SeenON! is an interactive entertainment-slash-ecommerce site that helps TV buffs buy what they see on their favorite television shows. One feature of the site is called “Shopisodes”, which are short clips from TV programs that link to online retailers that carry the items in the episode. (Click below to play - note, some RSS readers are not displaying the video, you’ll need to click through to the actual post)

Bluefly’s Flypaper blog uses a similar approach in its video podcast. At any point in the vignette, you can click the “Click to Buy” button and it will show a list of items appearing in the video. Click on any thumbnail and you see the product’s description, price and a Buy Now button. Or you can go back to watch the rest of the video. (Don’t click, these are just screenshots)

This is awesome.

Does anyone know of solutions providers for this type of technology? If you do, please let us know in the comments.

If you’re interested in staying in the loop on emerging video trends and retail, there’s the newly launched Video Retailer blog and listserv called Video Commerce Consortium on the topic.

Like Vitaman’s Nikki, American Eagle Outfitters is giving a “human” touch to its merchandising. AE has snagged video-blogging vixen iJustine as a spokeswoman for its Spring Break events in Cancun. And you can find her ooh-ing and aah-ing products within an interactive Spring Break packing guide (now offline).

Unlike Nikki, iJustine gushes about goodies for both girls and guys when you rollover certain items.

But like the Vitaman valet, she is very enthusiastic in romancing the products:

Guys, trust me. Throw on a polo and a smile and you’ll have every girl’s attention. They’re so great looking and so easy to wear with anything. If you don’t pack some polos, you might as well stay home.

Whether having a human describe products is something customers want to see - I don’t know. Perhaps for high school / college types who’d rather watch the movie than read the book - watching a product description is preferred?

But really, this concept isn’t new. We have the choice to read the newspaper, or watch an attractive anchor read it to us. Why wouldn’t that also apply to ecommerce?

Video is Here to Stay

It certainly takes a lot of time and money to build interactive Flash-based applications. But if you don’t want to go that route, you can still add a human element by adding video content to product pages, like Tiger Direct:

This video sold me on this camcorder, which I purchased immediately along with a bunch of accessories. I found Arno to be knowledgeable, friendly and humorous. Plus this video actually showed me how close you can zoom in with this camera - try describing that with text! With absolutely no background knowledge of camcorders, it really helped to have a virtual salesperson to turn to. Plus it’s nice to refer to the demo to learn how to use the camera when I get it rather than relying on the package black and white insert.

I expect to see a lot more video merchandising (with real people) popping up in the future.

I heard a true story years ago about a telephone service in the UK, where lonely women would call to hear a soothing, pre-recorded male voice say things like “you know what, you’re really beautiful.” Apparently it was hugely popular.

Well, Australian natural male grooming product company Vitaman has put this idea on steroids with its interactive and innovative online store.

Meet Nikki, a leggy Micha Barton lookalike with an Aussie accent. She is your personal shopping valet. When you drag items into your shopping bag, Nikki complements you on your selection with lines like “Mmmmmm, this smells amazing on your skin,” and “Oooh, I love a brave sportsman who puts his body on the line.”

What’s genius is, Nikki changes her outfit for each product category, so that motivates guys to at least check out each product category. Unfortunately, most of the products on the shelf have identical packaging, so it might be a bit better for Nikki to give a quick spiel on each category’s offering and what makes them so amazing. You’ve got a captivated audience, girl, sell!

Another unfortunate is that products must be added to the bag to be rewarded with the purring praise for your selection. This means many overloaded carts filled with products not really intended to buy. But Vitaman makes it easy to remove items from your cart when you’re ready to check out. The best part of the cart is when you view your cart, Nikki says “Are you sure that’s all you want?” Don’t you wish you could say that from your cart page?

Continue Reading:
Is Flattery A Viable Selling Strategy? »

We social media marketing types toss around buzzwords like “user generated content” all the time. But Etsy is a unique ecommerce-slash-social-shopping-network that has truly made “user generated products” its hallmark. Selling only handmade items from different crafters around the world, Etsy is like eBay minus the auction.

In this electronic press release, Etsy sellers talk about the site, and how they enjoy connecting personally with their customers through the community, and with other sellers.

The site itself has a number of amazing Web 2.0 features like shop by color and a home page that shows you a live feed of new items as they are added - a bit like YouTube’s home page that shows currently viewed videos.

The Treasury is like Polyvore, where users create “sets” that others can browse and buy from - or user-generated cross-selling.

And the community can participate in forums, live chat, “Teams” (special interest groups) and even Virtual Labs where you can join live workshops and classes or get tips on setting up and marketing your Etsy shop.

If you sell handmade items through your own website, you may consider tapping into this marketplace if you haven’t already.

PS, the electronic press release is a great way to make you stand out. When someone’s getting barraged by pitches daily, giving them a video to look at and post gives you a nice advantage.

Lee Lefever over at Common Craft has blessed the ‘Net with the Paperworks Series, a collection of educational videos geared at anyone who wants to know the lowdown on how social bookmarking, RSS, Wikis and social networking works.


Social Bookmarking In Plain English

Continue Reading:
Social Media in Plain English »

This is an oldie but a goodie based on a Backstreet Boy parody by Weird Al Yankovic, in case you missed it.

Did you look closely? This is not an official Weird Al video. It apparently was put together by a 12 year old back in 1999 (thanks to a Google of “Kronix Project”) with a budget of practically nothing on some really basic slideshow software. Yes folks, link bait is that easy.

Everyone gets distracted when shopping online. That’s one of the nice things about shopping via the web - you can take a phone call, refill your coffee, walk the dog, quick nap in the hammock … then come back and your order is still there. The flip side of this scenario is the theme of sorts for Crazy, Messed-up World of Ecommerce video #7 “Abandoned.”

Video #7 - Abandoned

For online retailers though, abandoned carts are the root of endless worry and concern. These conversion killers piling up in your logs beg questions like: Why did they leave? Were they just comparing prices or features or is it something I did? Maybe there’s something wrong with my site’s usability! How can I make it better? How can I get them back? How can I raise my conversion rates? Would adding “wishlists” or “saved cart” features reduce cart abandonment? and so on …

Well for sure usability is important (check The Ecommerce Checkout Report for more on best practisesc) and certainly retailers loathe leaving money on the table, but sometimes, cart abandonment just happens. Just hope they come back, right?

Do not adjust your screen! The eagerly awaited episode 6 of (everyone sing it now), “The Crazy, Messed-up World of … Ecommerce” series Bananarama…rama…rama…rama crawls into the issue of ssssllloooowwww site load times and resultant errors.

Beware - As you watch the video, you may experience the dread and frustration of a server bonking out mid-session. You know when you are shopping along and all of a sudden the server drags to a slow crawl and by the time the hourglass/spinny-wheel stops, the site has lost it’s marbles. Your flow is lost and the site seems to have no idea where you were/are, what you were looking for and throws you back a heinous error. Fun over - insert coin to play again. Plus bananas are inherently funny.

PS Savvy bloggers can win online shopping certificates & Capulet’s Darren Barefoot is slated to speak at Gnomedex in Seattle - perhaps you can learn more about this campaign or his other memes.

What if offline shopping were as cruel and difficult as buying online? What does that world look like?

Video #1 - If Only Search Engines Could Understand What We Want

Video #2 - Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought…

Video #3 - Premature Redirection

Video #4 - Zero Results Found

Video #5 - Price Checked

Video #6 - Bananarama…rama…rama…rama

Video #7 - Abandoned

If you struggle with any of these online retail challenges, you might need to consider new ecommerce software.