Treepodia – The leading Product Video solution for e-commerce

Recently I read an interesting post by Hi Jennifer Meacham on PracticalEcommerce.com titled “Innovative Video Use Increases Conversions for Merchants.” The post’s main theme is that using spokespeople videos on your site can be very effective.

Don’t mind me,
I’m just walking back and forth on your screen…

Although many of us find these types of solutions highly annoying (especially when they’re set as autoplay), online spokespeople are actually an interesting solution to the whole ecommerce-video paradigm. Their effectiveness builds on our brain’s predilection to trust human figures, and especially faces that talk to us.

Problems of Scale

There is a catch however: to maximize effectiveness you need to invest in creating a unique video of your model walking and talking while demoing EVERY item in your catalog. This is fine if you have a store that only sells a few items, but becomes highly impractical for any store that sells tens, hundreds, or thousands of items. The solution isn’t “scalable”.

Another scale related issue is the ratio between your model’s size and your product’s size. If your selling handheld items which are significantly smaller than a human being, your product would show up near invisible in comparison to your model’s body. Definitely a case in favor of having a talking head instead of a full body.

What to do? What to do?

I recently heard a pod cast by Jennifer’s PracticalEcommerce.com associate Kerry Murdock, who conducted with Faculte.com’s CEO Maher Hakim.

Maher advocates approaches that I tend to believe are more effective than the spokesperson model:

“Don’t spend a lot of money on producing the video… you can create really nice video by stitching together some photos & then putting in some music and audio and narration on top of that. It looks and feels like a video to the end user”

This is precisely what our ecommerce video solution does in an entirely automated fashion: In a nutshell we create product videos directly from an etailer’s XML, with little or no human involvement at all (narration still requires it). The automation of the process enables us to cover/handle an ecommerce’s entire catalog with video within 24 hours. Our low production costs also mean we can offer our solution on a Pay-Per-View basis that guarantees vendors see ROI for their videos.

Furthermore, we don’t simply create a single video for each product, but a few, for which we then run automated A/B testing for to measure optimal conversions – perpetually dropping the less effective versions.

We’ve learned with our own clients, that boosting product listings with video this way increases conversion rates by anything from 35% (for eyebuydirect.com) to over 300% (for certain product pages within Forzieri.com‘s site).

We obviously think product videos are the way of the future for online retailers.
It seems however that we’re not alone…

Based on a survey published by InternetRetailer at the beginning of the year (2009), over forty percent of online retailers agree:

“…[The] survey finds that 43.3% of merchants will update their e-commerce sites with video this year, followed by 40% with personalized product recommendations, 36.7% with customer reviews and ratings, and 35% with product configuration tools…”

Video is #1 for 2009

Ecommerce sites are constantly looking for new ways to improve customer experiences in order to increase sales. While site optimization was listed as the number one reason for a site redesign, video is the number one feature these sites are adding.

Video is now considered even more lucrative than personalized product recommendation systems and customer rating/reviews tools!

Location Location Location

According to the article adding video alone isn’t enough. According to the CEO of retail web site design firm Tellus customer reviews and videos mustn’t be placed haphazardly:

“Customer reviews and product videos need to be grouped along with the other text and images on a page in a way that gives the shopper all the information they need to make an informed buying decision. Some retailers think the review or the video by itself will generate a bigger sale, but that’s a misconception. These elements have to be part of a well-balanced design that pulls shoppers in, gives them multiple ways to see and explore merchandise and then makes it easy to complete the purchase.”

Auto Optimization Auto Optimization Auto Optimization

As a leading provider of ecommerce video solutions we’re obviously very pleased with the results of this survey. We believe that the most significant contribution we offer to this industry above and beyond what is quickly becoming the common practice is the automated optimization of product videos that ensures the gradual but stable increase of conversions and sales.

Video is quickly becoming THE platform of the Web. Whether it’s to catch up on your latest television shows, share a funny YouTube clip that seems to be making the rounds, or viewing a webinar, video is where it’s at. Part of this trend is that video is becoming increasingly prevalent in online sales as well.

Online videos boost conversions

Studies show significant increases in online sales for retailers that incorporate video as part of their product presentations. ReelSEO have compiled a formidable list of resources explaining online videos’ effect on search engine placement and video has the obvious direct impact on retail performance. Our case studies show Ice.com, a web-only jewelry retailer, experienced a 40% rise in conversion rates on products highlighted in online videos, while Forzieri.com, an online vendor of luxury fashion accessories, experienced a 100%-300% increase in sales on products featuring video presentations.

How does online video impact conversions and sales?

Video is a multi-media platform that has the benefit of addressing two of your consumers’ senses simultaneously. As consumers get a better look at the product they intend to purchase, they hear narration explaining its features. Sights and sounds simultaneously combine to create a strong mental connection that enhances customer confidence. We’ve seen this enhanced confidence increase conversion rates for retailers selling everything from golf clubs to toasters. Onlinegolf noticed an 88% rise in their conversion rates on products that were accompanied by video. Sellpoint has found a 35% increase in sales after costumers had seen videos of the product.

Production options

Retailers interested in hopping on the video bandwagon are often familiar with only a single solution – creating or hiring out for their own custom production videos:

• Custom Production Videos
  One of the reasons video is still relatively rare on e-commerce sites is because many retailers are daunted by the associated expenses and complications involved with custom production videos. Having to produce videos for an entire catalog of inventory is no small task. Retailers find themselves in the position of requiring script writers, camera men, producers, an acting cast and all the supporting personnel. Location scouting is in itself an issue. It’s easy to understand why creating video from scratch has such a high barrier to entry.

A second option for producing video that is less costly and complicated is, in our experience, beginning to gain traction with retailers seeing a swift entry into the world of video enhanced product pages:

• Automated Video Platforms
  Automated video solutions transform XMLs of a vendors inventory into automated video presentations that can be left as is or enhanced further with narration. Our platform enables us to offer clients their entire inventory enhanced with videos like the one above within 24 hours from contact. All our clients do is supply us with their products’ images and data; Treepodia takes care of the rest. Check out the example below:

Auto-optimizing video for conversions

A further advantage of selecting our automated video platform is the our unique metrics module that automatically optimizes your video presentation by monitoring, detecting and prioritizing videos with high conversion rates. We’ve seen this module deliver convincing results not only for the vendors mentioned earlier but also from our other customers: Emjoi, drinkstuff, electricshopping.com, onlinegolf, eyebuy direct, Markenkoffer & Erhard Sport.

Video simply works

Within 24 hours you can begin enjoying increased sales with Treepodia generated product videos.
For more information on how you can benefit from Treepodia, please contact us via Twitter or through our website at Treepodia.com.