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

Why I don’t buy into the YouTube cannibalization theory for product videos

Many retailers hope to significantly boost their product page PageRank by adding video to it - betting on the fact that Google favors pages with video embedded in their search algorithm. I have seen anecdotal evidence that it is indeed true - although no one has published a repeatable formula yet, SEO after all is more art than science.

Another common practice for retailers and manufacturers is to publish their videos to YouTube. If you ask around what is driving these marketers to share on YouTube, you’ll likely hear that a) YouTube is the second most popular search engine, b) It’s potentially a lot of traffic, and c) it doesn’t cost anything (free advertising).

On the flip side I have been hearing more and more recently about “product page SEO concerns” - when a video is published to both the product page, and to YouTube. The argument usually goes like this - “I’ve read somewhere that Google favors video by inflating PageRank, resulting in up to a 50x boost in search engine visibility” (whatever that means). “So if I put my video on YouTube, the risk of the YouTube outranking my own product page is high - bumping my position on the SERP down. That’s why we stopped pushing videos to YouTube”.

The cannibalization story is certainly believable and the explanation makes sense if indeed Google has some bias to artificially inflate the PageRank of pages with video. At the same time, I have observed that the most successful retailers with video usually have a very
aggressive YouTube strategy, where every piece of content is pushed to YouTube, without evidence of SEO cannibalization. In fact, the perception among these successful retailers is that YouTube provided an extra SEO boost - and here is why.

1) YouTube is a massive backlink magnet, because so many sites, blogs, articles point it. Its PageRank is high - but more important, since YouTube appends any outbound link with rel=”nofollow”, the PageRank credit of a YouTube page is only spread across other YouTube pages. It’s like an echo chamber.

2) If a YouTube page is linked from a site with a high PageRank, it’ll benefit not only that page, but any related videos that are linked from it. In other words, the related videos on YouTube get a “free PageRank credit”.

3) As a retailer, if your videos appear as related to popular videos, they might start showing high on a SERP because their PageRank is high.

4) High PageRank means more visibility on Google, which may result in third part sites finding and linking to the retail site, sometimes directly to the product page.

With this hypothesis there isn’t a cannibalization risk, because when the retailer pushes a product video to YouTube it is not at the expense of the product page, rather, it earns free credit from YouTube. Perhaps a more appropriate term to understand what is really happening would be “incremental free SEO” from YouTube.

In essence publishing e-commerce videos to YouTube in addition to the adequate product page is something I would consider a must. Important also would be to properly tag the video in YouTube and append a good description, since the key to success is to appear as often as possible as a related video in YouTube.

It happened to me too: when video persuades NOT to buy

A few days ago I dropped my iPhone 3GS getting off my car. Just slipped away from my pocket and… woozah. The screen was totally cracked. Luckily I had some tape around to to wrap the thing, and surprisingly, still use it. Now a few days have passed and a friend of mine told me you can get it fixed for about $60. Another one said to look for a screen repair kit for about half the price. That’s when things get interesting.

Can I do this myself? Amazon has this repair kit at $15-20 with fairly good customer ratings. But it’s hard to tell how easy or hard it is to perform the repair. A video would be great. So I keep searching.

Then I find this site, which puts it all in one page - the actual replacement glass, as well as each of the tools you need to execute the screen change yourself. But most important, a video, because I want to know before buying if I can do this myself.

The video is a little slow to start but you get the idea pretty quick. You need tools, you need to be ultra careful, and you need a ton of time. Probably the most discouraging experience I’ve ever had - I just cannot do this. And video persuaded me NOT to buy a product.

If we take a step back, perhaps the most interesting question is “Should a video bringing down conversion rates for a product be taken offline?“. The simple answer is YES, for the obvious reasons. Imagine yourself walking into a meeting where your boss asks you “how’s product X doing in conversions”, and you reply “not well since we added the video”. Not the best scenario.

But if the video is well executed, it probably is worth discouraging non-qualified buyers who will inevitably fail trying to repair their iPhone themselves. Failing costs money (returns) and future sales (negative marketing) - success on the other hand is contagious. That’s how I heard about the kit in the first place.

Dude, where’s my video?

“A bread machine. We gave him a bread machine for his birthday. Him and his wife have no time to buy fresh bread every day, so it’s perfect for them.”

As my father-in-law was saying these words on a beautiful Sunday morning, a thousand questions were going through my mind. How is that possible (making bread at home)? How does it work? How long does it take. How big is this thing? Do you need to know anything about cooking? etc etc. So then I started by quest for answers. What is a bread machine??

Naturally, the process starts with a Google Search for “bread machine”. Lots of results, let’s pick the target.com link. There on Target, multiple choices - each of these machines features 4 or 5 product photos, a short product description that’s not really explaining how things work.

Most valuable are user reviews - but they all talk about how great or bad the product is, but do not provide answers to common sense questions. Dude, where’s my video? Isn’t this the perfect example of an innovative product that needs a little more context than a bunch of photos, copy and some text reviews?

I visited a few other sites and could not find any videos. Perhaps refining my Google query would help, let’s try “Bread machine video”. MUCH better.

The first link is to YouTube, there you can find all the information I was looking for. Look at the quality of the playlist on the right side of the YouTube page:

Found all the info I needed… on YouTube. A few thoughts on this experience:

1) YouTube 1- eRetailers 0. I would have expected the major retail sites to feature product videos, since most of this content is created by manufacturers or content sites like cooking.com. Why is this content only on YouTube? Does not make any sense to have it so far away from the purchase point.

2) Who said you should not syndicate content to YouTube? Users are being educated to find the videos they are looking for on YouTube by Google. Take a look at how Google is pushing links to YouTube videos. Also see how good a job YouTube does putting these all into a nice playlist.

3) Why do I need to append my initial query with “video” to start seeing videos in the Google SERP? This is a challenge to all the theories stating that video gives a huge boost to pages with video in search engine rankings. The videos exist, but you have to type exactly the right query to see them.

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.