VideoRetailer.org - Exploring the Intersection of Video and e-Commerce.

Video Commerce Chronicles Episode 5: Peter Cobb Video Commerce full presentation at eTail West ‘09

eBags Video Program presentation by Peter Cobb, Co-Founder and SVP. Peter covers a broad range of topics during this 30 minute presentation at eTail West ‘09. Enjoy the video and the slides right below.

Full Video

Slides transcript

1. Peter Cobb February 2009 Co-founder and SVP of Marketing, eBags

2. The eBags Video Program
* Started March 2007
* One full-time video producer
* 210 videos
* 85% self produced, 15% from suppliers
* Partnered with Silicon Valley startup Liveclicker for technological aspects

3. Video Everywhere

4. Benefits of Video
* Increased onsite conversions
* Higher customer satisfaction
* SEO
* Presence on social networks
* Enhance marketing programs (email, affiliates)
* Low-cost way to grab technological edge
* Brands love it

5. Conversion Lift on product pages Group A – No Video Group B – With Video # Product pages 25,000 25,000 served Conversion rate 6.63% 10.00% (did not view video) Conversion rate 6.63% 15.84% (viewed video) Conversion rate 50.1% increase N/A (did not view video) Conversion rate N/A 138.9% increase (viewed video)

6. SEO/Customer Satisfaction
* Prominent SEO placement
* Liquidated inventory of key product
* Boosted conversion rates

7. Presence on social networks
* Facebook
* Twitter
* MySpace
* Digg
* StumbleUpon
* YouTube
* Blogs
* Google Video
* Etc.

8. Number of video plays
* 100,603 video plays (since May 5 2008)
* Average 260/day, accelerating to 780/day
* Distribution across all channels: onsite, SEO, affiliate, email, social networks.

9. Video Center on eBags
* Since July 24th 2008 81,423 unique visitors 111,325 page views

10. Video on Brand pages
* Since Sep 17th 2008 1,138,517 banner impressions 5,543 video views

11. Video on product pages
Since Jan 16th 2008 102,998 banner impressions 3,699 video views

12. Video on YouTube
Tracked since October 12th 2008 9,337 unique visitors

13. With affiliates
Since Mid November 2008 w/Liveclicker 15,775 views, increasing • Commission Junction • LinkShare

14. Affiliate product review example
* Article eBags Video + Merchandising

15. Content analysis
* Demos and testimonial most “engaging” (people viewing at least 10-seconds)
* Promotion/Interview show lower engagement

16. Engagement detail
* Product demos are most engaging. These videos also show most views on Youtube

17. Affiliates: branding videos best
* Notice the low level of engagement on affiliate site

18. A few examples (1)
* What people will like more art than science…

19. A few examples (2)

20. What we’re working on
* Next-generation player with integrated merchandising
* Social Media development
* Email integration

21. Key Take Aways
* Getting Started
* Video Production Doesn’t Have To Be Complex
* “Video Everywhere” is the correct strategy
* Making it a process
* Find the right balance of content
* Work with suppliers to acquire video assets Solving the technical limitations
* Partner with the right company and get going

22. Thank you

Video Commerce Chronicles Episode 4: Optimizing Video on an e-Commerce site

Excellent panel discussion at eTail - Optimizing Video on an e-Commerce site, with the following people:

• McKay Thomas from Billardex
• Peter Cobb from eBags
• Jimmy Healey from Onlineshoes.com
• Ty Ricker from Riv Works

eCommerce Video Production Tips from the Pros: eBags

Note from VideoRetailer.org: Last fall, I asked Scott Roon and Jason Carncross to share a few video commerce production tips. This is the incredibly creative duo that’s behind eBags.com’s video product and delivery. Some of their most popular videos are the eBags MacroLoader demo, and most recently, the eBags Web Busters video.I put the camera on a tripod and left these guys present it, their way.

Scott Roon: Hey, what’s happening? I’m Scott, new Media Producer at Ebags.

Jason Carncross: I’m Jason. I’m a Senior Web Designer at Ebags.

Scott: He’s more qualified than I am. Anyway, web video is kind of new, right? I mean, I guess. We’re doing commerce web video, but it’s not what you think. Okay, it’s Ecommerce. Alright, and I guess we’re talking about kind of some of the easiest way to get started, I suppose. Basically, I’m just trying to teach them everything I learned in college. How much time do we got? [Scott looks at his watch] Okay. Sound, first and foremost. Right?

Jason: Yeah. You got to have sound.

Scott: Super important.

Jason: Sound, you can jitter video all you want. You can drop frames. You can have black and white, scratchy…whatever. As soon as you have bad audio, people leave. Kind of have to have great audio.

Scott: I think when we started doing video here, I was pretty adamant on trying to sell them on a thousand dollars worth of audio equipment. I could not stress enough how important it is. When you’re shooting video with someone and somebody’s talking, you don’t want it to sound like old Hamm radio. It’s the least engaging thing ever. People will turn it right away. I do that on Youtube when I’m watching. If you can tell just that the audio is not right, that’s sort of a subliminal thing. The thing that sucks about video and producing video, is that if you’re doing your job right, nobody notices because the end goal is to make it look seamless. And nobody knows. That’s why all video producers are people in LA. It’s because it’s a thankless, thankless job, but that’s the whole point. You know? It’s super smooth. And sound is–immediately, you will recognize bad sound.  I mean, video you can…like you said, you can throw filters if you want. You can do whatever you want. You can fix video, but audio is…

Jason: Another thing that’s bad about audio is If you use the same public domain clip that everyone else is using, then you end up triggering mental relapse from the user about some other site they were just on ten minutes before yours, and that association is bad. If you can do original music at all, even if it’s loop based, but original in edit. That’s better than just pulling something off the shelf, and plugging it in and running with it. Most of the people out there are doing that. You’ll get caught. People will come up and say, “Hey, you know that track in your music, I heard that on TV or I heard that on a commercial. It’s like, “Oh man.”

Scott: I see some of the political ones now, and they use some of the same loops we have. But yeah, you start recognizing. Sound is such a subliminal thing. I mean it’s just..you can’t get away with a lot when it comes to sound. So, do not skimp on sound equipment, since we’re in a lesson here. Do not do that.

Jason: What camera do you use?

Scott: I use prosumer Panasonic DVX 100, for whatever that means to anybody out there. It’s the DVX 100B, which is the third generation of that one. But it was the first prosumer camera, which is half pro half consumer, around three grand, $3,000 that shot 24 frames per second which is a simulated film effect as you know. It simulates value. The eye can recognize the difference between 30 frames per second. If you get farther than 30 frames per second, your eye can’t physically tell. If you slow it down, It’s a trick it plays on the eye to give it more depth. That’s what we use. We haven’t found an HD yet.

Jason: Everything’s been small. We use a 320/240 resolution for all of our videos now. That might change in the future, but for right now that’s what we’re using. Tripod or handheld?

Scott: I love handheld. I’m old school. I came from a music background. It’s at your discretion. I’ve done a lot of behind the scenes tours of companies. It’s a more personal feel for me. Again, that’s if you’ve shot it right, and if you know the technique and all that. But first sit down interview. How about yourself? Do you use…?

Jason: I don’t have any preference. I like smooth dolly shots. I like big budget looking shots. Cranes. Throw a crane in there. It’s just that’s how I shoot. I like more high production look. The problem with shooting high production is if you want to maintain that. You can’t do halfway. You can do minimal cost minimal effort. As soon as you start to get used to high end production. You have to do it right, or someone will call you out. How come you shot it at night? So many elements that you have to control in that world. Unless you’re planning on a big budget, you want to try and make it feel as organic as possible.

Scott: There are certain things you can fake. There are certain things that are difficult to fake. That’s where the TV background is helping. Every corner that I can cut. Not to say that we’re skimping on everything but realistically, it’s a business like everything else. You got to know how to efficiently create something. On any given day, you shoot three things a week. It better not be super expensive. Especially, if you can’t really measure success. I mean you can…but…

Jason: What is your philosophy on edits? I know you have some interesting cut through shots.

Scott: I’m a little aggressive when it comes to edits. I hate dissolves. It’s just my personal thing. They are forced, cheesy, and contrived–Disney movie.

Jason: I agree.

Scott: I think the hardest part has been brevity. Creating rich content that moves–gets in, gets out shows people what you want. A lot of that comes from knowing your consumer. I directly take recommendations off of of our testimonials. I need to know the size of it. I get shots of the presentator relative to the size. I make sure I get good shots. A lot of it is listening to what people want.

Jason: I know the answer to this one, but I’m going to ask for their sake–single cam or multicam shoot?

Scott: In theory, what do I want? Or what do I do? I shoot single cam because it’s just me. It’s really hard to do this with two cameras and talk to someobody. I shoot single camera. I’ve found a couple tricks to get around it and to make it look a little better. Everytime, the first thing that I ask everybody is for lifestyle images, still images anything I can use to enrich a one camera shoot. I want two. It’d be nice. But then I need someone else. It becomes more production. That’s one of those corners, I want to try and cut. I hate using that term by the way. It seems so cheap, when I say “cut corners.” But “maximize efficiency.”

Jason: What about your b-roll, How do you keep track of the straps you have to pick up?

Scott: I do the interview first. Generally, time permitting. I shoot the interview first, and keep a mental note of where it is. That’s kind of the beauty of being the pre-production, the production, and the editer. At the end of the day, the one thing that’s terrible is, I have no else to blame. The one thing that’s good is that I know everything i need in order to create. After i do an interview, i know specifically, what shots I’m going to need when i get back to the editing room.

Jason: One more question.

Scott: I don’t know when this turned into a..

Jason: Because you are a better speaker than I am. Is there something that you would call the Ebags style? How do you come up with it? As far as the edit…can you look at two different videos that you shot and edited and say, “Yeah that was done by the same person?”

Scott: Wow, I really try not to though is the thing. Again, if I’m doing my job right it makes it look like we have 7 different producers and a bunch of different people doing this, different editors and different styles. I’m trying to take as diverse of a look as I can.

Jason: You don’t need a response. I don’t know. I just figured it was a good question.

Scott: I figured you were leading me into something where you were going to make fun of me for something.

Jason: If you’d like me to, I could…

Scott: I try and do it as professional looking as possible, but as engaging as possible. A lot of it comes from the Youtube. I surf Youtube not at work obviously, all the time. I’m always looking for the ways people portray just the stupid things that they do, and the products that they they love, and the things they love, and the the people they are. If i can pull all of that together into one cohesive style, then I have effectively escaped this question.

Jason: Ever think of running for office?

eCommerce Video Thumbnails Matter Enormously

It’s the first impression that counts. In the video e-commerce world, the first impression often is a static thumbnail with a white triangle on top. Will the user click or not, that is the question.

Video thumbnails are everywhere. First, because most eCommerce sites will not autoplay videos on their pages to avoid distractions in the shopping process and therefore prefer to present the video as a player with a thumbnail. Second, when video is introduced on a commerce page, the video player itself does take significant bandwidth and may slow down the page if video starts streaming. Thumbnails solve the page performance problem because video will only stream if the play button is clicked on. Finally, there are more and more video delivery formats where the video content is accessible as a popup or overlay, triggered from a video banner similar to the one here below:

Maximizing click-throughs is an art. Let’s take a few examples from video pioneer eBags.com and analyze some of their choices.

1. Picking a thumbnail for a Product video

As you can see above, out of the five possible choices, eBags opted for a close-up of their Macroloader product. In general, if a video is a product review, it’s a good idea to select a good thumbnail of the product.

Sometimes the product has an awkward shape and would not be easily recognizable in a single thumbnail. In this case, an attractive shot of the presenter works well as shown below for the Travel Hammock product.

2. Picking a thumbnail for a How-To video

A little harder would be selecting the right thumbnail for educational videos. In this case, it’s hard to pick an image that summarizes the problem and suggests a solution. Once again I like the eBags approach because it is very tactical and down to earth as evidenced in this selection for the eBags Universal Plug Adaptor.

Notice how the thumbnail summarizes the problem (unfamiliar electrical plug) and the proposed solution (the black adapter).

3 . Picking a thumbnail for a Branding video

Even harder than How-to’s because of the branding implications. Three different examples to illustrate the various approaches.

First, a Jansport video that narrates the company beginnings and history (below). The selected thumbnail is… the peak of a mountain, which symbolizes coolness, endurance, challenge and lifestyle.

Second example - the Nike video for the Edge Elite Backpack. For a recognizable brand like Nike, eBags chose the thumbnail with the Nike logo, a true click magnet.

Finally - my favorite of all. The Lovcat handbags video. Here the marketer is picking a thumbnail that’s sort of mysterious, inviting you to find out more.

Next time you publish your commerce video, mind the thumbnail!

Full video: Video Commerce - Selling online with Video at Streaming Media West

StreamingMedia.com just published the entire Streaming Media West 2008 conference content, including the session on Video Commerce, with participants from the Video Commerce Consortium, drugstore.com and eBags.com.

After the conference I also conducted a number of interviews that will be available on VideoRetailer.org shortly.

Video Commerce presentation at Streaming Media West

These are the slides that can be download from the Streaming Media West panel, “Video Commerce: Selling Online with Video”. The panel took place September 24th 2008. Thanks to Dan Rayburn for organizing this great event.

Here is the transcript -Slide 1: Justin Foster, Founder, Video Commerce Consortium Alison Jeske, Director Product Management, drugstore.com Jon Nordmark, Founder & CEO, Ebags.com Xavier Casanova, Founder & CEO, Liveclicker

Slide 2: Video Commerce ShopNBC.tv launches Social Marketing Friendster founded Search Engine Marketing - CPC Overture first $100M revenue Email Marketing - CPM Digital Impact first email Affiliate marketing - CPA Commission Junction formed Banner advertising - CPM DoubleClick - first banner open to all first visitor bankrupt first profit founded $1M web sales Will It Blend video IPO viewed 100M times eCom sales 1% eCom sales 4.2% of total retail of retail 1994 1996 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008

Slide 3: “Will It Blend” over ~100MM views and counting

Slide 4: Self-Produced Videos: build credibility, add value, humanize the experience

Slide 5: Acquire content from customers Build a trust relationship

Slide 6: Q: What is preventing Don’t know where to start you from starting out Lack of knowledge with video commerce Unproven ROI Lack of resources or expanding your Lack of industry case studies current video No executive buy-in commerce initiatives? None of the above Lack of interest Poor ROI High production costs Goes against the culture or brand 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% Source: Video Commerce Consortium Survey. July 7, 2008

Slide 8: Alison Jeske drugstore.com, inc. With a decade of experience in (NASDAQ:DSCM) is a eCommerce, Alison Jeske has leading online retailer of health, worked in customer acquisition, beauty, vision and pharmacy retention and customer service products. Our portfolio of brands aspects for online retailers. include: drugstore.com™, Alison is currently Director of Beauty.com™ and Product Management for VisionDirect.com™. All are drugstore.com, inc., where she accessible from is responsible for defining site http://www.drugstore.com and strategy, and implementing new provide a convenient, private, site features to deliver an and informative shopping exceptional personalized experience while offering a wide shopping experience. assortment of more than 30,000 Prior to joining drugstore.com products at competitive prices. Jeske was a senior member of the eCommerce team at Cingular and AT&T Wireless.

Slide 9: Past : Launch of new Beauty.com site in November 2007 – included video ▪ Video library (self-produced and vendor videos) ▪ Brand boutique videos (e.g. Jonathan) ▪ Objectives: - Increase basket size - Increase time on site - Provide enhanced shopping experience for prestige beauty customers ▪ What did we achieve?  Basket size and time on site difficult to directly correlate to video viewing (new features also launched w/ new site)  Positive feedback from customers 9

Slide 10: Pop up window displays video

Slide 11: Present: New tools and expansion of video into drugstore.com ▪ Partnered with Liveclicker to provide rich tools for driving that intersection of video and commerce ▪ Launched Beauty.com w/ Liveclicker in July ▪ Launched drugstore.com in September ▪ Monitoring SEO benefits ▪ Building out a video library ▪ Securing content from vendors ▪ Adding video into our product setup procedures ▪ Measure, measure, measure – analyze!

Slide 12: Liveclicker tool provides many features: - ’Buy’ just one click away - Product links in video - Sharing - Rating of videos - Comments - Access to related videos/whole library - SEO benefits - Push to YouTube, Twitter, Google Video

Slide 13: Over 30 videos on Beauty.com Still early to determine the basket (order value) impacts

Slide 14: Other exciting metrics – newest video with a 94% continue to watch past 10 sec mark; 42.5% watch whole video

Slide 16: Future: - Broaden access to video throughout the site (product details pages; tutorials on new site features) - Develop in-house videos (videos for our “brand”) - Facility for customers to upload video - Continue to monitor and analyze results (orders!)

Slide 18: Jon Nordmark, Founder & CEO Ebags.com >$100MM 2007 revenues Growing 25%+ annually Launched video in early 2008 - Initial pilot on video site - Later rollout to brand and product pages on Ebags.com

Slide 19: Put existing assets to use The most engaging medium for selling Provide a richer customer experience Drive new traffic through video SEO

Slide 20: Leverage supplier content Access professional quality assets; low cost

Slide 21: Group A – No Video Group B – With Video # Product pages 25,000 25,000 served Conversion rate 6.63% 10.00% (clicked play button) Conversion rate 6.63% 15.84%(watched entire video) Conversion rate 50.1% increase N/A (clicked play button) Conversion rate N/A 138.9% increase (watched entire video)

Slide 22: Launched in 2008 “ Conversion rates increased. Prominent SEO placement Plus, we quickly validated the SEO pilot.” - Jon Nordmark, Founder & CEO, eBags.com

Slide 23: Future: - Continue producing video assets - More experimentation testing “demonstration” vs. “promotional” - Lean on suppliers and customers for new video content

Slide 25: Largest and fastest-growing consortium of interactive marketers seeking to learn about and advance the use of video in e-commerce www.video-commerce.org

Slide 26: Justin Foster, Founder, Video Commerce Consortium Alison Jeske, Director Product Marketing, drugstore.com Jon Nordmark, Founder & CEO, Ebags.com Xavier Casanova, Founder & CEO, Liveclicker

VideoRetailer.Org Interviews Jon Nordmark, Founder and CEO of eBags on Video Commerce

Jon Nordmark, CEO of eBags.com was kind enough to spend a few minutes with us to speak about eBags’ video initiative. In this interview, Jon talks about his vision for Video Commerce, how it started at eBags and some of the things they are thinking about for the future.