How to make product videos for your shop with just your phone

Your camera roll has forty clips of your new stock. Each one is about a minute long, a bit wobbly, with you saying "so, this is the..." and trailing off. None of them has ever been posted. Meanwhile the shop down the road puts out a crisp little video every week and you can't work out where they find the time.

Their trick is filming in small pieces. A good product video for a shop is five shots of three or four seconds each, filmed in ten minutes by a window and put in order afterwards. Below is the shot list to copy, how to film it without a tripod or a script, how to cut it together, and where to put it so it earns its keep.

Film shots, not a video

The trap is pressing record and trying to get the whole thing in one go. You end up talking, fumbling and starting again, and an hour later you have nothing you like.

Instead, film each shot on its own. Hold the phone upright, press record, count to five in your head, stop. If it's wrong, film it again. Every shot is short enough to redo without caring, and you'll choose the best three or four seconds of each later.

The five-shot list

Copy this and keep it on your phone. It works for almost anything a shop sells.

1. The hook. Something moving in the first second: the jumper being shaken out, the lid coming off the candle, a hand placing the mug down. This is what stops someone scrolling.
2. The close-up. Get near enough to see the stitching, the glaze, the grain. The thing a photo can't quite show.
3. In use. Someone wearing it, pouring from it, lighting it. Hands are enough; nobody needs to be on camera.
4. The size. Next to something everyone knows: a hand, a cup of tea, a paperback. This answers the question every online customer has and few videos bother with.
5. The ending. The product sitting still, with room above it for words: the name, the price and where to buy it.

That's about fifteen to twenty seconds once it's cut, which is plenty.

How to film it in ten minutes

• Stand by a window. Daylight from the side beats any lamp you own. Turn the overhead lights off so you don't get two colours of light.
• Clear the background. A plain wall, a wooden table, a sheet of card. Your counter with the till roll and the kettle on it pulls the eye away.
• Hold still and let the product move. Brace your elbows on the table. Slow, steady shots look far better than clever camera moves.
• Film each shot twice. You'll be glad of the spare.
• Don't talk. Words on screen do the job, and you never have to re-record because you stumbled.

How to cut it together

Put the five shots in order and trim each one to its best few seconds. Then add three things:

• Words on screen for anything that matters: the name, one detail ("hand-thrown in Devon"), the price. Assume people will watch with the sound off, so the video has to make sense in silence.
• Quiet music, if you like, from a library you're allowed to use.
• Your name or logo on the last shot, so a video that gets shared still leads back to you.

Your phone's own editor or a free app will do all of this. Choose upright (9:16) for social posts and square (1:1) for your product page or newsletter if your shop's theme shows square video well.

Where to put the finished video

One afternoon's filming should work in three places, not one.

• Your product page. Shopify lets you add video to a product: its help page on product media lists .mp4, .mov and .webm files, "Up to 10 minutes" and "Up to 1 GB", and your theme has to support video for it to show. This is where a size shot and a close-up help most, because the customer is already deciding.
• Short video on social. YouTube says its Shorts tools let you make videos "up to 3 minutes long" and that you can upload "vertical videos" from your phone, according to YouTube Help. Upright, fifteen seconds and words on screen suits Instagram and TikTok too.
• Your newsletter. Rather than relying on a video playing inside the email, use a still from the hook shot with a link to the video. It also gives an otherwise quiet newsletter something new to show; our post on what to put in a shop newsletter when there's nothing new has more ideas.

Make a month of videos from one session

Once you have the five shots for a product, you can reorder them. Lead with the size shot one week ("bigger than you'd think"), the close-up the next, the in-use shot after that. Same footage, different first second, and each one reads as a new post.

Do this for four products in one sitting and you have a video a week until the new year without picking up the phone again.

What commonly goes wrong

• The first second is still. If nothing moves, people keep scrolling. Start on the hook.
• Too many words. One short line at a time, on screen long enough to read twice.
• Filmed sideways for social. A widescreen video in an upright feed ends up small with black bars.
• Waiting for it to be perfect. A clear, honest fifteen seconds of your product beats a polished video you never finish.

Say you sell hand-poured candles

Say you set aside ten minutes on a Tuesday morning by the shop window. You film the lid lifting off, the wick close up, a match lighting it, the candle next to a mug for size and the candle sitting still on the counter. Twice each. That evening you trim each shot, add the scent and price on screen and your logo at the end. Then you make two more versions starting with the match and the mug.

The candle shop is made up for this example. Your own stock and your own window are what the shot list is for.

Where Workden fits

Filming is the easy bit once you have the list. The slow bit is the editing, and then finding the right product photos and getting the finished video into your newsletter.

Workden has a video editor built in, in its Content Studio. You bring in your own clips and your shop's product photos, trim and order them, add words on screen, captions, music and your logo, and export upright, square, 4:5 or widescreen. If you speak in a video, the captions are written in your own browser, so your recording doesn't leave your computer to be transcribed. And if you've connected the ChatGPT or Claude you already use, it can put together a first cut for you; as with everything in Workden, "nothing is sent or changed until you approve it", and nothing is published for you.

See what Workden does and try it free for 14 days.

Questions shop owners ask

How long should a product video be?

For social, fifteen to thirty seconds is a good aim. For a product page, as long as it takes to show the product properly, which is usually under a minute.

Do I need a gimbal or ring light?

No. A window, steady elbows and short shots will get you most of the way. Buy kit later if you find you're filming every week.

Should I talk in my product videos?

You can, and a few words from the maker can be lovely. Add captions if you do, so it still works with the sound off.

Sources

Checked 1 November 2026.

• Shopify Help: product media types
• YouTube Help: Get started creating YouTube Shorts
• Workden features
• Workden home page