With the holidays fast approaching, consumers will shop online like never before. What will they be looking for? Shop.org and BIG Insight surveyed shoppers, asking, “When choosing to make holiday purchases from a given online retailer, what is most important to you?”
Clear product information was one of the top five answers. And, as Shop.org’s Fiona Swerdlow points out, shoppers want videos that clearly describe the products on their wish lists.
Invodo’s mission is to improve the online shopping experience for shoppers everywhere. Clients like Autozone, Bizchair.com, Golfsmith, Lenovo, L’Occitane, Office Depot, Really Good Stuff, The Sports Authority, and more are catching the video wave. This research from Shop.org and BIG Insight shows that our mission is well aligned with what consumers want. Read Fiona’s take on the survey results here.
At Invodo, we believe video is the most effective way to clearly educate prospective customers about features and benefits. This applies to both consumer products and business services. And that’s why we just launched a video to explain Invodo’s full-service eCommerce video solution.
While it’s too late for an Oscar nomination (lucky for Black Swan and The Fighter), I think our team did a terrific job writing and producing the video – - no surprise since video is what we do!
Please watch the video and tell us what you think.
Over the last two years, a key component of Invodo’s success has been teamwork and how we get things done. As our team grows, it’s critically important that we build upon our emerging culture and ensure that all new team members know, starting with the interview process, what it takes to be successful at Invodo.
To ensure that happens, we developed the Invodo Code and presented it to the team at our quarterly meeting yesterday. The Code defines the traits we seek, the values that guide our decision making, and why it matters. It was developed over the course of several months with great input from team members throughout the company.
In my experience, great teams are great for a couple reasons:
The Code communicates our common approach and will be the foundation from which we build a great and ever-lasting company.
Read the full code here.
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.
Once retailers create eCommerce product videos, the first step is to put the videos on the appropriate product pages so consumers can watch. Unfortunately, most retailers stop there.
Forward-thinking retailers find many more uses for their videos. They incorporate the product videos across their site (product pages, category pages, video galleries). They leverage video in marketing campaigns (email, blogs, newsletters) and push it through all channels (Web, mobile, in-store). Why? To increase the number of video views and maximize the return on the investment for creating the video.
Toys “R” Us (an Invodo client) is doing exactly that with its just launched iPad app for the holidays. The app has several cool features. One of my favorites is the ability for kids to create a wish list for their parents to see. But I’m not writing because of the wish list. I’m writing because Toys “R” Us has integrated its product videos into the app. Smart!
Toys “R” Us knows that people are more likely to buy when they watch product videos. So it makes sense to put the videos where consumers want to see them. And Invodo’s service allows for unlimited product video views. A perfect combination.
As more retailers create product videos, they should take a page out of the Toys “R” Us playbook and incorporate video into their mobile strategy. It’s just smart business.
E
arlier today ATG (Art Technology Group) announced it is joining forces with seven software companies including Invodo through its Catalyst Alliance Program (CAP). The CAP program makes it easy for ATG’s eCommerce clients to integrate the services of CAP participants.
As we’ve reported on our blog time numerous times, eCommerce video is becoming an integral part of the online shopping experience. That’s because video increases site traffic, increases conversion rates, and reduces product returns.
We are happy to have been selected as CAP’s full service eCommerce video partner. Participating in the CAP program makes implementing Invodo’s technology even easier for ATG’s clients. And that’s’ exciting for us.
Thanks ATG – - we’re looking forward to a long and mutually beneficial partnership.
I just returned from The Shop.org Annual Summit in Dallas. The Summit is the biggest event of the year for the eCommerce industry and this year’s summit had record attendance and excitement to match. Everyone was talking about the three hot trends in eCommerce: 
…Which couldn’t be better for Invodo.
Last year at this time, most retailers were just beginning to think about product video. Only the earliest of early adopters had a small number of product videos on their sites. But what a difference a year makes. Now, many retailers are actively testing video right now and even more are working to implement video before the holidays.
Invodo exhibited at the conference, and we were thrilled to see our customers like Living Direct, Golfsmith, JCPenney, Lenovo, Moosejaw, Verizon Wireless and so many others stop by to say hello. We also had a chance to visit with many prospective customers that we’ll be announcing over the coming months.
Besides retailers, the buzz about social, mobile and video really came across in conversations with the system integrators and eCommerce platform companies like Sapient, ATG and Demandware whose retailers are demanding these solutions to meet the every growing needs of their customers.
Invodo will definitely be back at The Summit next year. If your company works with eCommerce retailers, then I highly recommend you be there too.
See you at the 2011 Shop.org Annual Summit in Boston, MA.
It’s great to see Golfsmith, one of Invodo’s customers, named once again to the Internet Retailer Hot 100 list. eCommerce video is one of their keys to driving customer engagement, as are social tools such as Twitter and Facebook and creative tactics like giving shoppers the ability to design their own golf clubs. Golfsmith see their early adoption of eCommerce video as a competitive advantage. Video “is an opportunity to get far ahead of our competitors,” according to their Director of eCommerce and Online Experience Jamey Maki. Based on the strong results they’ve seen from use of video to date, we’re working with them to get video for many more products live on the site before the holidays.
This is well-deserved recognition for a company that consistently leads in the industry. Congrats to our friends at Golfsmith! Read the full entry here.
In her eCommerce Know-How blog, Fit for Commerce, CEO Bernardine Wu writes, “Product content, of course, is critical – as much and as descriptive as possible – and little sass can’t hurt. Videos, visuals that are zoomable, multiple product views – all are now must-haves, especially for apparel and accessories.”
It’s great to see validation of eCommerce video as essential to successful online retailing. And it’s exactly what Invodo has been advising its many IR 500 clients for some time. I’m certain we will see many more industry analysts communicating similar views over the next few years.
With all the technology talk around integrating video into email, many retailers are losing sight of the primary goal …influencing consumers to watch product videos and ultimately buy the product. With the recent excitement around HTML5, confusion about using video in email has reached a fever pitch while perhaps losing sight of the basic goal of any email marketing campaign.
That’s why I’ve written this article for DIRECT. It encourages email marketers to find the right balance between complexity and cost while maximizing video view through rate. Take a read through it and let me know what you think in the comments. Read the full article.
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