Treepodia – The leading Product Video solution for e-commerce

Most Etailers Have Poor Decision Making Processes

It never ceases to amaze me how despite the extensive online availability of massively powerful tools for improving conversions and sales, the vast majority of marketers & e-tailers still rely, almost exclusively, on “gut-instinct” (their own, or that of others) as the only system for making the decisions that manage their business. In my humble opinion this may well be the main cause such a vast percentage of online businesses fail, despite the relatively low overhead cost that going online offers when compared to a brick-and-mortar business.

Great Technology is Friendly - it works without forcing YOU to understand it

From my experiences only few online retailers bother to study the statistics of their website traffic closely, and even fewer do so effectively – i.e. know what indicators are the most important for their business and how their day-to-day operations influence them.

This is a particularly sad state of affairs because the ineptitude can’t be traced back to a root cause that makes sense, for example a desire to avoid expenditure on software or resources. Some of the most powerful tools available for gathering statistics and acting on them effectively are available online for FREE.

Are You Optimizing Yet?

One example of an extremely powerful tool, that far too few people are using, is Google’s “Website Optimizer” service, which allows etailers to test how various combinations of changes to their website content will affect conversions, in order to choose the most effective one. Website Optimizer lets etailers choose what parts of a page they’d like to test – headlines, images, design styles, etc., and then runs an online experiment directing a portion of the site’s traffic to each variation in order to determine which content users respond to best.

Why Not?

Over the years I’ve studied this failing rather extensively as it represents what to me is a very intriguing paradox:
On the one hand the very fact a person succeeds at opening a business would seem to indicate a certain level of competence and diligence, however on the other hand that very same person is often unwilling or unable to carry that effort through by providing it with all the opportunities it requires for success. This despite the fact that this person often acknowledges freely their awareness that their ineffectiveness means they’re “Leaving money on the table” and losing their business as a result. The most obvious question to ask would be WHY???

Why Not Indeed…

After spending a fair deal of time pondering this I’ve come to the conclusion that the fault is NOT exclusively that of the entrepreneurs, a degree of blame must be laid at the feet of the developers and engineers that provide these incredible marketing tools.

Most Powerful Online Marketing Tools Are Too Complicated To Use

A well known paradigm of technology development is that all too often engineers develop products without consulting enough, or even at all, with their target audience. At the end of the process they end up with a product that is intuitive and easy enough for THEM to use, but NOT so for anybody else…

I think this may well be the case with many of the marketing tools available online today. Although they’re powerful and effective, and at times even free, they’re engineer-friendly design makes them simply unusable by the vast majority of the population. The fact someone is a great marketer, a driven sales person, and an industrious entrepreneur, is no guarantee that one has the skill sets required to operate a bit of software designed with an engineering audience in mind. Some might say that the exact opposite might be true (think why so few engineers become effective business owners…).

What could be done otherwise

One of the reasons so many people love Apple’s products, despite their technological limitations, poorer features and complete reliance on Apple’s closed marketplace, is because these products don’t require you to learn how to make them work. They simply work for you.

Apple’s products are designed around the core understanding that:

People don’t care about technology. They care about what technology can DO FOR THEM.

Why We’ve Opted For Automation

This truth can be extended just as easily to the world of ecommerce – At the end of the day when presented with the question:

“Do YOU want to increase your revenues by becoming an expert at operating our software, or do you want US to increase your revenues for you?”

9 business owners out of 10 will prefer to simply have their revenues increased (& the 10th is likely to be a “Power User” type with a strong affinity for technology…). This is precisely why we at Treepodia opted to automate as much of our service as possible, and are constantly pursuing new methods for increasing this automation.

We believe wholeheartedly that we serve you better by not burdening you with technobabble you don’t really care about ,and focusing you on what you do care about instead:

Your business results and bottom line revenue.

Now you tell me:
Assuming we GUARANTEE your ROI,
don’t you actually prefer it that way?…

Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/firepile/438134633

Images & Video are vital to Marketing your Tourism Business

So, you’re a world weary traveller who has spent the best part of forever trotting the globe and you’ve lucked upon the most idyllic beach in all the world and lo and behold you have just acquired the lease on, what might possibly be the most beautiful little hotel that has ever graced God’s green earth (unless you’re in Florida and it might have a slight brown tinge to it..)

You have worked your fingers to the bone fixing the guttering here, a door hinge there and now you’re relaxing on your favourite chair looking at your hard work in all its resplendent glory, sipping an iced tea and feeling, well…. pretty bloody chuffed with yourself. Now to get some customers…..
You’ve built it, they should come right?
No.

You need to get the word out there and the most obvious and cost effective way is online, there are, as of 2009, 6,767,805,208 people on the internet… you only need a small percentage of them to know who and where you are, and once they see your little gem, they will come flocking!

So, where to start?

1. Build a site and work on your Search Engine Optimisation (S.E.O)

This of course is the most obvious step in the whole process, build a site or if your reading this you may not have the skills to build it yourself so, find a reputable designer in the area and have a chat.

A tip is to have a look at the websites of other hotels in the area, and it’s more likely than not you will find on the bottom of the page the designers contact details. It also helps you get a better idea of how your site could look. If you’re in Bangkok get in touch with www.chachinggroup.com (gratuitous self promotion there) and have a chat.

What you also need to do is think about your keywords. Keywords are one of the many things that Google looks for on your site when people type in search queries. What you want to do is have a think about the words that someone would use to describe your hotel and make sure that the information that you write on your site contains those keywords.

2. PPC and PPM ads

You may have noticed that when you search on Google, Yahoo, Bing and other pages ads come up at the top and on the right of the screen, the same type of ads are also visible as you browse Facebook. These are paid ads that you can purchase to help drive traffic to your site. They’re relatively inexpensive and are targeted towards keywords and demographics that you determine making them highly effective and a worthwhile investment on the whole.

3. Business Marketing via Affiliations

The hotel industry is characterized by the fact that there are literally hundreds of affiliate reservation sites you can list your hotel with. These sites take a small percentage of your booking fee for the promotion they provide your business. Its worth taking a little loss here as they’re working their butts off to market your services. Since you’re getting someone else to do all the hard work for you, it stands to reason they be compensated for it…

Affiliate sites have the added advantage of providing links back to your website, which helps improve your Google ranking, thus placing your website higher in Google’s search lists. Always a good thing.

An additional form of affiliation is with complementary businesses is in your local area. Think whether there are conference centers or large arenas nearby that host events. These can be a great resource for you as they normally attract large out of town crowds that may well need the accommodations you provide. Get on your local event center’s website, have a look at what is coming up, and get in touch with the organisers, you can offer a discount for any of their members or attendees coming to the event.

4. Promote Your Business with Quality Content

In the new online world, “Content is King”. This means you need to think long and hard about what your site is saying to people and how you’re interacting with them.

It’s not enough to say ,hey were a hotel and we have rooms, and we have room service, and we have a mini bar, and we have a shower and on and on. You need to give something to your audience that they won’t find anywhere else, think of something that your demographic is really interested in.

5. Images and Video are Vital to Effective Marketing in the Tourism Industry

Like the fashion industry, hotels have a relatively easy job when comes to providing enticing and alluring images, but that doesn’t mean you can get cocky! Maintaining a high-quality image policy on your site is absolutely essential for your site to appeal to your audience.

You need to show, with images at least, and ideally with videos as well, just how scenic your hotel is. You need to represent that escape that everyone sitting in their office wants. That photos have to convey the joy, relaxation, beauty and comfort that your hotel can give them. A couple of happy-snaps taken by your friend’s-cousin’s-nephew-twice-removed of a bed in a badly lit room, plus one of the pool, will simply not do. Get a professional to do it. Spend the money and get it done right.

If you have even just a little extra in the budget, the biggest recommendation I can offer is to enhance your site with video as well, long slow panning shots of your foyer, cutting to the barman making a cocktail and serving it to a happy smiling couple lazing by the pool on a sunny day, will go even further in capturing your clients’ imaginations.

Nothing can capture the true essence of a holiday like video can, and again spend the money and get it done properly.

10 gazillion hours of YouTube holiday videos can’t be wrong now can they?
People just seem to love those flickery moving images…

6. Manage Your Online Persona and Monitor Mentions of Your Business

You have a facebook page and you have people commenting on it and you’re not answering them…… not good at all.

Your brand has come online offering you the opportunity to have a conversation with your clientèle.

You need to talk to them, you need to represent your brand like you would a person. Think of your online marketing as having a conversation with your customers and potentials. Let the world know who your brand is and be sure to listen and respond to what people have to say or ask about it.

Remember that people are incessantly bombarded with cheesy marketing messages – you need to stand above the rest. The way to do this is to invest in your brand’s personality. The more you invest in explaining to people who you and your business are, the more likely it is that some of the audience will identify with you.

Oscar Wilde once wrote:

‘The only thing worse than being talked about, is not being talked about’

A truer word has been penned.
Be aware of your brand name mentions. There are a host of free and paid tools available online that can assist you in tracking mentions of your brand name and the most crucial thing to do is react to those mentions.

Everyone enjoys reading praise, unfortunately you’re probably going to read some less enjoyable references as well. Negative postings regarding your hotel need to be dealt with carefully and patiently. Post apologies and offer to make amends. Don’t be argumentative or defensive. A lot of potential customers will be reading your response, so be nice…
Remember to thank people who give you praise, that sort of thing goes a very long way.
This is a list and review of some of those services you can use: http://mashable.com/2008/12/24/free-brand-monitoring-tools

7. Market and Advertise Where Your Potential Clients Hang Out

More and more people are spending a lot of their time reading about, and interacting with others who share their interests online. You need to find out where they are and direct some of your marketing efforts at them. Banners can do this quite effectively, especially if the banner is targeted. Don’t just slap your brand name up and hope for the best, target them. Be sure to include information relating to your audience in your ad, and not just to your offering.

Make sure the site you choose to spend your ad budget with has plenty of traffic. You don’t want to spend good marketing dollars on a forum that has two members who do little more then share pictures of Megan Fox in a bikini. Here too a little research on your part will go a long way to ensuring your money is well spent.

8. Market in Context to The Times

You may have noticed recently that there have been a few planes cancelled throughout Europe due to a pesky cloud that stopped a lot of air traffic, why not use this to your advantage?

Try to use events, both global and local, to create your own marketing advantages. For example:

‘In Jamaica the smoke will help you fly’

Note that a tongue-in-cheek  approach has to cater to your customers’ sense of humor. The line above would do well with the backpacker crowd, but probably less so with a more settled demographic.

It’s worth noting that government agencies often do sponsored promotions for inbound tourism. For example the Thai government is currently advertising in China, Hong Kong and Japan to promote to Thailand after the recent civil problems. This is a bandwagon you want to get in on. Promoting your hotel using the tax money you pay is not only great ROI, it also feels good too. Note that when advertising abroad you should consider translating your marketing materials (copy, banners, ads, etc.) into the local language. Just make sure you can trust the person who is doing the translation for you, you don’t want to have your slogan end up like some of these: http://www.everyjoe.com/articles/top-13-worst-slogan-translations

9. Be different and stand out!

Have a look at your competitors, see what they are doing and then do something else.

Are they all talking about how fluffy their pillows are?
Are they talking about how convenient the shopping is?
Do they boast the coolest pool in town?

That might be fine for them, but what’s different about you?

Make it funny!
Make it interesting!
Describe your hotel from the perspective of  the cat that roams the garden.
Let your customers describe their stays and use that.
Anything, just make it interesting!

Benjamin S Powell is the sales and marketing manager for the Cha-Ching Group – one of Bangkokg’s leading web agencies specializing in servicing Thailand’s booming Tourist Industry. He’s a Web marking enthusiast who blogs about Online Marketing and Advertising.

image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bmanolakos/3958897626

Captico

The Challenges

Let’s be honest. As an ecommerce retailer you really want one thing: People to buy your stuff. It doesn’t matter if you sell a product, a service, or tea-cup pigs, all of your other goals and needs fit under the giant umbrella of getting people to buy your stuff. In an effort to achieve this goal, clients always tell me the same things:

- “I want more traffic to my website.”

- “I want to be listed first on search engine results.”

- “I want people to come back to my site again and again.”

- “I want people to interact with each other on my website.”

The Solutions

It sounds simple, but the truth really is this: If you want repeat visitors and business to your site, make it a place people WANT to come back to! Give them a reason to come, a reason to stay, and great content that is easy to share with their friends! But I won’t leave you with such vague advice. Lets look at practical solutions for getting your site in front of people.

• Search engine optimization (SEO) is a phrase often bandied about by internet marketers, social media experts, and service providers. Basically it is a term used to encompass a variety of techniques used to increase a website’s ranking in search engine results. Using specific keywords in your page titles, urls, content, links, and even in your photos and videos makes your site more visible to the bots that crawl through the web looking for and categorizing content. Building useful information into your site, like how-to guides or tutorials, provides material that ranks well on search engines as people are more inclined to share it with their friends or colleagues – resulting in more links, more traffic, better search engine result listings, and more sales!

• Encouraging your visitors and users to actively engage with your site and each other through product reviews, discussion forums, or even something as simple as enabling comments on your articles or blogs will help with your SEO as well as increase repeat traffic.
• Once you have people active on your site, make it easy for them to share your content with others – use bookmark and link tools to social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, or Digg. These sites are free to set up accounts on and can be used to drive traffic to your site. (Check out these guides for help on Setting up Your Twitter Account and Setting up your Facebook Page) This kind of off-site linking also helps with your SEO campaign.

• Showcase your products or services in an easy to understand and transparent way! Data continues to show that consumers research items online before they buy. “If we look at the success story of any unique product or service that was launched and required a change in consumer behavior, the ones that were successful were those which were able to win customer’s trust and offer a clear value proposition to the customer.” (http://www.technetto.com/blog/e-commerce-in-india/) Video is an excellent way to detail and highlight the features and functionality of your offerings. It is the closest thing to physically picking up and turning over a product like a shopper would do in the store and you can address common questions or misconceptions in your branded environment! Plus video SEO is HUGE, not only encouraging viewers to share with their friends, but also increasing your search engine ranking as video is 50x more likely to show up than text in google search results!

These practical tips will go a long way in increasing your market share. If you feel overwhelmed, don’t be afraid to ask for help! You may have friends or colleagues experienced in social media or who know enough basic SEO to get you started, and there are also great companies out there who can ramp up your business. So pick a task and get out there and sell your stuff!

Guest blogger: Corrie Davidson is the New Media Coordinator at Captico, LLC, a technology strategy firm focused on website development, online marketing solutions, and mobile applications.

One of the interesting facts regarding the evolution of human cognition is that, as a society, our attention span  is dwindling.

Attention spans have shrunk by over 50% in the past decade

According to a Lloyds research tracing the causes of home accidents, attention spans have shrunk from 12 minutes in 1998 , to around 5 minutes in 2008. The Lloyds research states that when asked respondents blamed ‘stress’ (18 percent) and ‘decision overload’ (17 per cent) as the main reasons for poor short-term memory and flagging attention spans.

Product Videos – How long is too long?

The relevance to online videos, of course, is that attention spans matter particularly in terms of determining the length of your product videos. You want to make these videos long enough to deliver all of your pertinent facts, yet short enough to maintain viewers’ interest until the end. The question is, what’s that magical length?

There are two basic stats you might consider when determining your norm:

1. The length of an average commercial
2. The length of an average online video

How have commercials evolved?

In terms of average commercial length, Wikipedia delivered an adept and, in light of the aforementioned dwindiling of attention spans,  predictable answer:

“In the 1950s and 1960s, the average advertisement’s length was one minute. As the years passed, the average length shrank to 30 seconds (and often 10 seconds, depending on the television station’s purchase of ad time)… However, today a majority of advertisements run in 15-second increments (often known as “hooks”).”

In other words, with the progression of time, commercial length has been reduced to about 15 seconds, with a maximum of 30. Sounds (and views) about right.

What’s the length of the average Online Video?

In terms of online video length, the average length is according to ComScore a whopping 3.5 minutes. This figure may be surprising until one realizes that ComScore’s number factors in ALL online videos, including full length television episodes on Hulu, etc.

Less is More – Keep your videos as short as possible

In general, as the saying goes (and for good reason), we say, keep ‘em short and sweet – more along the lines of traditional commercial lengths at most. While video may grab shoppers’ attention, it will likely only hold it for a short time. And remember, not everyone who presses play, will watch your video all the way through.

How Much of a Typical Video Online Is Actually Watched?

At 60 seconds more than half your audience is gone

As the above graph based on a TubeMogul study shows, at the 30 second mark you’ve already lost a third of your audience and after a minute you’ve lost more than half, so try and get all your information in as soon as you can, in the shortest amount of time necessary.

Beyond that, as with all elements of video, you will need to continually do testing to determine if length, is influencing your results (and to what effect), and adjust accordingly.

Image credit: DeaPeaJay

Who pushes play is not as simple a question as it may seem. And we’re not talking “Who”, as in which type of person, but rather in the most basic sense –

Are you bugging my eye? Auto-play video - not my favorite...

Is the video played automatically by the site or does it require a click from you? In other words, which way to play:

Auto-Play Vs. Click-To-Play?

Auto-play, of course, is when a video starts to play automatically as soon as you land on a webpage with video.

Click-to-play, on the other hand, means that you have to click on some sort of trigger in order to start the video playing.

Personally, I’m not a huge fan of auto-play. It “bugs my eyes” and tends to scare me, because usually I’m not expecting it. It also clues those around me (i.e. my coworkers) that I’m looking at something not work related…

Auto-play can be very effective – according to some studies

My personal preferences aside, Auto-play is an easy pitch to make for most etailers. The thought being:

“Heck, we invested in these here videos to bump up our sales, no reason why we shouldn’t do the best we can to make sure our visitors watch ‘em!”

If the pitch wasn’t easy enough, some studies show Auto-play to be an effective gateway to conversions:

Anne Holland, principal of the excellent WhichTestWon blog, an invaluable resource full of A/B tests and their results, quotes an Eyeview Digital study showing that, at least in one case, Auto-play video provided a dramatic increase in page conversions.

The secret to Auto-plays’ effectiveness lies of course in the fact it guarantees your video, or at least the first few seconds of it, will be seen, and viewing videos as we know, sells.

Will choosing Auto-play increase sales?

So will having a video in auto-play mode on your product pages automatically increase conversion rates?

Not necessarily…

1. Seen or not seen, there is evidence that video increases conversion rates by its mere presence on your product pages. It’s important to test Auto-play videos against clik-to-play to get a clear picture for what works on your site.
2. In the case study quoted above from the WhichTestWon blog, a muted version of the Auo-play video out-performed one where the sound was left on, indicating that even when choosing Auto-play it’s important to consider the exact configurations of the player.

Bu these aren’t the only points that challenge the “Auto-play is the way” perspective:

“Auto-Play should be D.O.A” – Why NOT to go with Auto-Play

I admitted earlier that I personally dislike Auto-play. Well it seems I’m not alone…

While researching for this post I found ample evidence that Auto-play is one of the online world’s most universally disliked interactions. So much so that it’s listed in a hilarious Popular Science post titled: “How to Lose Traffic and Alienate People: The Revenge!”.

Auto-play is also convincingly denounced by Mr. Eric Franchi.
As Senior Vice President of Business Development for Undertone Networks, one of the leading interactive service companies in the US and recently recognized on Inc. 500′s list of “Fastest growing private companies”, Franchi is a voice worth listening to.
Last September he published an excellent post titled “The Death of Auto-play” on Mediapost’s Online Video Insider listing three arguments in favor of “Pronouncing auto-play D.O.A.“. The most powerful and relevant of which is, in my opinion, that:

“Your users hate it: … There are few things that irk a site visitor more than an unannounced blast of video …“

Franchi also remarks that although Auto-play may, in certain cases, provide better conversions, he has yet to see a study simultaneously showing how it affected bounce rates. In other words – even in those cases where Auto-play was demonstrated to lead to more sales, no data was provided as to how it affected visitors choice to leave the site.

To summarize, I think voices denouncing Auto-play all relate to one major issue:

Auto-play is inconsiderate of users right to control their online experiences.

As such it is invasive and hurtful to privacy.

When one looks at it that way it’s not surprising Auto-play is so vehemently disliked…

The final decision is yours

Both opinions considered, the final decision of how to play the videos on your site is ultimately yours, and yours alone.

The evidence favoring each method is inconclusive and even if it were, who’s to say that a case study based on someone else’s site will necessarily be relevant for yours as well?

Whichever decision you go with the bottom line is that it’s vital to test the results in comparison to the other option, and ensure that all the variables for success are taken under consideration.

Here at Treepodia we’ll be happy to support you with any setup constellation you choose, and provide you with the metrics you require in order to evaluate your choices so contact us today…

Words That Make Money*

The great thing about videos, as we’re always saying, is that they give customers an opportunity to see any given product in action, from multiple angles.

Choosing the words in your video is important as well

But videos are more than mere images in motion. There is also a copy side to them. Whether spoken via narration or appearing as actual type text in some sort of subtitle format, when creating quality videos, the words you choose are as important as the pictures you’re presenting.

The reasons for this are twofold:

How your video is perceived by your audience

Words, as we all know, matter. A subtle difference in word selection can make a big difference in terms of how a product is perceived, and subsequently purchased (hopefully).

How your video is perceived by search engines

As of November 2009 Google has begun using it’s proprietary Automatic Speech Recognition tools to caption videos on Youtube. The implications for this are huge in terms of their capability to properly index and categorize the videos they have access to. Simply put this means that Google is now actually listening to what you have to say for yourself, and using it to classify your videos.

Google admits freely that their capabilities in terms of Speech Recognition leave something to be desired, however they also point out, quite rightfully, that occasionally imperfect captions are better than no captions. Check out this video for more details on the feature:

What to say

There are two types of language involved in “pushing products”:

1. The actual description of the product itself, including what it looks like, how it’s used, it’s advantages, and how it will improve your life.
   More succinctly put – The product’s purpose and why you need to buy it.
2. The words that encourage customers to take action – buy now or subscribe today.
   Best known as – The call to action

Both types of copy are equally important in different ways. One does the selling. The other encourages the buying.

I came across this list recently of “200 Words That Make Money.” The list is broken down into two separate (functional) categories, similar to those mentioned above.

In terms of pushing products, most of them are the rather familiar tried-and-true such as “simple”, “proven”, “professional”, and “prestigious”.

The call to action terms on the other hand include standards such as “guaranteed”, “sale”, “bargain”, and “you”. Yep you. That’s because, more than anything, people love when they feel they are being spoken to directly.

While I can’t vouch entirely for the list’s validity (i.e. are these really the top 200 words), what I can say is that there’s a great way to test these terms.

Test what works

With the Treepodia smart video platform’s multi-version videos. The Treepodia way of creating videos, of course is to use your existing marketing texts, and then create multiple video versions per product. Then with the built-in A/B testing mechanism the smart video platform compares different video versions (including variations in text), in order to automatically identify and promote the highest performing version.

That means, with our system you not only promote your products with video, you can also improve your marketing texts, and find out for yourself which terms really do sell.

* – image created using wordle

Would you trust this person?

One of my rules of thumb in dealing with people is never trust someone who says “trust me.”
No one trust-worthy I know ever uses this turn of phrase and I’ve heard it uttered by highly untrustworthy individuals far too often. It’s like the mating call of the sleazy salesperson.

What do I trust?

I believe actions speak louder than words. If you’re trust-worthy, I’ll figure it out for myself as your actions (or lack thereof) will sooner or later prove your actual worth. Somehow I doubt that I’m the only person who feels this way.

It’s not just people I validate this way, I subject products and services to a similar acid test – don’t tell me how marvelous you are. Show me!

Don’t get me wrong, I want to trust sales people, service people, and my new MP3, but I want them to earn that trust. Prove to me you’re what you claim to be and I’m yours.

Video – the trustmaker

Video’s has be proven to be great at building trust.

As a recent article published by Mark Robertson in his ReelSEO.com blog pointed out, the mere presence of video on an ecommerce website increases sales because video increases shoppers’ trust in your store and your products.

The article outlines how the mere presence of video on your product pages has a positive effect on overall sales, regardless of whether your shoppers watch the videos or not.

This isn’t only because video is great for demonstrating a given product, but also because video has been proven to be an effective tool for establishing consumer confidence and trust. Here’s how

1. Adding videos of your products means you trust them enough to show it in full multi-dimensional format.
2. You’re committed to  giving your customers the best user experience possible.
3. It makes your site seem more reliable which in turn increases consumer confidence.

Or, as one respondent to Mark’s article succinctly commented:

“Video implies investment, of thought, time, and money. It’s a marker of how important quality of content is to your offering. That notion drives consumer response in a very profound way.”

I recently came across another article from Flumtion, a streaming software company founded by a group of open source developers and multimedia experts, that described the ways in which streaming video can increase ecommerce sales.

Number one?
Trust, of course, but with a slightly different spin:

“[S]poken statements are stronger than any written text or image, which supports product claims effectively. Video also adds a human element, creating an inviting and relaxing environment that creates trust for the customer.”

The bottom line

My conclusion from all the above is that video helps you gain your shoppers’ trust, but don’t trust my word on it, test and see for yourselves…

Epilogue

Writing this I couldn’t help remembering Monthy Python’s calssic “Dead Parrot Sketch”. I’ve always felt it epitomizes the absolute worst one could possibly encounter as far as trust in commerce goes. Enjoy…

Image credit: rick

I have a number of Google alerts set to make sure I’m never missing out on any industry (related) news, development, and/or trends in the world of video and ecommerce.
Recently an article came across my inbox titled:

“Field Test: Video Usage On eCommerce Sites”.

Originally published on Practical eCommerce in October, 2008, my first impression was, “oh, old news.”

Evolution - As seen on México's Federal Highway 2

But old news is sometimes good news when you want to compare where you were then to where you are today. With that in mind, I found it extremely interesting to read what an inaccurate perception many etailers had of product videos just over a year ago and how much retailers’ attitudes towards video have changed in the interim.

The top seven misconceptions that retailers had in terms of video usage and effectiveness that stood out in my mind were:

1) Videos distract people

I don’t think anyone in 2010 thinks that video is distracting, certainly not in a negative sense. In fact, in today’s ecommerce climate it is seen as an essential tool for properly demonstrating any given product. If, however, that is a concern in a retailer’s mind, it is also possible to add video in an unobtrusive manner, such as a simple link.

2) There are verticals for which video is not an effective medium

One retailer interviewed for example said, “Apparel doesn’t lend itself very well to video product demonstrations. Apparel turns over very quickly.” This of course is untrue. Video can effectively demonstrate all types of products including fashion, sporting goods, consumer electronics and more. High turnover is also no barrier to video. With an automated system like Treepodia’s retailers can cover any and all new products immediately, and effortlessly.

3) Cute, funny, viral type videos are the way to go

As discussed in the past, while this may be an effective strategy for some retailers for certain types of products (and dependant on goals), most retailers benefit most from covering more products, with relevant product videos on the actual product pages of their website.

4) Video is only good as an instructional tool

Au contraire. While it is indeed true that video is a fantastic tool for educating and instructing shoppers, video is also one of the most useful tools for effectively demonstrating a product and increasing conversion rates.

5) Still pictures are the best way to show products

While still pictures are still the most pervasive manner of displaying products on websites, they are not the most effective. Video is a far more effective medium for showing products, as it covers multiple angles and usages of any given product.

6) Hosting video is prohibitive to having video on site

Hosting capacity, of course, never has to be an issue for retailers, as many solutions (including ours) host for them.

7) The need to download videos will prevent shoppers from watching them

Downloading concerns are pretty much passé, as streaming is now the way to go.

So what’s the moral of the story?

Times change quickly and an industry can evolve tremendously over the course of a year.Video is a rapidly emerging ecommerce medium, an effective marketing tool, and the best way for online retailers to effectively demonstrate their products and increase sales.

Image credit: A Caveman trapped in the 21st Century

I came across a great expression this week, in a Business Week article – “haptic gratification”.

I must confess that in my ignorance I was unaware of the term “haptic”, which according to my dictionary means “of or relating to the sense of touch; tactile.”

Haptic Gratification - relates to the sense of touch (image by mind on fire)

Haptic gratification as part of the shopping experience

The haptic gratification in shopping therefore is the ability for people to handle a product, in order to get a full sense of it and make a purchasing decision.
As all of us involved in the world of ecommerce know, one of the biggest barriers to online shopping is just that – that humans prefer to touch and feel a product before buying – something they obviously can’t do online.
It’s not just the sensory feeling they’re looking for in handling a product. The physical touching of a product allows shoppers to get a better sense of size, shape, weight, color and more.
Or as Sheldon Gilbert of Proclivity Systems says in the article:

“We’re emotive, sensory creatures, so we need to touch and feel to be comfortable with our consumer decision.“

Bridging the Haptic Gap

While, the internet and thereby online shopping by nature are not compatible with the haptic experience, what online retailers can do, is help ease the buying decision by bringing consumers as close of a hands-on experience as the medium allows.

Product videos are of course a great tool to that end, especially when executed well. All online stores offer static images of products, but these are not enough for the sensory shopper who wants to get more of a feel for the item. Product videos on the other hand offer a near sensory experience, allowing shoppers to see individual products from multiple angles in various uses, with a full narration of attributes.

Google only shows four results for the search term “haptic gratification”, but I think as ecommerce grows and we evolve the language around it to describe the type of shopping experiences we’re looking to create, it’s going to be a big one. At least it puts into words exactly what it is we’re trying to do.

Image credit: mind on fire

Online purchases up 2.2% in Q2

Even in this down economy ecommerce as a whole has continued to rise over the past year. Online retail behemoth Amazon reported revenue of $15 billion, up from $12.5 billion for the same period a year ago according to the Knowledge@Wharton article “Fit for the Holidays: Amazon is Shaping Up and Shipping Out.”:

“Even though the U.S. Census Bureau notes ecommerce accounts for only 3.6% of total retail sales in the country — up from 1% in 2001 — online purchases grew 2.2% in the second quarter of this year, while total retail sales fell 0.4%.

“What’s startling is not the magnitude of ecommerce sales relative to overall retail sales, but the growth rate,” says Marshall Fisher, professor of operations and information management at Wharton.”

Frankly I’m amazed online purchases still only account for just 3.6% of all retail sales. On the other hand that’s great news because as an industry it means we have a lot of growing to do…

Santa driving Vespa's sales

Ecommerce sites expected to reach $45 Billion online this holiday season

According to Forrester Research, this holiday season American online retail sales are expected to reach $45 billion – an 8% increase from last year.

“Much of the growth can be attributed to improvements in the online shopping experience in recent years. In fact, ecommerce has come of age to such an extent that the lines between online and offline shopping are blurring.”

Why product videos are helping increase online revenues

Product videos are considered an important contributor to this growth and to the blurring of the distinction between online and offline shopping. Retailers are using video to enhance online shopping experiences by adding new engagement dimensions that help shoppers get a more tangible feeling for the products their looking for, which increases their sense of security and comfort about the item, moving them to make purchases more often.

By virtue of being mixed media videos simulataneously address the needs of different types of consumers:

• Voice-over narration attracts auditory learners, who absorb information best when hearing it.
• Visual cues such as bullet point slides work well with visual learners, who absorb information best when seeing and reading it.

Over the past two years we’ve seen all our clients, regardless of industry, consistently increase their ecommerce conversion rates significantly by adding video presentations to their product pages.

How to get the most out of your ecommerce videos this holiday season:

What follows are a few ideas we thought about over here at Treepodia that’ll help you increase your conversion rates and drive more sales this holiday season. Please feel free to add you own ideas, tips and pointers in the comment section of the article.

1. Focus – Use video to promote your holiday season’s top sellers

Limiting your focus to the seasons biggest sellers will ensure you make the most out of your video investment in the time frame available. You can add videos for other products when the holiday hubbub is over.

2. Fun – Dress your videos up for the holidays

You can create a more engaging, fun and seasonal shopping experience for your customers by giving your videos that special holiday flair:

• Adding the sound of jingling bells
• Showing a wreath-like trim around the edges
• Having a little elf present your product’s benefits.

3. Promote your promotion

Make sure you use all video’s interaction dimensions to convey your message. State your item’s promotion in the video’s narration and sign off with a slide about it at the end.

4. Happy Holidays Everyone!

Everybody likes receiving seasonal greetings. Take the opportunity, like me, to thank your visitors and add a personal holiday greeting message to your video : )