Treepodia – The leading Product Video solution for e-commerce

Over the past few months, and with the support of some of our best clients, we’ve been working on a case study that investigates how video is impacting online sales of jewelry items. I hope you find the following information useful and welcome comments and queries…

Mike@treepodia.com : )

Being a market leader is a big responsibility. Simply put – When you’re a leader you have no one to follow. Educating and developing your niche is primarily up to you!

As the market leader of video-for-ecommerce we take our role very seriously. In fact you’ll very rarely see cat jokes on this blog at all! (well there was that one time…)

The fun part is that you have a broader view of your niche than anyone else…

Here at Treepodia we love sharing our unique viewpoint in order to help with the “educating-and-development-responsibility” bit. This here post is one such example…

Ecommerce, Video and Jewelry sales

History

Treepodia has always been lucky enough to have a special relationship with the online-jewelry-sales industry. Very early on in our operations we caught the attention of Mr. Shmuel Gniwisch, CEO of Ice.com – one of the first companies to turn a jewelry store into an online shopping experience (…way back in 1999!!!).

With the support of Mr. Gniwisch, Ice, and it’s credo on such platforms as Internet Retailer, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times (…etc.) we were immediately shot into the spotlight for anyone, and everyone, in the online-jewelry-sales business.

It was an amazing opportunity – Jewelry vendors deal in relatively high-ticket items, and anything that makes their products stand out can help them increase sales. Video was the perfect fit…

We became a big hit with online Jewelry vendors everywhere, and companies in this niche still remain some our best clients.

Why this matters?

Our platform enables our customers to:

• Trace a conversion back to a video
• Enable A/B testing for each product to test the impact video is having on its Conversion Rate

Having many clients in the the jewelry industry means we process millions of jewelry-article video views, and can aggregate the above mentioned data for them into unique insights regarding video’s impact:

8% of Jewelry site visitors choose to view videos

As the following chart demonstrates nearly 8% of all the visitors to jewelry websites elect to view a video when included on the page, indicating a good level of adoption and engagement for the technology.

Product videos boost jewlery site conversions by 247%

Videos’ contribution to an increase in conversions is evident across the board for all categories of jewelry items, however to truly perceive just how dramatic this increase is, I’d like to offer this next chart, which demonstrates the relative increase in conversions video enhanced pages had in comparison with their non-video displaying versions:

Note the first column of the table is the baseline “100%” which indicates no change. The chart immediately makes it evident that even the smaller conversion increases represent a near DOUBLING of sales. For bracelets and pendants the situation is even more dramatic with sales increasing by 2.5-3.7 times what they were for the same products without videos.

On average across all items and all vendors the study proves videos boosted conversions by 247%. Adding product videos to jewelry websites has been found to more-than-double sales!

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Raw Data:

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Image Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/peng-hui/3120170669

No... Not really...

As we’ve repeatedly stressed here in the past the only way to build a sound, stable, and successful ecommerce business is through a continuous process of improvement based on meticulous, rigorous, and repeated A/B testing. Simply put, you need to adhere to these principles as if your livelihood depended on it (Wait a sec…, it DOES depend on it!):

• Always test your intuitions
• Never take anything for granted
• Test religiously

Here at Treepodia we live by our ability to tweak and test our client’s product videos, yet with monotonous regularity we come up with a little tweak that results in improvements that surprise even us. It’s a humbling experience because we’ve been at this game for a while, and sometimes we forget that what we don’t know, will always exceed what we do. The latest case-in-point was the result of a small tweak we did for the product videos on Toolking.com.

Introducing the Tool King

Started in 1978 as a small retail store in Denver Colorado, by 1983 the company was being recognized as an Inc 500 Company. In 2001 the company launched ToolKing.com, and in 2006 the site was recognized as a  Top 500 Retailer by Internet Retailer and as the top 28th fastest growing e-commerce company in the world.

Product video views increased by 100% thanks to this one small tweak

What we did

The change on Toolking’s videos was really minor. As you can see above all we did was add a nice juicy “Play” icon to the 1st frame of every video so that when visitors come to the page the player is displaying that icon as the video’s thumbnail.

Product video views double!

After an A/B test conducted over thousands of individual page views we found this small, seemingly inconsequential tweak massively increased visitors’ interactions with the player, resulting in more video plays, which in turn increased conversion rates and sales.

How big was the impact? you ask.

Well, overall adding the  icon boosted the ratio of video views per page view from 2.7% to 5.4% , or in other words, generated a 100% increase. Not an improvement anyone is likely to discount…

so if you want to greatly boost the number of views your product views are getting I warmly recommend adding a little triangle icon to the 1st frame of every video you’ve got published…

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Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ucdaviscoe/5933842945

For the large part conversion funnels are traditionally thought of has having 4 distinct phases. These are:

1. Awareness
2. Interest
3. Consideration
4. Conversion

Skip after the break to see how video contributes to the performance of the metrics associated with each one of these steps

Video = Your Conversion Funnel Super Booster

Video as an “Awareness” booster

In the Awareness phase our goal is enter our target client’s consciousness. Before Awareness the client simply doesn’t know that we even exist. Metrics we’d normally track to monitor our performance at this phase are:

• Monthly Visits – as an indicator of how many visits we’re getting
• Visitors – as an indicator of how many actual people are coming to our site

Video can be very instrumental in boosting these stats. Here’s how:

1. Syndication – Video content lends itself easily to syndication. The abundance of generic and niche video portals existing on the web represent multiple opportunities for exposure both to the general audience and to narrower well defined ones.
2. Sharing – Video content is easy and fun to share. Giving visitors multiple easy opportunities to socially engage with rich-media content increases the chance that they become syndication agents for us, exposing us to their social network. Remember – every time a user clicks that Facebook “Like” button next to your video it’s immediately exposed to their entire network.
3. SEO 1 – Pages with “High Engagement Content” like videos, sound clips, etc. are reportedly more likely to attain better search rankings as search algorithms are believed to consider them having better content due to the rich engagement they offer visitors.
4. SEO 2 – Thanks to Google’s Universal Search Results display, where videos are guaranteed 1st page exposure, videos have become an opportunity to “cut to the head of the line” simply because less people are likely to have video content eligible for display there.
5. SEO 3 – Youtube is now ranking in as the 2nd most popular search engine. Ignoring video content is ignoring the opportunity to get exposure there.

Video’s contribution to the “Interest” phase

The Interest phase is where our client is drawn in and educated as to our offering. Metrics associated with this phase are usually focused around making qualitative measurements of our traffic:

• How many pages does the average visitor to our site browse through?
• How long is an average visit?

Videos contributions to this phase due to its advantages for presenting content are probably obvious, however its worthwhile listing them just to be sure we’re making the most out of our video content’s potential:

1. Multimedia Presentation – Video usually touches two senses simultaneously (vision and hearing), furthermore when bullet points are included in the video a further level of interaction is introduced as reading triggers different learning centers in the brain from hearing and seeing. The combined effect is a significant increase of the mental imprint made with our prospects, which translates directly into an increase in the “Average Time on Page” metric.
2. Multiple Images – Video offers an opportunity to display multiple angles of the product both physically and experientially. We can show not only what the product looks like from both front and back, but also how the product generates benefits for users in particular scenarios. In fact instead of counting on a single snapshot to captivate our audience we now have the opportunity to tell them a story. Again this goes towards boosting our “Average Time on Page”.
3. Video is easy to Absorb – The effort required to absorb video content is negligible compared to that of reading and browsing through images. Reduced fatigue coupled with more engaging experiences is likely to encourage visitors to dally longer on each page and visit more pages, thus driving up “Page Views Per Visit”.

Considering video? Consider this:

In this phase our prospects have already matured to a point where they’re interested enough in our product to consider making a purchase. A crucial metric at this is “Bounce Rate”, as every bounce represents a lost prospect.

Videos effect on the Consideration phase is similar to the effect it has at the Interest phase, with one important difference: at the consideration phase a prospect is already considered to be at the point where they’re making their purchasing decisions. Ensuring your videos contain exactly the right messaging required to close the deal is an important and profitable enterprise that can only be executed via a process of continuous improvement based on constantly A/B testing different video versions.

Interestingly the mere availability of video content on a product page has been found to boost conversions regardless of whether site visitors bothered to watch the video or not. The reason for this is thought to be grounded on the fact that the presence of video content on the page reflects positively on the vendor, increasing visitor’s trust in the site and encouraging them to do business with it.

The Money Time – VIDEOS IMPACT ON CONVERSIONS

For marketers and salespeople the Conversion is where the beef is. This is where the all the effort invested in the site hopefully finally pays off. Metrics associated with this phase are very directly related to the quality of the sale:

• Conversion Rate (CVR) – How many visitors/visits were we able to convert into sales?
• Average Cart Value – How much money are we making on average from every deal closed?

Video can be instrumental in improving Conversion Rates, and indeed insofar as Treepodia’s platform is concerned there’s a wealth of testimonials for this spanning multiple ecommerce niches. Insofar as the Average Cart Value is concerned videos’ chronological nature lends itself to presenting product specific up-sale opportunities for each and every product.

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Image Credit: Je.T.

A/B testing - Which option is better?

In my last post I talked about A/B testing ecommerce video performance, and why we’ve opted to automate this process for clients using our platform. The truth is that the only way anyone can truly expect to improve their site’s performance is via a meticulously implemented optimization program, based on consistent execution of A/B testing, for all the variables one can tweak on one’s site.

A/B testing is extra work

The problem with A/B testing is that it requires you to make an extra effort – you need to have two versions (at least) for the site element (text, design, image, button,video, etc.) you want to optimize, and you need to have an effective framework for planning, implementing, and analyzing your test results.

Sadly this additional effort is enough to make the majority of ecommerce site operators decide to give up on the entire exercise.

Is it worth it? You tell us!

Since site owners & designers tend to be protective of their current efforts, and are often less than receptive to the idea they might be able to improve on them, we decided to setup an experiment to enable people to test their intuitions and compare them against verifiable data.
If your up for the challenge take a look at the following nearly identical Biotone body crème videos and try to estimate what effect, if at all, the voice-over had on their sales conversion rates:

So are you ready to make a guess?

If you guessed the voice-over increased conversion rates by 50% (from 3% to 4.5%) you’re spot on.

The problem is that when we conducted a survey, to see whether people’s intuitions were able to predict this result, we discovered the vast majority of those surveyed came nowhere close to guessing the right answer. This isn’t really very surprising, considering that answering the question with any type of credence would require one to be an ecommerce expert with a fair deal of experience in video marketing and the effects of voice overs on conversion rates – not exactly common experience…

Lets Try Again Shall We?

The following two videos are both for the same vendor – an online retailer that specializes in providing golfing goods online. The first video is a production grade video ordered from a professional studio. The second video was created automatically via Treepodia’s automated video solution. All you have to do is guess which video provided a higher conversion rate:

Ready to make your guess?

If you guessed the automated video out-preformed the man-made one by nearly 300% you’re correct. You’re also unique. Not one of our survey respondents guessed the answer to this question correctly. This is precisely what makes A/B testing such a powerful tool:

A/B Testing Provides Answers You Can’t Get Any Other Way

Without A/B testing it’s simply impossible to isolate which elements of a page provide better performance and by how much. Occasionally the results of this type of testing will prove insights that are the exact opposite of what your own gut instinct tells you, but that still doesn’t change the fact that the result you got is based on cold hard data, and is PRECISE & ACTIONABLE.

Are You Doing the Best You Can?

If you’re not implementing A/B testing on your site now you’ll never figure out what exact elements of your site are providing you with the highest value in terms of CVR. You may be doing well for yourself but you have no idea what you might be missing.

We’re Doing the Best We Can For You

In order to guarantee that your Treepodia Smart Video platform is giving you the best bang for your buck we’ve integrated and automated A/B testing platform directly into your system. So, although you might not be aware of it, you can rest assured that your Treepodia Product Videos are constantly being tested for performance with top performers replacing less optimal videos constantly. This is one of the reasons our clients consistently report CVR increases of +35% and above since implementing our system on their ecommerce sites.

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

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