Invodo would like to wish everyone the happiest of Holidays and a wonderful New Year. Congratulations to our clients and those in eCommerce for a fantastic 2010. With a strong end to the year including e-retail’s first billion dollar day, it looks like 2011 will start with a bang and produce even more milestones.
Thank you to all our clients, partners, and friends for their mutual excitement and dedication to eCommerce video. We are proud to be innovators in e-retail and look forward to further experiencing the powerful impact video has on the way people shop online. Enjoy the remainder of 2010 and have a happy and safe New Year.
Happy Holidays to All,
Invodo
Invodo’s Craig Wax was featured in two publications recently with some useful information for anyone considering video for online retail.
In Chief Marketer, Craig’s article The Essential eCommerce Video Cheat Sheet covers the terms and concepts you as a retailer should be familiar with in considering a video program 
designed to enhance experience and drive conversion. It’s a complete glossary from Above the Fold to View-Through Rate – everything you need to know to come across as an expert in discussing eCommerce video.
There’s more useful information in a Practical eCommerce interview with Craig (also available as a podcast). In conversation with Practical eCommerce’s Kerry Murdock, Craig covers details that make a video drive conversion effectively – the right tone, presenter, length, scripting and other details that make a big difference in conversion effectiveness.
We’re pleased to be part of the conversation that defines eCommerce video as this rapidly-expanding space heats up. To stay on top of it, keep up with us on the blog, on our always-updated video statistics page, and in the latest news section of our site.
Writing a script is easy, but writing scripts that turn browsers into buyers is much more difficult. Often time scripts seem great when read but once spoken by a presenter, don’t come across as expected. In order to write a converting script, you have to consider much more than just the words. Below are three tips to follow to help you create eCommerce video scripts that sell.
Click to watch the Golfsmith R9 Driver
1. Use proven sales techniques
eCommerce video allows you to put your best salesperson directly on your product pages. When writing scripts, consider how a salesperson would sell that product if they were face to face with a customer. Incorporate those effective sales techniques into your scripts.
2. Write scripts that are conversational and personable
Shoppers need to trust the video presenter. In order to build trust, write scripts that both educate and engage the shopper. Contextualize product benefits and write in a conversational tone that consumers can relate to and trust in order to make a confident purchase decision.
3. Leave the marketing “spin” out
eCommerce video lets you speak directly to consumers at their point of purchase. Use that opportunity to highlight a product’s features and benefits and don’t present them with the same marketing “spin” they have seen in every commercial and advertisement. Write a script that gives shoppers additional value and they will be more likely to convert.
According to SocialTwist’s recent analysis of sharing behavior, content shared on social networks is much more likely to generate click-throughs than content shared through blogs or IM. In fact, social networks account for 60% of the click-throughs from SocialTwist’s Tell-a-Friend widget, followed by email with 31% of click-throughs. Sharing isn’t just caring. Since eCommerce video drives conversion for online retailers, sharing is good business.
The click-through rate (CTR) on socially shared content tells an even more compelling story. Content shared through Twitter has a staggering 1905% CTR. That’s not a typo – a link shared on Twitter gets an average of 19.05 clicks. Facebook does well also, with a 287% CTR. If your perspective is that relatively few users will choose to share your content, you’re missing the point. Those are high-leverage users and you should do everything you can to make it easy for them to share your content. Social sharing is a force multiplier because when links are shared by friends and family we treat them very differently than links sent to us by marketers. For every five times a link is shared on Twitter, nearly 100 people view it.
That’s why we advocate enabling sharing eCommerce video as a best practice. Sharing can drive business benefit if it’s done in a way that doesn’t risk interfering with the purchase process. That’s important for eCommerce video, where driving conversion – not distracting viewers with bells and whistles – is key. Clients such as Moosejaw Mountaineering and Paul Fredrick have found that our approach meets those criteria, and we’re excited to see them using it.
Do you share video content? If you use eCommerce video, do you have sharing enabled? If not, why not? Let me know in the comments.
Retailers have just experienced a record Cyber Monday with over one billion dollars in sales. The Wall Street Journal reports a 20% year-over-year increase and the rest of the holiday season looks bright for online retailers. This good news bears out the consumer behavior theories that underlie the Cyber Monday concept. Shoppers take advantage of fast office connections and privacy from family to get some real shopping done while, for a few minutes at least, avoiding plugging back into the workweek.
But has the advent of video and rich media as part of the shopping experience changed consumer behavior on Cyber Monday? If so, how? We reviewed eCommerce video statistics on Invodo clients and found some surprising trends that may help retailers better plan for use of video – both in the holiday season and year-round.
Cyber Monday video views showed a 350% increase over the October-November baseline. Rapid growth in video makes year-over-year comparisons difficult, but it’s clear that Cyber Monday shoppers who encountered video on retail sites chose to view it. The actionable recommendation is clear: merchants should prepare for a huge spike in video views, exactly as they prepare the rest of their infrastructure for a profitable onslaught of shoppers. Ensure that your video platform and CDN are up to the challenge.
Video View Through Rate was up to 40% higher on the weekend than during the week. View Through Rate (VTR) is similar to click-through rate – it is simply the percentage of viewers who choose to view a retail video. Consumers buy on Cyber Monday, but they are much more likely to watch a product video on the weekend before.
This phenomenon extends beyond Cyber Monday – our data consistently shows higher VTR over the weekend than during the week. That makes it valuable information for retailers. A reasonable hypothesis here is that consumers shop over the weekend, doing their research by deciding what to buy and where to buy it. On Cyber Monday they complete those transactions. Smart retailers can take advantage of this by putting video in front of consumers over the weekend, whether on home page promotions or in email campaigns.
The Cyber Monday numbers point to the continued growth of eCommerce and the prospect of a very bright holiday season indeed. By understanding the consumer behavior implications of video and rich media (during every week, not just Cyber Monday), retailers can make the most of that opportunity.
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