Invodo recently returned from exhibiting at eTail West 2011 where we had the privilege of speaking at the first ever Online Video and Rich Media Summit. Despite storms across the country, top online retailers still made it to Palm Desert to see the latest and greatest eCommerce products and services. From new mobile applications to optimized email marketing platforms, there were many hot topics at eTail. But no topic matched the buzz generated by eCommerce video. Luckily, Invodo was there to answer everyone’s video questions from, “Where do I start with my video strategy?” to “How can I A/B test and measure the conversion impact of video?” In total, eTail was an exciting event for all. Here are some of our teams takeaways.
Chris Uhland, Sales Director
Michael Kennedy, Enterprise Sales Director
Melissa Reiss, Marketing Programs Manager
Special thanks to Nancy Jenkins, Vice President at Swimwear Boutique, and Drew Leakey, Vice President of Marketing and Business Development at Living Direct, for their great presentations at eTail’s Online Video and Rich Media Summit. The entire Invodo team looks forward to continuing to help online retailers sell more through the power of video.
INNOVATE 2011, NRF’s retail innovation and marketing conference, is about to take place in San Francisco. 
From March 8 to March 10, top online retailers and innovative retail solutions will all gather to discuss the most progressive offerings and technologies on the market today.
Invodo is excited to be speaking and exhibiting at INNOVATE to demonstrate the power of eCommerce video. Providing the only full service eCommerce video solution, Invodo helps leading online retailers increase conversion rates, drive traffic through video SEO, and reduce product returns.
Craig Wax, Invodo CEO, and Andy Young, Verizon Wireless’ Director of Consumer Internet Sales and Marketing, will be presenting, “Video for Retail: The Next Five Years.” This session will cover how the online and offline shopping worlds will merge, bringing immersive video content to consumers at every point of purchase and consideration.
Video for Retail: The Next Five Years
Thursday, 03/10/2011
11:00AM -11:45AM
Breakout Room 2
Stop by Invodo booth 35 at anytime to further the video conversation and don’t forget to follow Twitter hashtag #INNOVATE11 and @Invodo to monitor the buzz.
eCommerce video is a hot topic for online retail in 2011 and industry events are taking notice. eTail West 2011 has announced their first ever Online Video and Rich Media Summit as a pre-day to eTail’s main conference taking place February 23-24. The video summit will include presentations from top online retailers as well as eCommerce video experts including Invodo’s own CEO, Craig Wax.
The Online Video and Rich Media Summit will cover topics ranging from choosing the right video commerce option to video creation and long term video strategies to increase revenue. No matter your level of eCommerce video experience, you will walk away will with a better understanding of videos’ benefits as well as the tools and knowledge necessary 
to implement a video strategy to increase sales.
Register for the Online Video and Rich Media Summit here and don’t forget to stop by Invodo’s booth, #49, during the main conference to further discuss how to drive sales with eCommerce video.
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
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.
The primary objective of eCommerce video is simple- sell more online through the power of video. While there are many factors involved in achieving that objective, one of the most important is effective product page video implementation. Follow the 3 best practices below when integrating video on your product pages to drive maximum video results.
In web design, “above the fold” refers to the portions of a webpage that are visible without scrolling. Of course, the exact location of the “fold” differs based on browser and monitor resolution. Identify the portion of your product pages that lie above the fold and target that location for your video implementation.
Placing your videos above the fold, increases video awareness and more importantly, video view through rate (VTR). Video above the fold realizes an average VTR of 25.7% – almost twice the 15.1% for players below the fold. With a higher VTR, you increase the opportunity to convert viewers into in buyers.
PurePearls.com does a great job of “above the fold placement” in the hero position for maximum video impact.
Make your videos visible and easy to watch. Use video merchandising icons and video call-to-actions (CTAs) to draw attention to your video content and drive views.
For even greater visibility, add a text call-to-action, ex. “Click to Play” or “Click to View”, next to your video icon. The addition of text to an icon on your product pages increases your view through rate to 23.9% versus the 21.4% without.
Red Envelope, online gift retailer and Invodo client, does a great job of employing an eye-catching video merchandising icon. They chose to use an animated gif play button accompanied with a text CTA, “Watch Video.” Not only does this catch customers’ attention, but also provides a direct call to action to watch video.
Provide your customers with a consistent and brand rich shopping experience. 
Choose a video platform that allows for customization so you can implement your video to match your existing site design.
A great example is SwimwearBoutique.com. They chose to use a custom aspect ratio for their videos and implement a vertical embedded player, above the fold, in order to provide their customers with the best video experience possible. In addition, the transition from their product photos to their videos is seamless. They truly provide a shop by video experience.
Be creative and have fun with your video implementation but always remember the objective: sell more online through the power of video.
Working with a variety of online retailers and brands, Invodo shoots video for multiple types of products across various product categories. When first planning a video strategy for our clients, one of the immediate questions asked is, “Which products in our catalog should we shoot video for first?”
For retailers who sell tens of thousands of products across multiple product categories, it is impossible, and ill advised to suggest they cover their entire product catalog at once or just shoot video one product category at a time. There are certain types of products that benefit more from having eCommerce video and identifying those products is one of the most important, and strategic decisions to make.
To make the most of your eCommerce video investment, start by shooting video for the products that fall into one or more of the categories below.
1. 80/20
Shoot video for the products that account for a high percentage of your sales. If 80 percent of your sales come from 20 percent of your products, create video for as many products in that 20 percent as you can. If that number seems daunting, start with the top 5 percent and work your way down.
2. High Traffic
Products with high traffic mean more opportunity for you to convert those browsers into buyers. If your high traffic products are not converting at a high rate, definitely consider shooting eCommerce video for those products. Video increases conversion by an average of 30% so take advantage of the power of video and cover your high traffic products.
3. Complex Features
Products with complex features, such as portable air conditioners, greatly benefit from eCommerce video. Consumers are often hesitant to buy complex products online because of the inability to see and test all the different components. With eCommerce video, you are able prove a product’s value by demonstrating important features and highlighting unique product benefits. eCommerce video improves consumer confidence, increasing the chances they will buy.
4. High Margin
The more high margin products you sell the more profit you will make. Internet Retailer reports that visitors who view product videos are 85% more likely to buy than visitors who do not so use video to drive traffic, increase conversion, and reduce returns for your high margin items. You are sure to see a great return in your video investment.
Video is powerful. From feature films to viral YouTube clips, video engages viewers, elicits emotion, and often cause powerful reactions.
Good video creators have a purpose in mind when producing their content. Whether it’s to make someone laugh, highlight social issues, or promote products, video should have a purpose. At Invodo, our purpose is simple; we create video to help retailers sell more online.
Recently, Magellan’s International Travel, #420 on the IR 500, implemented Invodo eCommerce video specifically created for their top products. Not only did Magellan’s do a stellar job implementing video onto their product pages, but they also created a video gallery containing 54 product videos providing their customers a unique, one of a kind shopping experience.
So why did Magellan’s decide to go beyond the product page with their videos? Well, there are many motives but I have highlighted the top 4 reasons why you should take a tip from Magellan’s and consider implementing a video gallery on your eCommerce site.
1. Enhance Customer Experience
Video elevates the online shopping experience. These days, consumers expect robust product information when shopping online. From product reviews, to multiple product images, the more valuable information you provide consumers the more likely they are to buy. And there is no form of rich media more effective at communicating a products’ features, benefits, and value than video.
By implementing a video gallery, Magellan’s now allows customers to navigate videos by category, see a brief product description, and head straight to the product description page where they can add the item to their cart. Shopping via video = Awesome.
2. Boost SEO
Since December 2007, Google has been accepting video sitemaps in order to index relevant video content and give SEO credit where credit is due. As video continues to dominate the internet, so does the need for proper indexing.
Recently, Google has added the ability to specify both a gallery URL and unique URL in the video sitemap for each video. For Magellan’s, this means they can have their unique video content associated with two URLs increasing their chances of being found, aka, a boost in their SEO.
Note: Google allows only one video gallery association per video.
3. Increase Conversion
Video Sells. At Invodo, we see an average 30% increase in conversion rates for products with eCommerce video. However, there are often times when videos are hidden deep within a retailer’s site. No fault of the retailers as many product specific pages live under home, category, and multiple other pages.
As Magellan’s has demonstrated, a video gallery solves that problem. They have a large video CTA on their homepage that directs you straight to the video gallery where you can browse their videos. Can’t get more exposure than that!
By putting your best sales person demonstrating your top products in multiple locations on your site, you increase the chances customers will find the video, watch it, and buy the product! From a browser to a buyer, just like that.
4. Maximize Video Impact
Video can be a substantial investment. It takes creating the actual video content, optimizing your content, integrating it into your site, generating video sitemaps, and distributing to social networks if desired. So why not maximize your investment and put your videos in front of your customers at multiple points of purchase consideration! By having videos in an easy to navigate, well-organized, relevant video gallery AND on specific product pages, you will realize a higher video impact.
Kudos to Magellan’s who is clearly taking advantage of the benefits of eCommerce video. I hope online retailers continue to create and implement product videos on their site. It is truly changing the way people shop online.
What is more exciting than the Oscars, Emmy’s and MTV Music Video Awards combined?
The 2010 Streaming Media Readers’ Choice Awards!
Voting is now open for you to choose your favorite companies, products, and services in a variety of industry categories. This year, Invodo is honored to be a nominee for the “Best Online Video Company – Content.”
You can place your votes up until October 1st. The top three vote-getters in each category will be announced on October 18th and the winners will be announced at Streaming Media West on November 2nd.
Invodo is excited to be a part of the online video industry and could not be more thrilled about our nomination. Eric Schumacher-Rasmussen, editor at Streaming Media, was equally thrilled at this year’s nominations.
“When I first looked at this year’s suggested nominees, all I could say was ‘Wow’. We received more than 250 nominations, all of which show just how vibrant the online video industry is, and how much it continues to grow. In addition to the old standbys, it’s been great to get introduced to so many new faces. And what they all have in common is a commitment to not just technological innovation but to the belief that online video continues to be a revolutionary force for communication. Check out the list of nominees, and I’m sure you’ll feel the same.” – Eric Schumacher-Rasmussen
Remember, you can only vote once in each category so make it count. Vote Invodo!
While few things excite me more than a great pair of shoes, I have to say that this year’s Shop.org Annual Summit in Dallas, TX has me pretty fired up! Nothing is better than being around new eCommerce technologies and in the company of the most esteemed online retailers in the IR 500.
This year Invodo will be exhibiting at booth 218 where you can stop by for a free shot and see examples of eCommerce video in action. It is always exciting to see retailers’ reactions when they realize Invodo eCommerce video not only increases conversion rates, but also drives traffic from video SEO enablement and reduces product returns.
eCommerce video is the next big thing in online retailing and I like nothing more than to show off Invodo’s amazing production capabilities, eCommerce focused video platform and player, and our ability to distribute videos to social media sites.
Go ahead and add Invodo, booth 218, to your EXPO Plan here and don’t forget to read, “Getting the Most out of Your Shop.org Summit” to get tips from our CEO, Craig Wax.
See you at Shop.org!
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