a massive opportunity. UGC is inherently community-driven, and communities are not just for acquisition — they’re for loyalty.
“Imagine using shoppable UGC to remind existing customers of new ways to use their favorite products, or to keep them engaged with complementary products and styling recommendations,” she said. “For fashion and beauty, especially, that’s where long-term brand value is built.”
Taking a closer look at onsite placements, more than 7 in 10 (72%) of respondents using shoppable user-generated video on their sites serve this content on their homepage. This is followed by product display pages at 61% and landing or category pages at 44%.
“Context is very important,” Ko said. “We place shoppable UGC where we feel like the customer will expect that kind of information.”
For instance, the independent, woman-owned outdoor apparel brand Title Nine worked with Hue to feature authentic user-generated content on its homepage. The homepage placements drove a 3.11% increase in revenue-per-visitor.
PDPs are also a natural fit for the placement of shoppable video content for brands like Andie, which operate primarily DTC.
“On our PDPs, the most-visited module is the reviews,” said Paffe. “Whether it’s the UGC, the static images or the written reviews, that is historically where our user has navigated to and spent a lot of time.
“Once someone is really considering the product, they’re discovering both that shoppable UGC content and also the reviews a little bit further below the fold,” she said. “They’re organically scrolling there.”
Another important consideration is the sourcing of UGC to deploy as shoppable video throughout a brand’s site.
Here, social media platforms TikTok (86%) and Instagram (81%) are most helpful, followed by YouTube (56%) at a distant third. Nearly half of respondents (47%) use influencer seeding to source these videos.
Leveraging multiple sources is critical, giving brands a variety of videos to choose from, such as more casual influencer videos or content with a higher production value. Being able to pull video content from a diverse pool of creators and everyday shoppers is also essential for brands to provide videos that showcase products on a wide range of body types, skin tones, textures, ages and other physical attributes.
“We told Hue that we’re looking for authentic content from their UGC community that’s relevant to our main demo, which is women aged 35 to 40,” Paffe said. “We’re looking for educational content that speaks to the functionality of the product. Diversity, body shape and a variety of sizes are also really important to us.
“What’s been really hard for us to illustrate on the website is the feeling that you have when you’re in our swimsuits,” she said. “Our swimsuits are very comfortable and women feel really confident in them, and sourcing this sort of shoppable video content from Hue’s UCG Community allows different women to talk about how they feel in our swimsuits.”
For instance, UGC videos on Andie’s site may discuss how the swimsuit fabric feels compressive or how the straps are adjustable — features that may not be as apparent when viewing an image.
Brands and retailers aren’t limiting themselves to the type of creators they source video from, either. As reported by Glossy, an increasing number of brands (including Aerie, Macy’s and Ulta) are featuring store associates on their social media platforms — or, in some cases, incentivizing them to create brand content for their own platforms.
Video sourcing and discovery is one of the leading use cases for automation and AI, cited by nearly half (47%) of the respondents using shoppable user-generated video. More commonly, AI and automation are being used for shoppable video tagging (50%) and smart video editing and optimization (50%).
Notably, one-third of respondents have yet to implement automation or AI as any part of their user-generated video strategy. However, Hue’s Shah argued that AI is the backbone of scaling shoppable UGC.
“With AI, brands can automatically identify top-performing videos, match them to the right audiences and personalize content to maximize impact,” Shah said. “Automation also streamlines the operational side — rights management, formatting, distribution — so marketers can focus on strategy and ROI.
“AI also creates a more personalized shopping experience for customers,” she said. “For example, Hue has developed a proprietary AI algorithm designed to test and optimize the ordering of content, quickly surfacing the top performers by focusing on key performance drivers such as long plays — the percentage of viewers who watch more than 10 seconds — add-to-cart rates and conversions.”
Given marketers’ priorities of direct sales and conversions, it is unsurprising that conversion rate and click-through rate (both at 83%) are the leading KPIs used to measure the performance of shoppable user-generated video.
Brands, agencies and retailers are also looking closely at average order value (67%) and video completion rate and video plays (64%). Other KPIs, like time on-site (8%) or per-creator metrics (3%), are less scrutinized but can still help marketers sharpen and optimize their strategies.
“We’re seeing that our users watch about four videos on average, and they’re spending more time on the page,” Paffe said. “The longer they spend on-site, the more likely they are to make a purchase.”
ROI/ROAS is used by 78% of respondents to measure the performance of shoppable user-generated video, and it seems the channel is rising to the occasion. Seventy-seven percent of respondents rate the ROI of shoppable user-generated video at least slightly higher than other forms of content, including 8% who rate its ROI as “significantly higher.”
For example, Tatcha saw significant performance improvement using shoppable user-generated video on three hero product pages, including a 2% increase in purchase-revenue-per-user (PRU) and a 4% add-to-cart rate. These results led the skincare brand to expand its use of Hue’s video modules sitewide across more than 40 SKUs.
“The numbers speak for themselves,” Andie Swim’s Paffe said. “When we’re thinking about ROI, especially because we launched with an A/B test for proof of concept, it’s been easy for us to prove the incremental value that this shoppable UGC is driving.
“We saw an overall increase of 4% in conversion when someone views the Hue UGC and a 10% lift for returning traffic,” she said.
While many are finding success with shoppable user-generated video, there is room for more opportunities as the format matures — particularly when deployed on e-commerce sites.
Among all respondents, including those still piloting shoppable user-generated video, measuring ROI effectively is the most common challenge, at 61%. As one of the metrics at which marketers are looking most closely, this highlights the importance of getting measurement and attribution right. Other barriers include the cost of tools and platforms (57%) and sourcing enough high-quality video (51%).
“There’s definitely a cost upfront, whether it’s going to be paying creators or paying per piece of content, etc.,” Revolve’s Ko said. “But we have to zoom out and look at what the lifetime value of content is that can build trust and convert.
“Sometimes it’s hard to measure the direct cost, but if someone sees a product over and over again, there is a higher chance of converting eventually,” she said. “Often that seed was planted by the discovery of that shoppable content.”
Along those lines, when asked what would lead them to invest more in shoppable user-generated video, 60% of all respondents cited clearer attribution or ROI data.
“One of the biggest misconceptions in fashion and beauty is that shoppable UGC can’t be measured effectively,” Shah said. “In reality, we now have robust tools to track performance end-to-end — from engagement and click-through to conversion.
“That’s where a partner like Hue makes the difference,” she said. “We help brands connect the dots, navigate ROI challenges with clarity and continuously optimize.”
Other capabilities that would spur more investment in the format among respondents include all-in-one solutions for content and technology (56%), better tools for curating and managing content (49%), and improved e-commerce site integration of shoppable video (49%).
Still, fashion and beauty marketers are overall optimistic about the value of shoppable user-generated video. Eighty-six percent of respondents expect to increase their investment in shoppable user-generated video in the next 12 months, including 15% who forecast their investments will increase significantly.
No respondents expect to decrease their investment in the format — another indication that, despite some roadblocks in measurement and attribution, it is successful enough to command resources in this constrained environment.
“Shoppable UGC is still at the beginning of its adoption curve, which means the potential is enormous — and the brands that move now will gain a clear competitive edge,” Shah said. “Success starts with best practices: activating your most passionate customers and micro-creators, prioritizing authenticity over polish and shifting from one-off campaigns to always-on programs that keep discovery and conversion consistent.
“Just as important, brands need partners who can help them scale, measure and optimize performance across every touchpoint,” she said. “The data shows just how powerful shoppable UGC can be when optimized.”
As shopping journeys and product discovery evolve, shoppable user-generated video will continue playing a vital role in closing the gap between inspiration and purchase. But it has already emerged as an essential tool for driving conversions, building trust and creating more dynamic, personalized shopping experiences.
“Looking ahead, this format will only become more personalized and deeply integrated into the shopping journey — across brand sites, retail partners and even live shopping environments,” Shah said. “With AI and automation enabling scalability, shoppable UGC won’t just be a tactic. It will become the default expectation for how people discover, engage with and shop products.”
About Hue
Hue is a shoppable video platform that helps embed authentic video UGC, employee-generated content and branded content on retailer and brand’s DTC shopping websites. Hue can plug in your content from social channels (Instagram, TikTok, etc.) or the brand can leverage Hue’s community of more than 2,000 diverse beauty micro-creators to generate UGC. Authentic content for brands is able to be leveraged for ads, social, email marketing and more.
