French Shopping (Image Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/shibuya246)

Although France may have been trounced in the world cup not all the news coming from the land of baguettes and liberty is bad. It turns out that in terms of e-commerce revenues Q1 2010 wasn’t only great for our clients, as we discussed in our last post, it was excellent for online retailers in general, and nowhere more so than in France.

As a recent article in eMarketer quotes, according to FEVAD (Fédération du E-commerce et de la Vente à Distance), Q1 2010 saw a 30% increase in ecommerce sales over Q1 2009, valued at €7.2 billion (or $10 billion).

B2C E-commerce sales growth in France

What is powering this growth?

Much of this overall increase is attributed to the addition of some 16,000 online retail sites. But the growth is more than a matter of more stores, it also applies to overall basket value which was up to a healthy to €93 (or $129).

In addition, another factor is the fact that buying online is becoming more common in France. While the average consumer made 11 online purchases in 2009, already in Q1 2010 the average consumer has made four purchases online (at that rate online purchases would average 16 per year throughout 2010, representing an almost 50% increase over the previous year).

In other words, the French market is experiencing a positive overall trend with the combined factors of more online stores, more purchases made online at a higher value.

French growth set to exceed FEVAD expectations

While growth in the French market was anticipated this year (FEVAD predicted in the 24% range), if the current trend continues the numbers could far surpass what was expected.

While the largest online retailers (eBay, PriceMinister and Le Redoute) still garner the lion’s share of the pie, the overall growth trend is positive news for French online retailers across the board.

This positive trend also means there’s lots of room for ecommerce sites to expand and resume investing in the future of their businesses by updating and modernizing their sites to meet the developing demands of consumers.

“The bottom line is only as good as the bottom line”

After you’re done feasting your eyes on the bombshell below you might want to scroll down and check a few figures on how Video is impacting conversion rates for Online Fashion Retailers…

Oh the joys of writing about the Fashion Industry... : ) Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thehearttruth/2173468676

Fashion Industry Retailer’s Video Conversion Figures – Q1 2010

As the table and graphs below show, my assertions about the value of video for retailers are well backed by hard data:

Fashion Industry Retailer's Video Conversion Figures - Q1 2010

• “No Video CVR%”
  % of Unique Visitors to view a product page who could watch a video, but DIDN’T, yet still added the product to their cart.
• “Video CVR %”
  % of Unique Visitors to view a product page who DID watch video and added the product to their cart.

Video's Impact on Conversion Rates

CVR Improvement Due to Video

The most obvious fact one learns from the data is this:

Visitors who watch product pages videos convert more than twice as often then those who don’t.

This data is in line with similar case studies we’ve published in the past showing that presenting video as an option for shoppers improves CVR even when the customers don’t watch them!

Conclusion – Online Retailers Ignoring Video are leaving Money on the Table

Online retailers seeking to increase sales would do well to investigate adding video to their site today.

Some of the key points to think about are:

What’s the most cost effective method of adding video to the site?

What products and offerings should receive video treatment first?

How will the video be integrated into the site’s existing pages?

It’s important to remember that, although a few production videos might be great for retailers that only deal in a very limited number of products, any online retailer that moves tens or hundreds of products will be poorly served with this type of solution. Furthermore production videos have no dynamic aspect – once created they’re impossible to change or edit so if your porduct details change they basically become useless.

If you’re an online retailer with a large inventory interested in covering your entire inventory with dynamic self updating videos quickly and cost efficiently contact us today : )