Adventures in Ecommerce Video: 3 Etailers Share Stories from the Trenches
This post is a summary of key takeaways from an Etail 2009 expert panel on online video for ecommerce. Rather than post my notes from the video, I’ve summarized the key takeaways from each of the retailer panelists: Peter Cobbs from eBags, McKay Thomas from BilliardEx and Jimmy Healey from OnlineShoes.com.
First off, big thanks to Xavier Casanova for capturing the entire Etail 2009 session: Optimizing Video on an e-Commerce Site. Xavier’s VideoRetailer.org and The Video Commerce Consortium are important blogs to follow as video is becoming increasingly important for online retail. Ignore video at your own peril!
Email and RSS subscribers, I encourage you to visit this post on Get Elastic to view all the videos embedded in the post, there are a few.
eBags
Presentation
eBags has over 200 videos throughout the site – some on the home page, some on “brand stores,” product detail pages or under the Video tab. Content includes product detail videos and demonstrations, interviews with designers, contests, non-selling pieces like eBags’ Run for the Cure and even a free second day air upgrade explanation video.
Example designer interview, Cinda B
eBags works with Liveclicker which provides this very nice Flash movie player with link and cross-sell overlay, affiliate tools (embeds affiliate link into the video) and other features like the ability to upload a video to multiple SKU product pages, rather than inefficiently attaching video SKU by SKU.
eBags also shows links to products featured in the video including customer ratings on the page:
Production
At first, eBags outsourced its video production but later discovered there was a videography ninja under their noses in the Photoshop department. He was asked to put together a brand video and his work blew everyone away. He is now the videographer.
Videographer Scott Roon and colleague Jason Carncross sat down with Xavier last year to share some of their tricks of the trade. Catch the 10 minute interview with eBags.
Some pieces are shot from scratch and are eBags exclusives, others are sourced from the brands themselves and others are re-worked from what they can get from the brands.
In terms of video quality, eBags suggests you figure out where on the Academy Award vs Youtube continuum you want to be. eBags’ approach is to get something up – it can be polished over time. They are very happy with that, but some brands like Tumi won’t let them do in-house video – they want particular hairstyles, clothing etc. For more polished video, they reached out to a news anchor who wanted to do video on the side. For $100 she produces, directs, films and voice-overs video working with eBags’ videographer which also builds her own portfolio.
Peter Cobb also suggests sourcing talent from local universities. Reach out to professors to find the best of the best to offer internships or free product in exchange for production work. It also helps interns build their portfolio.
Positive Outcomes
- 138% higher conversion rates on product detail pages when a customer clicks on the video
- Significant increase in time on site (measure of engagement)
- Reduced customer complaints. When eBags received a complaint on a product the customer confused about how to assemble, the designer created video the next day. Now eBags emails that video to each one that receives that product
Billiardex
Presentation
BilliardEx has produced several customer testimonial videos — filmed in the customers’ homes, using the product:
They also show step-by-step installation videos showing their actual in-home professional installation service — a key value proposition.
When you land on the home page, you can see snippets of video in the Flash banner (with sound off) which highlights the existence of the videos and creates interest.
When you check out the testimonial page, each of 10 videos shows video length and has a quote/caption that supports various value propositions:
Production
BilliardEx’s philosophy is no one knows your biz better than you. At the very least you should have a hand in script writing and overseeing the production. BilliardEx hired a production company, filmed several customers in their homes with products, and did studio work also. McKay Thomas himself was on-“set” and feels his passion for the product comes through in a way that fully outsourced production couldn’t capture.
One of the difficulties is finding the right mixture of resolution and streamability. BilliardEx’ high end customer wants to see high quality video but not sacrifice streamability. It takes a while to find a good balance between the two.
Positive Outcomes
After adding the installation videos, customer service calls dropped dramatically. Billiardex immediately saw hours and hours freed up for call team, saved money in human resources.
Not all video proved successful. One concept was a 30 second, sexy, in-your-face video on the home page using trick shots with pool balls in attempt to instantly engage customer. People did enjoy it in lab testing but wasn’t part of brand experience so it didn’t work as well on the site.
OnlineShoes.com
Presentation
OnlineShoes.com has various types of video content — category information, brand, product, seasonal trends, brand focused events, how to videos, how to fit certain sizes (Euro sizes etc) and even how to use the site’s newly designed left hand navigation. They also incorporate user generated video like testimonials, product reviews etc. Their strategy is not to create as many videos as possible, rather to create a few videos and really test them out.
Like eBags, OnlineShoes.com uses Liveclicker which you can see in action at OnlineShoes.tv. They also syndicate their videos through widgets.
Production
Jimmy Healey (speaking in the video) himself stars in and produces many of their videos including Arch and pronation explained:
They don’t need a large budget to accomplish good video and response has been positive. Jimmy being a runner himself, the star of the video and also participating in Twitter and Facebook adds to the cohesiveness of their video/social media strategy — creating celebrity out of internal resources.
Positive Outcomes
OnlineShoes is dedicated to testing different video content. One test for a particular pair of shoes that sells 7 figures annually saw a 19% increase in conversion and 20% increase in revenue with video.
Is Video the Hottest Ecommerce Trend of 2009?
I was asked a while back what I believed to be the ecommerce trend to watch and I definitely believe it’s video. Not only does it enrich the shopping experience and reduce the fears, uncertainties, doubts and dealbreakers customers have about products and transacting online — it also has that social appeal – video content can be found in search engines, Youtube search, syndicated through widgets etc. These retailers demonstrate that you don’t have to have a million dollar budget to get video up on your site, and it can pay off tremendously.
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This is interesting. What I’m wondering is what type of engagement with the videos people had when viewing them. Did they tend to watch all the way through? Did they stop watching after a few seconds? This kind of information would be helpful for marketers to know what the cutoff point is so they can put the most important information in before the video is stopped. This question would apply less to installation and how-to videos (like BillardEx) and more toward the marketing and informational videos.
-Kelly Lorenz
@Kelly,
The Liveclicker platform most likely provides those stats for the retailer. I’d be highly surprised if it didn’t. Youtube also provides stats and I think that includes embeds on your own site and others.
Hi Linda,
Great post. The eTail conference actually had a couple of video commerce sessions; while this one was going on I caught the other one on camera. It’s posted on the Video Commerce Consortium blog at http://video-commerce.org/2009/video-commerce-pioneer-shares-the-story-of-shopnbctv-and-video-on-shopnbccom. Dave Witzig, Sr. Director of Online Marketing & Video at ShopNBC was the presenter. He shared information on the ShopNBC story, conversion rates, distribution channels, etc. We have FansEdge.com guest blogging on the VCC blog also, focusing predominantly on e-commerce video production. I’m the other main blogger there as well. Please check it out and let me know what you think. I love the GetElastic blog.
http://www.video-commerce.org
Justin Foster
Founder & President, Video Commerce Consortium
Co-Founder, Liveclicker Inc.
@Justin,
Awesome, thanks! I’ll add your blog link to the post for more visibility than the comments :)
Actually I’ve seen your blog before, not sure how I’m not subscribed to it yet. Fixed that now :D
Linda
Nice abstract. Video can be very effective, but the length and quality of the video must fit to the needs of the target group in that particular moment. Looking for a first impression? Shiny and short. High tech for the geek? Longer, detailed and not too fancy.
What I miss is the ROI in the article. The first example is an indication of the cost…. let’s assume 200 K. Does that pay off? Is the increase in earnings (not sales!) this big?
@Linda,
A lot of the links seem to be broken in this post?
@Andreas, for examples of ROI check out a couple of whitepapers I wrote for the VCC:
http://video-commerce.org/Video_Commerce_and_ECommerce_Video_Disruptive_Innovations_in_E-Commerce.pdf
http://video-commerce.org/Building_an_Effective_Video_Commerce_Strategy_2.pdf
Or a PPT “The ROI of Online Video” from a webinar we did with the VCC on Jan 22 2009:
http://www.slideshare.net/liveclicker/video-commerce-consortium-roi-of-online-video-webinar-presentation
Justin
@Linda
Thanks for this excellent article. There is a lot of energy and innovation in the video commerce space and captured a nice slice of it.
One of the biggest surprises for me was talking to retailers at eTail was the “other” ROI proof point for video — drastic reduction in return rates. I’m not sure this is true for all products, but in these challenging economic times I suspect this will become an important part of the story.
I know that video is a great way to promote one’s product.
But I’d like to know what is more effective a lengthy video or a short and concise video?
You need to get your message over in the fastest way possible. The shorter the video therefore is always better, otherwise people are likely to get bored.
Current reports (March 09) from Hitwise and Comscore also show that professionally shot videos hold attention better than cheap ones and are more likely to increase conversions/slaes. This is because people expect to see high quality viewing these days and are more likely to continue to watch and absorb the information.
Louise
That’s interesting (and current) information Louise, thanks for sharing. I think it’s also important to have video that streams well also, that might be more important than professionally shot video. People are still impatient :)
@osCommerce that’s an easy test – most video platforms including Youtube provide stats including where in the video on average a viewer stops watching. I’d also imagine it depends on the content. If the content is engaging and really explaining the product, I’d hope our attention spans are not that bad :)
I’ve learned my lesson. I prepped this post in Microsoft word and the cut an paste to Wordpress left spaces in the link formatting, breaking the links. My bad. Thanks for the heads up.
Also, sorry your comment was caught in the spam filters for a bit, the Akismet seems to choke on comments with more than one link in them :(
@ Louise – I actually have not seen this as being true in several cases, though I’m sure there are times when this practice applies. Certain types of considered products that are complex and require more explanation of feature/benefit (e.g. pricey consumer electronics) can actually perform better with longer form content >1min in length that provide ample time to describe the product. Other types of products, such as jewelry, may succeed with a 15 second clip or less. I actually would also like some additional context for the Comscore and Hitwise reports as well. Consumers tend to have different expectations for video content quality depending on the content producer. For example, consumers that create product reviews, how-to, or even promotional videos may come off as more “authentic” and trustworthy, and I do not believe consumers (in general) have the same expectation for quality of UGC vs. retailer or manufacturer produced video content. At any rate, it’s definitely an evolving area and we’ll continue to see best practices emerging here as e-commerce sites become more sophisticated in their use of video across channels.
Hi Linda,
First I’d just like to say WHAT A GREAT POST!
Informative, intelligent, interesting…
: )
I guess there’s nothing surprising in the fact that we’ve discovered the major barrier to entry for most small to medium retailers is not that they aren’t aware of the potential video has for their business, but rather their perception that producing video is a costly & complicated enterprise. Frankly in many cases this is a very justifiable concern…
We believe bringing down the cost of video production to a rate affordable for any vendor, together with providing retailers tools for measuring the exact ROI on their investment, as indeed your panel members seem to be doing, are the key factors that will lead to an increase in the proliferation of online ecommerce videos.
By automating the process of creating video we’ve discovered that we’re able to deliver cost effective videos within 24 hours from initial contact by a retailer. This fast turnover comes at a “cost” – Our automated video service creates videos composed solely of still images & feature slides.
Whatever one’s intuitive reaction might be to automated video as a solution for ecommerce, the results we’re seeing & hearing from our clients are very much inline with the numbers you reported. Roy Hessel, CEO of EyeBuyDirect.com attributes an overall 30% increase in conversion rates to videos we provided like this one – http://bit.ly/176Y9l (source – http://www.internetretailer.com/article.asp?id=31655 )
Not bad for an automated video platform… ;)
Cheers,
Mike
http://Treepodia.com
@treepodia
Disclaimer – Treepodia is a vendor specializing in providing automated video solutions for ecommerce.