Carousel
Overview
Enhance user engagement by using a carousel layout on your homepage to showcase multiple videos.
Carousel Placement: Best Practices
Homepage
The carousel layout displays video thumbnails in a horizontal row, making it easy for visitors to navigate through different content without leaving the page.
We recommend the carousel layout on the homepage, especially for brands with a variety of products, as it showcases the breadth of your offerings in a single, cohesive presentation.
With a minimum of five videos, the carousel fits most homepages well, and can help "break up" the content of your page to provide a balanced look. There is no maximum limit for the number of videos, allowing you to display an extensive range of content.
Product Pages
Carousel layout is good for product pages if you have more video content for a particular product, and want to showcase it in a larger, more prominent format than the lower profile "stories" layout.
Common Issues with the Carousel
We often receive questions around the carousel embed display.
How can I make the carousel slider in Novel larger?
How do I fix the width of the carousel slider?
The margins appear to be strange on the video embed, how can I resolve this?
The answer to all of these questions is to make sure you are using at least 5 videos to populate the carousel. This is the minimum amount we recommend.
Use at Least Five Videos
For the carousel layout to look good on your homepage, make sure to include a minimum of five videos. There is no maximum limit.
Additional Options to Customize Carousel Layout
Novel allows you to customize the appearance of your shoppable video embed in the Carousel layout via the Customize Theme sidebar panel that appears in the studio when you click the green Preview button on the top right of the screen. Please consider whether the additional customization options will provide you the desired outcome, or whether you need to change your layout altogether.
Option | Description | Type |
|---|---|---|
Background Color | Set the background color (HEX) | Color picker/Input field |
Transparent BG | Use a transparent background. | Checkbox |
Brand Color | Set the brand color (HEX) | Color picker/Input field |
Typography Source | Match Shopify theme or choose a Google Font. | Radio button |
Font Weight | Choose the font weight | Dropdown menu |
Headline Color | Set the headline color | Color picker/Input field |
Advanced Customization | Enable advanced customization features. | Checkbox |
Custom CSS | Add custom CSS for further customization. | Text area |
Advanced Customization
Novel allows you to customize the appearance of your shoppable video embed in the Spotlight layout via the Customize Theme sidebar panel that appears in the studio when you click the green Preview button on the top right of the screen. View our Advanced Customization of Layouts (CSS) guide to review a set of potential snippets for your use-case.
Please note that in an effort to ensure that your Novel embeds are optimized for performance across all devices, mobile and desktop, the ability to modify sizing is restricted. There is often flexibility to modify sizing of your Novel embeds within your page layouts within Shopify. Please view our video sizing issues guide for more information.
Carousel Layout Best Practices
Best Practice | Details |
|---|---|
Video Length | 15-30 seconds |
Number of Videos | Minimum of 5 |
Common pitfalls to avoid:
Too Few Videos: Having fewer than five videos can make the carousel look sparse and unbalanced.
Inconsistent Quality: Ensure all videos maintain a high standard of quality in terms of content and resolution.
Lack of Branding: Ensure all videos and thumbnails are consistent with your brand’s style and message.
Other Layouts
If you are interested in trying other layouts, view our dedicated guides:
Frequently Asked Questions
The minimum number of videos required for a carousel video embed layout is five. Using fewer than five videos can make the carousel look unappealing.
No, unfortunately this is not possible at this time.
There is no maximum number of videos for a carousel layout. You can add as many videos as you like.