1) Content is still sparse. For example, when clicking on the “Beauty” category, I see a thumbnail for a “puzzle stool” next to a thumbnail for “facial cleanser.” I can get the facial cleanser but a stool? C’mon. Looks like some content may be tagged hyper-broadly to make up for overall lack of content. Still, I could see it growing over time.

2) Had a problem with launching checkout overlay with a video playing in the background – it eventually worked, but seemed very slow.

3) When trying to buy a product, I kept trying to click on the video, but that just paused the video. The “buy” button is quite obvious on the page but I think this illustrates something about the user experience that is unique to video. When watching the video, I want to interact directly with the video and go to the checkout page. I’m focused on the video – 100% – and the rest of the page just tunes out a bit. I would be interested in seeing them do an A/B split of the conversion rates on identical videos with embedded links to the cart vs. placing these elements externally.

4) This is e-commerce design 101 but in Shopflick’s eagerness to collect user accounts they are making a big mistake to require a user to create an account during the initial stage of the shopping cart. The abandonment rate must be insanely high.

5) Even worse, there’s a confirmed opt-in process during check-out for new accounts. I come from the email world, and am all for confirmed opt-in as a way to promote strong deliverability and build trust, but by slicing the user experience during checkout into pre-confirmed to post-confirmed, Shopflick is killing sales which has got to be the kiss of death for a startup like this. One thing to remember about video is that it is extremely effective at creating impulse buys. That’s because video can ‘sell’ a product in ways images and text simply can not. The further removed from the video I am as a shopper during checkout, the more I want to second guess my purchase decision before completing payment. To make matters even worse, on clicking the confirm link, I’m prompted to sign in again, not taken to the cart. This is a process that definitely will need some fixing.

5) For the small seller, a 12.5% cut may not be much. However, to really attract large advertisers to the site, I don’t think this is going to cut it. 12.5% just seems too high, and for a startup seeking to be a super affiliate for videos, it sort of baffles me why they’d price this way out of the gates. I would think for a new startup the focus would be on attracting more content, but I guess it’s more important for them to prove the model before the value (content) is really there.

Justin