With a huge inventory of over 135,000 individual products, ranging from decorative items to clothing to personal care products, greeting cards and more, DollarDays is the leading online wholesaler helping smaller businesses compete against larger chain stores.

By offering a wide range of high-quality bulk products which can be ordered in small quantities (single-case minimum) at competitive prices, DollarDays enables smaller merchants to in turn offer competitive pricing to their customers without the need to invest in excessive inventory.

Marc Joseph and Kevin Ryan - Dollardays.com

The Need – User Experience and Exposure

With a huge offering of a wide range of products DollarDays’ need was two-fold.

1. First, as an evolved online retailer, the company understood the advantage of having videos for popular products. As Marc Joseph, President of DollarDays said, “With so many products to cover, and an ever-expanding product line, an automated solution was clearly the only option in terms of both sheer logistics and cost.”
2. Second, the company needed to make sure its many products were found. As DollarDays has an eclectic product offering, long-tail search terms are particularly effective in terms of video SEO. Therefore, the added value of properly indexing each product video for Google’s search algorithms and the associated video SEO were of particular concern for DollarDays.

The Solution - Treepodia’s Ecommerce Video Platform and Dynamic Video Sitemap

DollarDays originally opted for the Treepodia Enterprise package to create some 5,000 product videos as well as a Dynamic Video Sitemap to ensure these videos were being fully indexed by Google.

Once the success of this endeavor was realized, DollarDays upped their purchase to the Premium package for full coverage of their entire product line.

The Results – 74% Sales Increase

The addition of product videos had a huge and immediate effect, the most dramatic of which was a 74% increase in sales.

In terms of video SEO the positive effects were also quickly felt as all products were fully indexed by Google within a single day.

Most importantly, product specific long-tail search terms such as “bright pencil pouch” were yielding far higher results on Google, in many cases moving to first place.

Marc Joseph*, founder and president of Dollardays.com, is so pleased he gave us a quote for this case study:

“We’ve been incredibly pleased with the results we’ve received from the Treepodia solutions so much so, in fact, that within a month we’d already decided to expand the Treepodia solutions across our entire product offering. Not only was the ROI quick and concrete, but the implementation was surprisingly simple.”

Need to Download?

Download the case study here:
Dollar Days Boosts Video SEO Case Study

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Marc Joseph – Founder and CEO of Dollardays.com

• With more than 30 years in the retail and wholesale industry, Marc Joseph is the founder of DollarDays International. Joseph’s has helped to build some of America’s most known retail stores including Federated Department Stores, Crown Books, and Bills, a chain of variety stores headquartered in Jackson, Miss. He also helped ignite the dollar store trend as the General Merchandise Manager in Everything’s A Dollar stores chain. Joseph also started another innovative chain for EAD, The $5 & $10 Stores, locating the chain’s stores next to Everything’s A Dollar Stores to ensure traffic and offer price-conscious customers additional retail options. Most recently Joseph started a chain of hair salons in Arizona and built it up to 11 stores before selling them to devote full time to DollarDays.
  Mr. Joseph earned his Bachelor of Administration in Marketing with a Finance Minor from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. He lives in Phoenix with his wife and four children.

We're all getting lazier - Product videos are great usability...

As a technology fan and a lover of all-things-web I find the growing body of research regarding  the impact the web is having on our intelligence absolutely riveting.

What impact is the web having on our intelligence?

There’s no clear answer to the question. Some pundits claim it’s making us dumber, while others claim it’s making us smarter. There are valid arguments for both claims, but whichever side you happen to take there’s little doubt the Internet and our experiences on the web are changing they way we think, process information and behave.

…And it’s probably making us lazier

Personally I’m unsure which side I’m on insofar as the debate regarding the web’s impact on our intelligence, but I’m definitely sure the web is making us lazier, and I’m not the only one that thinks so.

…And less attentive

Another interesting behavioral trend worth noting is the evident overall decrease in people’s attention spans, as evinced by broadcasters and advertisers alike. As we’re increasingly barraged by ever growing volumes of information and options of content to choose from, we’re clearly becoming less and less patient and satisfied with whatever it is we happen to be viewing/reading/browsing RIGHT NOW.

How does this relate to ecommerce and product videos?

Seeing as this is a video and ecommerce related blog some of you might be wondering how all this relates to our regular content. I promise you all will be revealed in a moment, but first please take a second to answer the following question:

Unless this post happens to be read by a statistically anomalous group of  detail obsessed individuals, I’m pretty sure most of you like myself chose option B, and that’s just the thing – seeing as how we’re all getting slightly lazier and less prone to attend to detail, we’d much prefer ecommerce sites present us the information we need to make a buying choice in the format and medium that makes it EASIEST for us to absorb. It’s good usability on their part, which is increasingly something we EXPECT.

Conclusion

The best marketing efforts don’t satisfy themselves merely with presenting customers with excellent information regarding their offers, they go the extra mile to ensure the information is presented in the way most likely to make the best impression with their audience. In the case of online shopping that means including VIDEOS for their product offerings.

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Image Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jorbasa/2476381678/in/photostream

To celebrate our inclusion in the Prestashop package, and for a limited time only, we’re offering you a 30 day trial to use this addon for FREE. No commitments, no fees – simply install the video module, register with us, choose your video templates, and sit back and relax while your online shop catalog is automatically enriched with conversion promoting videos. The entire process takes literally minutes. Check out this short clip for more details and continue reading after the break:

• For more information reagrding the addon checkout the Prestashop website: http://www.prestashop.com/en/partner_treepodia
• The installation guide is here: http://www.prestashop.com/partner/installing_treepodia_prestashop_module.pdf

Ecommerce Video does amazing things for jewelry

In Q4 of 2010, SilverShake.com saw an incredible 108 percent increase in conversion rates for products with Treepodia video – welcome to another of our series of ecommerce case studies. This time we’re looking into the results of online jewelry website, www.SilverShake.com, having implemented online video with Treepodia in May 2010.

Introducing SilverShake.com

SilverShake.com is an online sterling silver gemstone jewelry store, which prides itself on the variety, quality, value, and availability of its products. With 10 years of history and counting, and over 10,000 jewelry designs available, SilverShake has proven itself to be the go-to place for those seeking high quality jewelry at fair prices.

SilverShake.com

Why they came to us

SilverShake’s marketing director, Kfir Gershonowitz, realized that the best way to show his customers their products from afar (the company is based in Thailand) would be to use online video. Kfir was also aware of the increase conversion rates attributable to online video, as well as the increase in product visibility. He thought they ought to give Treepodia’s platform a try.

What Ecommerce video solutions did we provide?

Using our unique technology we created multiple video versions for each product, which allowed effective automated A/B testing of each video’s performance, so that we could choose which video produced the most optimal conversion rates for each product. SilverShake.com also added the video distributor auto-syndication service and the dynamic video sitemap.

What ROI did Ecommerce videos provide?

As mentioned earlier in this post SilverShake.com saw an incredible 108 percent increase in CVR for products that sported Treepodia videos. Moreover our Video Distributor service increased awareness to the site by automatically publishing all the retailer’s videos to popular video sharing sites. In addition, the Dynamic Video Sitemap has ensured SilverShake’s product videos are constantly indexed by Google, which has proven extremely helpful to the company’s Search Engine Optimization effort.

Are you ready to make Ecommerce Video your Conversion boost "Hole-in-One"?

Ecommerce is an industry dominated by numbers, and what speaks better to professionals accustomed to looking at numbers than a solid body of statistical evidence…

Ecommerce Video Conversion Rate increase stats across industries

After doing some number crunching on data we collected last quarter it good to have the proof to back out intuition that video works well for vendors who have deployed it on their product pages. Interestingly Video is one of the few strategies that seems to work well regardless of the vertical in which it is deployed.

We’ve seen dramatic increases in conversion rates throughout Q4 of 2010 in popular ecommerce categories as dissimilar as jewelry and sports!

The following chart gives an overview for the conversion rate increases witnessed for shoppers who watched video for some of our most popular verticals:

Ecommerce Video Conversion Rate increases across verticals

Here they are ranked by the order of increase in conversion rates seen:

• Gifts +113%
• Electronics +101%
• Jewelry +85%
• Home & Garden +43%
• Personal Care +14%

The numbers are based on an aggregation of data pulled from online retail sites using the Treepodia ecommerce video platform and the automated videos created by that very system.

With consistent increases in CVR being recorded each quarter, year in and year out, it’s safe to say the increase brought about by online videos is more than a trend. It’s the new reality of online marketing. In other words, Q4’s positive results prove once again that the addition of videos to ecommerce sites is one of the most effective sales tools online retailers can employ.

As one satisfied customer from the sporting goods industry – Lee Brown, Founder and Managing Director of Onlinegolf – had to say:

“…Our customers want to get a feel for what it is they’re buying. That’s where video comes into play. With Treepodia’s video solution we’ve seen an increase in CVR of up to 88% for items featuring video…”

If you want too want to dramatically increase the conversion rates for your ecommerce site sign up for one of our packages and have your entire product catalog covered with high converting ecommerce videos within less than 24 hours.

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Image Credit: Fevisyu

Today’s post is another one of those however, thanks to the kind cooperation and permission of our client Premiere Games Tables, this story goes beyond the usual aggregated stats, and gives a close and intimate perspective regarding the benefits this particular business reaped from having us add videos to it’s product pages.

Introducing Premiere Game Tables

But first a word of introduction is in order…

Since going live in 2009 Premiere Game Tables has quickly become the leading destination for those looking to create the ultimate game room. The site offers a truly impressive variety of pool, foosball, ping pong, air hockey and poker tables, not to mention a wide variety of dart boards and similar favorites. To cut a long story short – Premiere Game Tables is a one-stop-shop for creating your ultimate game room paradise.

Why did Premier Game Tables come to us?

Premiere Game Tables first approached us after the company’s president, Mr. Kirk Mathews, encountered our solution on another ecommerce site.

For Mathews there were two major reasons that Treepodia seemed like a good idea:

1. As an online-only business selling relatively big ticket items he knew only too well that giving browsers a better of the products would have a positive impact on conversions. Premiere Game Tables has always offered browsers extensive photographic coverage of its products, but Mathews and his team felt the added dimensions of video would bring the product display to a whole knew level.
2. Being online marketing experts, Premiere Game Tables’ managers were also aware of video’s important Search Engine Optimization value.

Eventually what helped seal the deal, according to Mathews, was:

”…The turn-key aspect of creating high-quality videos for our entire product catalog so quickly, using existing images and content was particularly attractive. Also their ability to host data and continually update the videos was a major selling point…”

What Ecommerce Video solutions did we provide?

We began working with Kirk and the Premiere Game Tables team half a year ago, in August of 2010. Initially the site integrated our Smart Video Platform, and shortly afterwards the team opted to add on our Dynamic Video Sitemap service.

What ROI did Ecommerce Videos provide?

Since integrating Treepodia’s automated smart video platform Premiere Game Tables has seen a significant jump in CVR (conversion rates). As the graph above show CVR has gone from 1.2% to 4% when a product video has been watched

Morevoer the addition of our Dynamic Video Sitemap service has ensured that all the site’s videos are indexed by Google leading to a massive increase in targeted SEO traffic. As Mr. Mathews puts it:

“…As soon as the XML video sitemap was created, Google was already indexing our videos. With almost every long-tail product-specific search term being indexed by Google, we’re now showing up on the first page with our highest converting search terms…”

The return on investment for ecommerce videos - Rapid or long term?

As children we’re all taught the famous fable about the race between the turtle and the hare, and the moral of the parable is:

“Slow and steady wins the race”

It’s a turn of phrase with a great message, and the potential for being an effective business model.

With product videos, however, timelines are a bit different - they yield IMMEDIATE ROI

As you can see for yourself, online retailers see an immediate increase in CVR as soon as video is added to their product pages:

Ecommerce and product video's immediate ROI

But the race, as they say, is long. What happens to these improved conversion rates later?

Treepodia auto-optimization guarantees increasing ROI over time

Our ecommerce video solution, while it often shows immediate ROI in terms of increasing your online store’s conversion rates, has greater things in store for you when you decide to stick with it for the long run. The simple fact is that the longer you use our automated video platform, the greater your increase in CVR.

A/B testing guarantees positive results over the long haul

While the statistics garnered from our 200+ clients have proven that the addition of our automated videos generally generates an increase in CVR of between 30% and over 100%, overall the CVR individual customers experience increases gradually over time thanks to the inherent learning abilities of the Treepodia system.

How is that possible you may wonder? Shouldn’t results naturally trickle off over the long haul?

You would think so, but with the combination of continuous A/B testing and the automatic promotion of more successful video versions, over time, the Treepodia platform is able to learn from past shoppers’ behaviors, isolate top performing videos, show them more often, and as such, maximize each video view for the highest conversion rate possible.

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Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/daquellamanera

"Product Video for a Dime? NO WAY!!!"

Now, with our new “Essential Package”, you can cover up to 1,500 items in your product catalog with high-converting, dynamic videos for just $149. That’s less than $0.10 per video! Can you even think of anything else you can buy with a dime?

If you’re an online retailer looking for a cost-effective way to start implementing video on your site, then the Treepodia Essential Package is perfect for you.

Creating Ecommerce Video for less than it costs to host them

This introductory package includes the creation, hosting and streaming of up to 1,500 videos, as well as advanced, easy-to-use video analytics to measure and improve each video’s performance. All of these services are included in the $149 monthly fee. In other words, you get an entire video platform with all the essential elements for less than you’d pay many vendors for the hosting service alone.

Cover Your full catalog with high CVR Product Videos in HOURS

Plus, implementation is quick. Within a matter of hours, from start to finish, your product videos are live on your site. All you have to do is follow a simple three step process and you’re done. In fact, integration is so simple that you can do it on your own (non-techies included), without ever having to contact us, at all. Talk about convenient!

Click “Play” on the following video to get a better idea of what Treepodia’s Ecommerce Video Platform will do for your site:

Need more?

If you’re looking for something a little more sophisticated and/or robust (with more customization options or video versions per product), or your catalog is larger than 1,500 products, then we have other video packages to fit your needs including the Professional, Enterprise and Premium editions.

For more information on each of our video packages and what they include, you can visit
the Treepodia site or contact us today.

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Image credit: orangeacid

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.

Going to Movies - Things to Consider When Adding Video to Your Ecommerce site

With the Holiday season just round the bend you’re probably thinking about how to boost your conversion rates and adding videos to your site is one of the best ways to do that. Adding video to your site is no longer as complicated as it used to be, but there are a few points you need to consider to make sure your video solution matches your needs:

1) Video Production

Choosing how your videos will be produced is the most important choice you’ll have to make. You can opt to go with any one of the following methods, or a combination of a few:

• Create your own videos in-house
• Use your manufacturers’ videos (assuming these exist)
• Community videos & consumer generated content
• Outsource to a professional video production company

Automated product videos
Combining any existing videos you may have with automated videos is guaranteed to provide your site with the biggest Bang-for-your-Buck. You’ll get more videos for every $$$ than with any other production method. Further advantages are:

• Fast deployment - Automated videos for your entire catalog can be generated in a matter of hours, no matter how many products you offer.
• Dynamic - Videos are dynamically created so updating your videos with new products, prices & messages can be done easily and as frequently as required.
• Analytics - Platforms like ours include a built in analytics panel allowing that shows you how your videos are performing.

2) Content Delivery Network – CDN

When viewing entertainment videos we’re sometimes willing to tolerate slow streaming video but this is hardly the case when we’re watching commercial content. We all have zero tolerance for poorly delivered marketing materials. You must make absolutely sure that your video providers’ CDN is reliable no matter where your audience is located.

3) Billing

It’s always a good idea to make sure you have a clear understanding of what your paying for and why. We base our billing on a risk-free pricing model where you only pay for videos that were actually viewed by your audience. This type of pricing model is referred to as “Pay-Per-View” and is based on the same principal as Google’s Adwords “Pay Per Click” advertising.

4) Integration and Deployment

Integrating video into your site is as simple or complex as adding any other feature. Make sure you understand all the implications, be sure to run proper testing and have a plan for reverting back in case something doesn’t work as planned. The best methods for large scale video integrations are based on addition of code to your product page templates. A parameter for the SKU can be used to automatically match the right video to the right product. This type of implementation also means that adding new videos will not require internal resources.

5) Analytics and Stats

Access to actionable analytics is crucial for your success. It’s important you have a good understanding of how your new video component is contributing to your site’s overall performance. Be sure that your solution have a reporting tool offering you information on video views which you can then correlate to your sales data:

• Measurements for your video’s conversion rates
• Comparisons of CVR for visitors who watched video and those who didn’t
• Support for A/B testing of multiple video versions per product.

6) Offsite Video Syndication

Video portals have become so popular that Youtube is now ranked as the world’s 2nd most popular search engine and the 3rd most popular website. Syndicating your video content to these portals can give you excellent visibility and generate an increased awareness for your products and brands. Our platform syndicates your video content automatically guaranteeing that every video you generate will get the highest exposure possible.

7) Search Engine Visibility

Once you have video content you’re bound to want to utilize it for SEO purposes (otherwise you’re simply leaving money on the table…). Search engines give a higher value to pages with video content granting them priority placements ranking at the top of search results however search engines need help identifiying your video content via a “Dynamic Video Sitemap” – which is similar to a regular sitemap but dedicated to your video content. It gives the search engines descriptive information of your video content that makes it easier for users to find a particular piece of content such as a video title, description, duration, location, etc. Our platform automatically generates Dynamic Video Sitemaps for all your product videos, and is always kept up-to-date with your new video content and new products

Conclusion

I hope the above  list serves you as a good starting point for helping you identify the solutions that best match your needs and finding an ecommerce video vendor that can provide them.

If you have any questions or additions please post them in the comments below!