Treepodia – The leading Product Video solution for e-commerce

Being a control freak - it's not necessarily a bad thing...

I’m not entirely sure why the words “Control” and “Freak” are so often put together – as if there’s something bad or unnatural about wanting to control things. Being in control of your actions always seems to me to be a positive trait. Isn’t it?

Knowing your past actions’ impact is the key for assessing your future plans

If we consider that being aware of the impact of one’s past actions is crucial to predicting what impact one’s future actions will have, it becomes quite obvious why there’s great value in having the ability to gauge this impact as accurately as possible. This simple truism is in many respects the foundation for the entire industry of web based analytics driven marketing, and the logic driving its growth. Companies are founded, funded and flourishing based on their ability to provide accurate, actionable data which retailers can use and manipulate in order to improve their sales and bolster their bottom line. Here at Treepodia we’ve always viewed providing accurate and actionable metrics as one of the most important guidelines for the development of our applications and that’s why it gives me great pleasure to announce the launch of the newest member of our metrics driven video based marketing tools.

Control Group Measurement for Video

The latest enhancement to the Treepodia smart video platform, is our Control Group Measurement Tool.

This new tool accurately measures the impact of product videos on sales and conversions by comparing the behavior of site visitors who have been exposed to video to the behavior of site visitors who have not been exposed to video.

Get a precise picture of the impact your product videos have on your sales

In other words, by using a control group of those who do not have the option to see video, the Control Group Measurement Tool is able to accurately assess the precise impact of the presence of video on your shoppers. Essentially, what this does is give you (online retailers) an accurate view of how site visitors are responding to the presence of product videos on your site, and we’ve already established the fact that the more data you have at your disposal regarding your past actions, the better equipped you to make informed decisions regarding your future…

Conversions for video-enabled product page are consistently higher

So far, the findings have been astounding, with the conversion rate for those presented with video always coming out substantially higher than among visitors who were not presented with the option to watch video. And, what’s even more interesting is the fact that conversion rates are higher when the option to watch videos is presented to site visitors whether or not the video is watched. In other words, the mere option to watch product videos already increases conversion rates – further proof that product videos work wonders for your online business.

As our own VP of Marketing Melody King said:

“This speaks loudly to the value product videos bring to an online business in demonstrating credibility and trustworthiness.”

For more information on the Control Group Measurement Tool or the smart video platform, contact us now.

Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ach-squared/3325230784

For some time now our development team has been hard at work on perfecting a system that enables etailers to capitalize on the advantages presented by mass distribution of videos to dedicated video sites. Earlier this week we finally launched our new Video Distributor service which we feel makes an important addition to our offering of low effort, high return, automated ecommerce video solutions.

What is it?

Video Distributor is an automated, scalable and inexpensive service for ecommerce vendors that’s capable of rapidly uploading all a vendor’s product videos to YouTube, Google Video, Metacafe, Dailymotion and other video sites. One of Video Distributor’s mot important features is that it allows vendors to link to specific product pages on their site from the videos uploaded thus generating “deep links” to the vendor’s site.

How can it be used?

We’re offering Video Distributor both as a stand-alone service package and as an add-on service for our Smart Video Platform.

Video Distributor increases visibility and improves search rankings

Video Distributor ensures product videos are viewed by as many customers as possible across multiple video distribution sites and improves search rankings for our customers’ products. Here’s how it works:

People watch videos primarily on video sites

The past few years have seen video emerge as the most popular online medium. So much so that Youtube is today the world’s second most popular search engine! Google and Yahoo have been aware of this trend for years and actively promote it by offering video search explicitly.

The huge availability of video content encourages us to search for video content for all our queries, including any pre-purchase product research we’re engaged in. The thing is that we all tend to watch video primarily on the major dedicated video sites. This means that vendors neglecting to make their videos available on these sites are missing out on an increasingly popular exposure opportunity.

Here at Treepodia we were eager to find a way to help our customers capitalize on this traffic and Video Distributor is how we did it. Because it automatically uploads vendors’ videos to all the major sites the vendors needn’t worry they’re missing out on the action any longer.

Using video linkage to boost SEO

Search Engine Optimization has always been, and still remains to a great extent, dependent on link building – the creation of high quality relevant off-site links leading back to the site’s pages. From an SEO perspective well ranked videos located off-site on dedicated video sites (those that don’t classify their outgoing links as “no follow“) and deep-linked back to a particular page on the vendor’s website, are a very desirable proposition. Our new Video Distributor provides this as a service for every video on your site and the SEO results have already been tested and proven:

Video Distributor secured a top Google ranking for ElectronicShopping.com for its “Morphy Richards smoothie maker” while for WellPack.fr the platform secured a top Youtube result for the query “Kenwood Robot Chef“. Our longtime client Mr. Shmuel Gniwisch, the CEO of top jewelry sites Ice.com and Diamond.com, was kind enough to particiapte in the pilot phase of Video Distributor and has provided us with the following testimonial:

“We’re thrilled with the results we’ve seen using Video Distributor…Our organic search rankings are much higher now that our product videos are available on the major video sharing sites, and we’re experiencing an increase in traffic to our site in part due to customers linking directly to product pages from YouTube.com and other video sharing sites. Searching for white gold solitaire earrings already brings up our video (Ice.com) first”

For more details about Video Distributor, the Smart Video Platform, or any of our other services please feel free to contact us. We’re always happy to help…

The first rule of Video is you don't talk about Video!

JUST PRODUCE IT!

Now that I’ve paraphrased both Fight Club and Nike I guess it’s time to explain:

The point I’m going to make in this post is that instead of procrastinating and postponing producing your first video, why not commit to:

Make your first video today!

Don’t spend a ton of cash on production. You can create decent quality videos by stitching together a few photos and adding in music and narration. There’s no need to buy any expensive software – you can produce video with free tools like Google’s Picasa or Videospin. Internalize these two simple facts:

Producing a single video these day is EASY and you can do it for FREE.

A narrated slideshow looks and feels like a video to your audience, and more importantly, has the same impact:

A 60 second product video based on a slideshow backed with narration simultaneously addresses the learning needs of different types of people. It WILL have a positive effect on your sales conversions.

These videos are effective because the voice-over narration attracts auditory learners – who absorb information best when hearing it ,while the visual cues, such as bullet point slides, work well with visual learners – who absorb information best when seeing and reading it.

For both types of learners the dynamic aspect of the video draws attention to the content because human eyes are designed to follow movement.

If you Embed it they will watch

Anyone care to guess where that movie reference comes from?

Actually it’s from a corny (literally – the movie is about a field of corn) Kevin Costner film that is very much in the “Just do it” spirit of this post.

The point of the reference is that once you have a video on your site it’s guaranteed your visitors will watch it (at least for a few seconds -whether they stick with you is a question of how compelling you are and how long your video is).

You may rightfully ask:

“O.K. But how do I get my video on my site?”

Well, there are a ton of ways to do this but I’m going to offer you just one - use YouTube.

It’s not that other options aren’t great, it’s just that I’d rather you get busy uploading than start procrastinating by comparing the pros and cons of different services. Not to mention YouTube is by far the most successful video service online today:

Get busy uploading!

1. Uploading a video to YouTube is free and simple.  Here’s a short clip explaining how it’s done:
2. Once you’ve uploaded your video to YouTube all you need to do is embed it on your site:

Congratulations, You’ve added your first video to your site!
What next?

Now that you have video on our site, it’s important to follow up by meticulously examining your site’s stats and check how your video enhanced pages  are performing.

Here are a two basic A/B test you should run:

• Page performance with video vs. without.
• Prepare another version of your video and compare performance for version A vs. version B

Ideally you should repeat this cycle continuously:

Shoot > Uploading > A/B test > Optimize > Shoot

Scale is an issue…

The time cost involved in committing to this type of effort for every product in your inventory tends to be such that, although you’ll definitely see results and increase your bottom line, at some point you wont be able to keep up. Especially if you’re inventory consists of more than just a few select items. That’s where Treepodia comes in. Our ecommerce video platform automates the entire process outlined in this post. We’ll boost your entire product catalog with auto optimized video enhancement in 24 hours or less. Furthermore we operate on a Pay-Per-View model guaranteeing that you’re only paying for videos your clients actually saw. Contact us now to learn more : )

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.

The player from Forzieri.com's "Smart Video Gallery"

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.

Smart Video Gallery

A user-friendly interface that automatically chooses the highest converting videos on your website, and presents them as a video gallery (See it live):

The player from Forzieri.com's "Smart Video Gallery"

3D Video Gallery

An advanced design and functionality of the smart video gallery (See it live):

3D Video Gallery on Askingtv.com

Smart Video Banners

This application converts your videos to smart banners, determines which work better, and then promotes those with the highest performance. Smart video banners can be integrated anywhere on your website as well as external sites.

See a demo

Automatic Cross Sell Videos

These videos increase your average order and can be displayed either in the shopping cart pages or within the product pages themselves. You can provide us with your own cross sell information or, if you prefer, let our system automatically learn and determine your shoppers’ behavior in order to offer them the most effective, highest converting cross sell videos.

See a demo