With 48 of the top 50 online retailers using some form of product video on their sites at the end of 2012 (up from just 16 at the end of 2011) it’s safe to say 2012 was indeed the year video finally became mainstream in ecommerce.
In 2013 We Will…
As a provider of ecommerce video technology that’s something we’re obviously very thankful for, and our new-year’s resolution is to keep working to ensure this technology doesn’t remain accessible only to the leaders of the ecommerce pack, but also filters down to the multitude of smaller shop owners out there.
In 2013 You Will?
Here are some suggestions for things you can set as your goals for the coming year, to help boost your sales and revenue, and ensure that you have a GREAT 2013!
Start A/B testing
Getting started with ecommerce is relatively easy, but to unleash the full promise of online revenue you need to graduate to the pro league, and as any pro player will tell you – it’s all about ceaselessly improving, tweaking, and upping your game. Online that means TESTING.
EVERYTHING.
ALL THE TIME.
More specifically A/B testing.
A/B testing is simply a method for testing performance based on the creation of two very similar versions of any component of a website, feeding equal amounts of traffic to each, and checking to see which version performed better. You can run A/B tests to examine the performance of something as small as a new checkout button design, or something as massive as a new homepage design. Here at Treepodia we put a lot of focus on A/B testing product video performance, and we regularly discover with our clients that even small tweaks and changes can create massive improvements in ROI. In one case we discovered that simply adding a triangular play icon to the first frame of a video nearly doubled the views for the videos!
Target a New Audience
One of the most popular and widely recognized models of the various types of learning styles is Neil Fleming’s VARK model, which divides people into three broad categories:
- Visual learners
- Auditory learners
- Kinaesthetic ( tactile) learners

Have you hugged an auditory learner today?
Whereas addressing tactile learners online is still beyond the limitations of currently available commercial technology, many ecommerce websites are still doing a poor job of tackling even auditory learners, despite the fact that most of us learned in schools that relied primarily on spoken lessons, and the technology for addressing auditory learners being completely commonplace.
Get Your Video SEO Game Going
- Everybody loves video, hence it’s considered a good user experience, and as such is deserving of a good ranking.
- The higher barrier to entry that video poses means there’s less competition on the field.
For more on getting started with video SEO check out my last post.