Although the show achieved icon status, and is rumored to be undergoing a Hollywood adaptation these days, we all know that it’s in fact it’s Moms who know best…

Moms – the Online Product Super Sleuths

With the economy being what it is, and increasing amounts of product information coming online daily, moms are making it their business to find out everything there is to know about the products their families intend to purchase.

In the super-competitive baby business recent years have seen a proliferation of sites dedicated to this very “pastime”, including a plethora of mommy-perspective blogs and review sites that share insights about new products, second hand products, and everything in between.

Consumer Reviews are Purchasing Catalysts

Product ratings and consumer reviews are extremely popular, and seen as a reliable source of information across the spectrum of consumers. Mothers of young children often see them as the definitive catalyst for making a purchasing decision. Today’s parents want answers not only regarding the product’s features and price, but also about its quality, safety, and overall customer satisfaction.

Or, as a recent eMarketer article put it “Moms Place Trust in Other Consumers.” So much so that the article states:

“[o]nline moms doing product research put their faith in descriptions from consumers nearly 12 times more.”

Most Moms Are Already Watching Product Review Videos

According to eMarketer’s article video has come to take a dominant position in swaying mothers’ decision making processes:

“Nearly 64% of respondents had watched a user-generated video review, and more than three-quarters of that group said it helped them make a purchase decision—either for or against a product or brand.”

There are two important points to note here:

1. It reiterates our recent post regarding the Treepodia Video Distributor and the need to have your products available everywhere customers are searching. In other words, for full coverage, you need to make sure your products come up in a search on any one of the major video portals.
2. It reinforces the reliability factor that video helps you attain. For example, one of our clients, BedBathStore.com, recognizing the fact that today’s parents conduct their research online, decided to add product videos to their entire line of children’s products. The results speak for themselves, with a 69% increase in sales of products that include video, an increase in product page engagement, and an overall growth in organic search traffic.

You don’t need mama to explain this one any further – product videos are another great way to reach today’s purchasing parents.

Even in this down economy ecommerce as a whole has continued to rise over the past year. Online retail behemoth Amazon reported revenue of $15 billion, up from $12.5 billion for the same period a year ago according to the Knowledge@Wharton article “Fit for the Holidays: Amazon is Shaping Up and Shipping Out.”:

“Even though the U.S. Census Bureau notes ecommerce accounts for only 3.6% of total retail sales in the country — up from 1% in 2001 — online purchases grew 2.2% in the second quarter of this year, while total retail sales fell 0.4%.

“What’s startling is not the magnitude of ecommerce sales relative to overall retail sales, but the growth rate,” says Marshall Fisher, professor of operations and information management at Wharton.”

Frankly I’m amazed online purchases still only account for just 3.6% of all retail sales. On the other hand that’s great news because as an industry it means we have a lot of growing to do…

Santa driving Vespa's sales

Ecommerce sites expected to reach $45 Billion online this holiday season

According to Forrester Research, this holiday season American online retail sales are expected to reach $45 billion – an 8% increase from last year.

“Much of the growth can be attributed to improvements in the online shopping experience in recent years. In fact, ecommerce has come of age to such an extent that the lines between online and offline shopping are blurring.”

Why product videos are helping increase online revenues

Product videos are considered an important contributor to this growth and to the blurring of the distinction between online and offline shopping. Retailers are using video to enhance online shopping experiences by adding new engagement dimensions that help shoppers get a more tangible feeling for the products their looking for, which increases their sense of security and comfort about the item, moving them to make purchases more often.

By virtue of being mixed media videos simulataneously address the needs of different types of consumers:

• Voice-over narration attracts auditory learners, who absorb information best when hearing it.
• Visual cues such as bullet point slides work well with visual learners, who absorb information best when seeing and reading it.

Over the past two years we’ve seen all our clients, regardless of industry, consistently increase their ecommerce conversion rates significantly by adding video presentations to their product pages.

How to get the most out of your ecommerce videos this holiday season:

What follows are a few ideas we thought about over here at Treepodia that’ll help you increase your conversion rates and drive more sales this holiday season. Please feel free to add you own ideas, tips and pointers in the comment section of the article.

1. Focus – Use video to promote your holiday season’s top sellers

Limiting your focus to the seasons biggest sellers will ensure you make the most out of your video investment in the time frame available. You can add videos for other products when the holiday hubbub is over.

2. Fun – Dress your videos up for the holidays

You can create a more engaging, fun and seasonal shopping experience for your customers by giving your videos that special holiday flair:

• Adding the sound of jingling bells
• Showing a wreath-like trim around the edges
• Having a little elf present your product’s benefits.

3. Promote your promotion

Make sure you use all video’s interaction dimensions to convey your message. State your item’s promotion in the video’s narration and sign off with a slide about it at the end.

4. Happy Holidays Everyone!

Everybody likes receiving seasonal greetings. Take the opportunity, like me, to thank your visitors and add a personal holiday greeting message to your video : )

I’ve just finished reading a well written post by Daniel Sevitt on the ReelSeo blog titled: “The Three Types of Online Video for Business“. Daniel writes well and covers his subject matter eloquently but when I finished reading I remained with the sensation that I’d been taken for a merry little ride.

Sales Are Only 0.1 Percent (?!?)

I know it’s a heavy accusation, but I can explain:
When someone writes a post titled “The Three Types of Online Video for Business” and mentions in it a reference to someone else’s “Top 6 Reasons B-to-B Marketers Need Videos” I guess I expect the word “Sales” to appear often. Daniel’s post has 2,178 words. The word “Sales” appears twice. That’s less than 0.1 percent…

Apparently the “Top 6 Reasons B-to-B Marketers Need Videos” are, and I quote:

Grab people’s attention instantly

Tell your story in less time

Bring your ideas to life

Make your site stickier

Create a buzz with viral video

Bring your website into the 21st century

What I learned from Eli Wallach about Sales

Call me coarse or unsophisticated if you like, but I’ve always believed there’s a lot of truth in the line uttered by Eli Wallach in the scene shown above, and taken from “The Good the Bad and the Ugly”:

“When you have to shoot…Shoot! Don’t talk”

Let me explain:
With all due respect to the 6 points Daniel quotes in his post, I’d like to make 3 points of my own:

1. The purpose of a business is TO MAKE MONEY.
2. Online retailers make money by SELLING PRODUCTS.
3. The primary purpose of online video for retailers is TO SELL PRODUCTS.

To paraphrase Wallach:

“Pardon me pilgrim but ‘Grabbing people’s attention’ (pt #1), ‘Telling a story’ (pt #2) & ‘Bringing ideas to life’ (pt #3)… Heck, that all sounds like a lot fancy talkin’ to me!”

Although ‘Bringing their website into the 21st century’ (pt #4) sounds really impressive, I’m pretty sure 99 out of 100 vendors would prefer using video to SELL THEIR INVENTORY.

Let’s go back to basics

Video, indeed any form of advertising or marketing, has little or no value for its own sake. Its value is as a means-to-an-end. For etailers that end is TO DRIVE SALES.

By that logic the best way to judge the addition of video to your site is by the impact it has on your bottom line. If you can get a good impact on your conversions for a low investment – GOOD FOR YOU, you’ve done well for yourself.

I might be old fashioned

I might be old fashioned, but getting the best-bang-for-the-buck seems to me to be what a good business is all about.

• Our experience has shown us that adding video to a product’s listing can impact the conversion rates for the product by anything from 35% to 300%.

• We’ve learned that premium & complex products often show greater impact on their conversion rates because clients are more inclined to make a hefty purchase after watching a video that explains a premium product’s benefits.

Going back to my bang-for-a-buck point from before, it’s every etailers DUTY to his or her business to get these conversion rates at the LOWEST COST and effort possible – no small feat when one considers the vast majority of online retailers have over 500 products in their catalog.

When one takes into consideration these facts it’s easy to understand why automated ecommerce video solutions able of creating thousands of product videos in a matter of hours, are readily adopted by retail leaders such as Ice.com, Diamond.com, EyeBuyDirect.com, Elady.com, ElectricShopping.com, and others.

I guess when you’re as successful as these guys you know only too well there’s “A time for talkin’ and a time for shootin’…”

Image credit: Daquella manera

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.