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

Video hosts can help focus a shopper’s attention

I have been noticing that more sites have started to use an interesting form of online video known utilizing a “video host” or “video spokesperson.” This type of video is often presented as an overlay on a web site that appears when when you first enter a site or hit a landing page. When implemented well, a video spokesperson does not interfere with the normal operation or navigation of a site. Typical applications for a video host are site advertising and promotions, how-to or training videos, issue management or recruitment over the web.

First I was a sceptical because I thought it was an intrusive element in terms of user experience but looking for sites that use them I found some really well implemented examples, like this one from a Youth Sports site called We Play.

The site is hosted by baseball pro LeBron James who helps the first-time user to quickly find out about the main content and services by directing the user to the principal sections of the page. His intro ends with a call-to-action: “Join now, it’s free.”

The University of Dalhousie in Canada uses a host to promote the services of the institute’s career center to future students and alumni.

And at Barnes & Noble’s online shop, new releases are brought to the user’s attention using a short overlay promo video featuring the book author.

There is no doubt that this kind of dynamic video application can help to drive conversion rate of website or landing page. But in order to guarantee a good user experience it must be used at the right time, in the right place and above all give the user control over the video. The user must be able to stop and click away at any time while navigating the site.

So I think that a video spokesperson is only useful if …
1. …it helps the user to find his way around the site. Avoid simple welcome messages that don’t deliver any additional value for the user experience.

2. …it uses a person that relates naturally with your brand or product.

3. …the clip is related to a call-to-action or promotion that justifies the presence of an extra layer of navigation.

Video Email Best Practices

Video Email Marketing in 2009: Facts, Stats, Limitations, Possibilities from Justin Foster on Vimeo.

Here embedded an excellent presentation on video email by Justin Foster and Lisa Harmon. Topics covered include:

- Concerns, attitudes, and expertise level of marketers seeking to learn more about video in email marketing
- Forces driving video in email
- Methods for achieving video in email
- Video .GIF vs. Animated .GIF
- CertifiedVideo (from Goodmail Systems)
- Video .GIF pros and cons
- List of which mail clients support video, by video inclusion method
- Email client market share
- Browser market share & video .GIF limitations based on browser
- Which email clients block images by default
- Several examples of email messages that include video
- Video .GIF best practices
- Example results
- Common questions re: video in email

Europe’s fashion e-retailers jump on the video catwalk

BuyVip is a Europe-based online fashion retailer with virtual outlets in Spain, Portugal, Germany, Austria and Italy. Access to the catalog and shopping is restricted to registered members only, supported by a member-gets-member scheme that gives discounts to recruiters and new users. I personally haven’t bought from them or any other e-fashion outlet so far since I do prefer brick-and-mortar shopping when it comes to cloth, shoes and accessories but I took a closer look at their catalogue because just recently they have introduced a video-based catalogue. And that did catch my interest.

BuyVIP has upgraded their statical photos catalogue using 10 or less second videos that show a model walking around with the respective piece of cloth. The idea is super-simple! It really hit me when I gave it a second thought: in terms of resources and setting, there is actually no big difference between organizing a photo shooting or a video shooting, especially when the location is a controlled studio environment. Models, studio, lights, camera and a good photographer and/or video professional. Postproduction is probably a bit more time intensive in the case of video editing but the impact and the user experience do change big time. Here two examples of female and male line; to see the video you need to register, though.

In terms of production I think BuyVIP has choosen the right strategy: focus on the product and keep the rest as simple as possible. Nevertheless, I think that the integration into the product site, especially the sharing or bookmarking options could have been much more state-of-the-art. There is only a “e-mail to a friend” option but that’s it.

At BuyVIP currently, not all brands that feature video models; that could mean that the video project is still in a test phase or the roll-out has different phases; but maybe only the top selling or paying brands do actually get their one video catwalk.

Another good European example of how to use video on the product site is the UK-based online fashion store Aseo. As far as I could see, all articles in the cloth section have their own short video. The execution is as simple as the BuyVIP clips but the on-site user experience is way better, offering complementary content around the video, like a size-guide, other accessories to complete your look and a share option with all the most common social network and content sharing sites, from Digg to Facebook.

You might wonder if the share options really matter in terms of lead generation or conversion, sending traffic back to the site. There is little published data about the impact in real business but I would follow the advise of Peter Cobb from eBags - Xavier had a great post + video about them a few weeks ago - where he mentions the importance of video content for social network sites and that being present on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace or Digg actually did have a positive impact on the brand in general.

It would be interesting to get some real data about the impact of shared content on the traffic to and conversion on site. Can anybody share some info on that?

Howcast.com Rocks The iPhone

Howcast.com, a well funded Silicon Valley startup founded by YouTube and Google veterans, has done an amazing job bringing how-to videos to the iPhone. The application is well scripted, interactive and useful. A true gem.

We’ve know Howcast.com for quite some time now. The site was launched in February of 2008 and joins the relatively crowded space of how-to videos with 5min and ExpertVillage. Since its launch, the site has been doing relatively well in its niche according to the Alexa stats, although the numbers have stagnated in recent months. Being a media company making money on ads, Howcast needs to grow it viewership from its current levels to become a viable company.

But traffic stats, especially Alexa.com’s, aren’t that significant especially that Howcast has content distribution deals with major outlets such as Verizon and MySpace. In other words, it is likely that Howcast gets more traffic and views outside of howcast.com. This brings us to their iPhone app, which is featured in one of the latest Apple commercials, which is quite an accomplishment.

The app is easy to install as it is directly available from the Apple Store and iTunes. Currently rated “3 stars” with about 4000 ratings, Howcast for the iPhone ties with other popular apps such as Skype in terms of user ratings.

The app itself shines by its simplicity: content cleanly featured, a good search with auto-complete of queries and definite “Apple feel” - the app is a success. Now actually playing the videos is a little more challenging even on a wifi connection as the videos pauses frequently to allow buffering, but that’s a minor detail.

Notice on the screenshot above how some of the key points are highlighted in plain text on the video. No animation of any kind of clickable links is possible on the iPhone yet, but Howcast does a nice job making sure some key overlays make it to the iPhone (as opposed to just having a plain video stream with no annotations).

Now what does this all mean for eCommerce? First, this example should serve as a model for iPhone integration for any company aspiring to build a presence on mobile devices. Howcast is arguably the best how-to iPhone application currently available. Second, we are seeing yet another clever video distribution strategy which does not rely on generating views on just one site - rather, the idea is to leverage good video content to gain exposure on various distribution channels. I believe this approach to video distribution - decentralized - is one of the most promising opportunities for video commerce because it allows to reach and acquire new customers at virtually no cost.

Extra: Watch the Howcast video presentation

Free Webinar Alert: Breaking down barriers: overcoming knowledge, organizational, and political obstacles to video commerce success

Justin Foster (Video Commerce Consortium, Liveclicker) and Alison Jeske (Sr Director of Product Management at drugstore.com) will be hosting an Video Commerce Webinar on Tuesday, April 14, 2009 from 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM PST.

Breaking down barriers: overcoming knowledge, organizational, and political obstacles to video commerce success

Video is both a channel and a media, yet few online retailers dedicate channel managers to video or structure their organizations according to media ownership.

As a cross-channel media, special considerations must be paid to video in order for e-commerce organizations to reap the full potential of video commerce.  In this exclusive webinar, we’ll share strategies you can use to think “outside the box” and increase your own cross-channel knowledge in the process so your entire organization benefits from the persuasive power of e-commerce video.

Join Alison Jeske, Director of Product Management at drugstore.com and Justin Foster, Co-Founder of Liveclicker and Founder of the Video Commerce Consortium as we share strategies to help you accelerate organizational adoption of video for e-commerce.  We’ll introduce methods to help you evangelize and understand video commerce evangelists in the face of entrenched organizational structures that hinder enterprise-wide adoption of online video.  You’ll hear the real-life story of one e-commerce leader’s struggle to extend video across channels and learn about the positive results a successful cross-channel video commerce strategy can bring about.

Sign up link: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/308084996

Do you have a video commerce event you’d like to announce on VideoRetailer.org? Please use the suggest form.

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

Video Commerce eTail West ‘09: Candid Thoughts

eTail was a nice conference last week in Phoenix, AZ. I spent two days there, talking to retailers and partners about the video commerce industry, among other things. Couple of candid observations -

1. The video commerce sessions were (a) on the last day of the event, (b) overlapping which each other (the David Widzig ShopNBC session, and the panel of video commerce experts with McKay Thomas, Peter Cobb and Jimmy Healey), YET packed with retailers.

2. Video commerce is HOT. Everybody has plans to go video in the next 18-months. Even the businesses that are hunkering down in this economy recognize the need to “go video”

3. Had a great time networking with other video experts at the VCC networking event. Met with Vendaria and a few others players in the industry.

4. Heard numerous stories of video commerce associated with social media marketing, which gets me really excited at a personal level. Possibilities are infinite, and we’re just scratching the surface of what can be done when these two are intelligently combined.

Free Webinar Alert: Succeed with Video Commerce in a Down Economy

Justin Foster (Video Commerce Consortium, Liveclicker) and Kevin Ertell (Former EVP at Borders and Tower Records) will be hosting an Video Commerce Webinar on Tuesday, March 3, 2009 from 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM PST.

Succeed with Video Commerce in a Down Economy

In this first webinar in a three part series covering how leaders in the e-commerce space use online video to differentiate, create competitive advantage, increase revenues, and cut costs, we’ll cut to the chase and leave you with actionable material to exploit the potential of online video in e-commerce.

In this webinar, we’ll discuss:

- Re-examining core assumptions about the cost and complexity of e-commerce video production, revealing new strategies and insights to help retailers cut costs without sacrificing the revenue potential of online video

- Why extending the reach of online video across many online marketing channels creates additional revenue opportunities, multiplying the effectiveness of video commerce programs

- Several case studies will be shared along with *hard numbers* behind the programs blazing the way forward for video commerce

Whether or not you’re already invested in online video, this webinar series promises to be the most informative, up-to-date source of information you can find to survive and flourish in the fast-evolving field of video commerce.

Sign up link: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/247576387

Do you have a video commerce event you’d like to announce on VideoRetailer.org? Please use the suggest form.

Tailgate - Video Widgets with Integrated Shopping Baskets

Tailgate Technologies, one of the pioneers in Transactional Marketing has developed a new type of video widget in which shoppers can directly buy the products they are viewing:

“Tailgate Technologies turn any online display unit into a fully functioning secure transactional space. Customers are able to buy within any widget or video overlay without disrupting their browsing experience.”

The video-shopping-innovation from Tailgate is interesting. So far most e-retailers only use their widgets as advertising space to promote their stores in social networks or blogs, in other words, as a lead generation mechanism. Tailgate brings them one step closer to the web 2.0 world by allowing them to use the same widget for executing transactions. The advantage is clear: it allows video shoppers to browse their favorite stores without having to leave their social network or community.

NOTE: VideoRetailer.org welcomes Stephan Randler who will be contributing to the site and sharing his knowledge in the areas of video commerce and online marketing.

Honeyshed is Closing - Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater

Adweek is reporting today that Honeyshed.com, a trendy MTV/QVC style online store will be shutting down. Publicis, the main backer of the site has decided to pull the plug on the business, after 15 months of existence.

The site had a few good ideas on the content side, successfully blending ecommerce content with entertainment to create a compelling user experience inside the video player. According to Adweek, the site accrued over 117,000 visitors in December, which isn’t so bad given the site’s low tech approach to e-commerce which makes it hard to compete against established retailers (basic ecommerce features, virtually no SEO, limited video sharing capabilities, awkward shopping experience).

Honeyshed didn’t succeed not because it didn’t have a good video player or the best shopping cart out there. With more patience and solid backers, this site could have done relatively well over the years. The biggest flaw in the Honeyshed model is content distribution. By comparing itself to QVC, the Honeyshed founders probably shot themselves in the foot and inflated expectations. Both QVC and HSN had a massive initial asset: a large audience thirsty for deals on day one, which they continued to build up over the years with cable companies to reach millions of users.

Stepping back and looking at the bigger picture, video commerce is likely to take off growing off existing e-commerce operations, because it offers a simple value proposition to the site’s owner: video improves conversion, increases loyalty and minimizes product returns. The Honeyshed setback is neither good nor bad news for the video e-commerce. Just stay away from comparisons with QVC for the time being and focus on the bottom-line.