Walmart Cookshop expands from beta
Walmart is expanding its interactive, choose-your-own adventure cooking videos into a full-time video hub called Walmart Cookshop, introducing 22 new videos with celebrity hosts.
The videos first tested this fall in a beta launch that demonstrated an 8.7% click-through rate, well above the industry standard of around 2%, according to Eko, the Israel-based technology partner powering the program.
The Cookshop experience is a fun way to promote national and own brand product, as the celebrity hosts lead viewers through cooking a recipe, enabling viewers to select which product to use and also be able to buy the product via a direct link from the video. Walmart’s Great Value brand is featured prominently in many of the videos. Hosts include some from the initial beta such as Sofia Vergara, Jamie Oliver, Patti LaBelle, and the Pioneer Woman. There are also episodes teamed with Tasty, the Buzzfeed brand,
New episodes of Tasty, Veggie Boost with Jamie Oliver, Over the Top with Patti Labelle and more are now available at the site, along with a variety of improved features and updates to the Walmart Cookshop interface, including updated player controls, a “My Favorites” section to save recipes, a new share function and additional shopping moments along the user journey to allow customers to shop the moment they are inspired.
The new Walmart Cookshop content mainly focuses on healthy eating and family meals, designed to make it more fun to shop at Walmart.
“Cookshop is the result of a strong multi-year partnership with a tech-savvy retailer, Walmart. We’ve been enabled and encouraged to deliver the best possible experience and results for suppliers and shoppers,” said Tom Fishman, general manager at Eko. “We continue to explore new avenues of connecting experiences with commerce and are constantly amazed at the possibilities interactive video provides.”
Walmart first invested in the platform in 2018, leading to interactive content spanning toy catalogs to cooking shows. Walmart previously collaborated with Eko on the interactive experiences of Camp, WonderLab, and GiftFinder.