Photographs answer what a product looks like. Video answers how it moves, how big it is and how it is used — which is most of what a wholesale buyer is uncertain about when they have never handled it.
Scale, movement, texture and use. A rigid product photographs well and a soft one does not, and the categories with the highest return-rate uncertainty are exactly the ones photographs serve worst.
A buyer is assessing whether it will sell in their store, not being persuaded to want it. Short, unstyled and specific beats produced, and a two-minute brand film answers none of their questions.
Video in a separate library is video nobody watches at the moment of decision. Attached to the catalog record, it is part of what a buyer is already looking at.
Designed, not built. Product records carry images today; video hosting and playback are not part of the protocol.