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

Moderator: Faramarz Farhoodi, Motosport.com

Faramarz remarks:
Strategically analyze the objective of your video program
- Driving traffic to your site (Google Network, Affiliate sites, SEO?)
- Increasing conversion
- Increase average order value
- Increasing page views
- Length of video quite important: under 1 minute, even 30 seconds to avoid distractions - Importance of testing: measure and test conversion
- Misplaced content can hurt conversion

Impact of video on site performance - working with onsite production. Professional resource
- How to videos (how to change tires, change exhaust)

Alison Jeske, drugstore.com
- Affiliate channel is emerging as an important channel to leverage video
- Embedding videos on affiliate site with integrated product merchandising & cross-sell
- Affiliates also commenting on some videos, helping contribute to overall SEO
- Affiliate educating site searchers on how to buy products by clicking on link overlays in videos
- Example of an affiliate gone wild with video: http://www.spreety.com/Fun-Beauty-Infomercials.aspx
- drugstore.com launched first video email campaign in April 2009
- Early results of video in email are promising, but still too early to tell
- Continuing to refine placement for video in email

What’s next?
- Going to continue blowing out video over social media channels e.g. integrating video into Facebook lifestream
- Critically important is bringing video to where the customers are

Goodmail Systems: (Gal Chanoch, VP Product Management)

- Goodmail partnered with AOL, AT&T, BT, Comcast, Cox, Time Warner, Road Runner, Telus, Verizon, Yahoo
- Demonstrated video playing in AOL fat client (including full motion and sound)
- CertifiedVideo enables true video in email, no increase in load times or file sizes
- Goodmail AUP forbids auto-play with audio in email, but does enable auto-play without audio

Certona Meyar Sheik

- Seeing personalized video as emerging trend, dynamically serving most relevant video on site pages, and serving different versions of video
- Sees opportunity for behavior-driven merchandising and cross-sell within video
- As the volume of videos continues to increase, important decisions will need to be made regarding whether to continue showing relevant videos, or to drive someone more directly to product pages via product thumbs and other product metadata