“YouTube needs to move beyond getting viewers to YouTube as a goal – making their revenue numbers will increasingly depend on assembling a valuable audience and keeping them there for longer periods of time,” says Russ Somers, vice president of marketing for Invodo. full article »

The apparel and accessories category is one of the fastest-growing segments in the retail ecommerce industry, according to a new eMarketer report, “Online Apparel Shopping: How Video Boosts Shopper Confidence and Drives Sales.” eMarketer estimates online category sales will grow 20% in 2012, outpacing the 15.4% growth rate for retail ecommerce in general, with total online apparel and accessories sales reaching $41 billion. full article »

Invodo, a privately-held company in Austin Texas, creates videos for retailers and brands to enhance their communication to their customers. Invodo has found that videos increase the conversion rates from exposure to sales, and the conversion is even greater on mobile devices. Consider this: According to Invodo research, mobile shoppers are three times more likely to click and view the video than desktop or laptop users. full article »

The effect of online video on the purchase cycle appears to be strengthening, particularly in the apparel sector. According to a study conducted by Google and Compete, four in 10 online shoppers visited a store or retailer website as a result of watching apparel videos online.Customer testimonials and reviews are the most commonly watched videos, but email marketing videos and consumer-generated videos are not far behind. Google and Compete’s study also indicates online shoppers are giving time and consideration to video ads while shopping for apparel online. full article »

A new Whitepaper from the e-Tailing Group and Invodo notes that consumer consumption of video has exploded over the past few years. YouTube says over 4 billion hours of video are watched each month. The e-tailing group 2012 Mystery Shopping review revealed that 70% of retailers, versus 59% in 2011, made video part of their shopping experience in the past year. full article »

Do you use online video to drive sales? New research says you should. Consumers expect videos, and they use those videos when deciding what to buy. This time last year, Invodo and The E-tailing Group came out with an excellent study called Delivering Superior Shopping Experiences via Video that quantified exactly how useful online video is for online shopping sites. Well, the two have partnered again, this time on How Consumers Shop with Video, which charts the rise in importance of online sales videos in the last 12 months. full article »

Video provides a sensory, informational experience that brings the shopper as close to the product as possible without ever stepping into the store. This “hands-on-like” experience makes the consumer more confident to purchase and as a result, avoid buyer’s remorse. full article »

A new report called ‘How Consumers Shop with Video,’ from Invodo, which serves marketers in video distribution, and E-tailing, an ecommerce consultancy group, shows the results of a survey of just over 1,000 consumers at the end of last year. Essentially, this study tells us how video effects purchase decisions and how influential it really is. full article »

A new study from video distribution service Invodo and Ecommerce consultants e-tailing confirms that there is an increase in the amount of consumers who feel more confident in buying a product or service after watching a demonstration video before they purchase. The report, 'How Consumers Shop with Video' surveyed over 1,000 consumers in Q4 2012 to ascertain how their online shopping habits and intentions were influenced by the use of retail video. It's a relatively small sample size but it give us some interesting insights into the role of video in the purchase cycle. full article »

57% of online shoppers agree that they are more confident when they watch a product video in advance of making a purchase online, and therefore less likely to return the product, details Invodo in a study conducted by the e-tailing group. That 57% represents an almost 10% rise from 52% who responded that way in the previous year’s survey. Also rising was the proportion who say they have more confidence in the purchases they make after they watch related onsite videos, from 51% to 55%. full article »

This week’s Infographic Friday features Invodo’s Video Statistics: The Marketer’s Infographic full article »

Today's busy customers are becoming increasingly willing to find service solutions themselves before contacting an organization for help. This trend not only helps customers get what they want faster, but it's also a plus for organizations, helping them decrease their service costs. full article »

Invodo is bringing new dimension to the e-tail world through its phenomenal video platform. If you've ever had trouble deciphering the size or appearance of a product you want to buy online, or just need more information than a little photo, Invodo product videos on store sites across the country make it easier to shop. It's my hope that more online stores will one day adopt the Invodo approach. full article »

In online video marketing, no detail is insignificant. Retailers that have implemented a video strategy need to continuously experiment and try new tactics. A tweak here and an adjustment there can make a huge difference in how your videos help you sell things and improve the user experience. full article »

Videos are integral part of the online shopping experience. Shoppers expect to see videos on every device they use when viewing a product they are interested in purchasing, according to a recent study by the e-tailing group. full article »

Online product videos help generate purchases by bringing shoppers closer to the items they’re considering. More than half (52%) of consumers say that watching product videos makes them more confident in online purchase decisions. full article »

Once again we round up six of the best infographics we've seen this week. The topics include Google+, how women endorse brands, online video marketing, triple screening and mobile search stats from the UK and Eurozone. full article »

“Video clearly has value – both to our consumers who can acquire the information they seek to guide them to purchase, and to Clarks for its significant return on investment,” claims Rick Almeida, director of eCommerce at Clarks Americas, according to Invodo. full article »

One way to achieve success with video marketing is to enable consumer ratings and comments in your video player. By listening to these, you may uncover qualitative data—positive, negative or neutral—that can validate your video marketing approach is right, or tell you to change course. full article »

“YouTube needs to move beyond getting viewers to YouTube as a goal – making their revenue numbers will increasingly depend on assembling a valuable audience and keeping them there for longer periods of time,” says Russ Somers, vice president of marketing for Invodo. full article »

The holiday season, with its urgent exhortations to stay jolly, is also the time of the year when millions of consumers fail miserably trying to insert handlebar Part A into bike stem Slot B. And that is so unjolly. full article »

The iPad will prove to be the most disruptive consumer product, ever, since the iPod. (Note: Both created by Apple.) The iPad is not just a mere a stop along the spectrum between smartphone and laptop. Rather, its particular combination of features – screen size, mobility, portability of the form factor, and Internet connectivity – propels the iPad in use cases, beyond any product previously. Here are eight reasons why the iPad, early yet in its product cycle, will serve as an ongoing catalyst for Apple over the next several years. full article »

Mobile views of product videos rose 150% on Black Friday and 164% on Cyber Monday compared to the year before, according to just-released data tech platform Invodo, which provides video commerce solutions for brands and retailers. The tech shop also said that consumers who watch product videos on mobile devices are three times as likely to make a purchase. full article »

Companies creating online videos don’t have to go far to learn what shoppers think of them. Your viewers are happy to express themselves right there in your videos’ comment sections.With all that free feedback readily available, it’s surprising we don’t make better use of it. Maybe that will change, however, now that video ecommerce specialist Invodo has released a free white paper entitled “Five-Star Video Shopping: Consumer Sentiment through Video Ratings and Comments.” full article »

The apparel and accessories category is one of the fastest-growing segments in the retail ecommerce industry, according to a new eMarketer report, “Online Apparel Shopping: How Video Boosts Shopper Confidence and Drives Sales.” eMarketer estimates online category sales will grow 20% in 2012, outpacing the 15.4% growth rate for retail ecommerce in general, with total online apparel and accessories sales reaching $41 billion. full article »

Retailers can start creating more engaging shopping experiences by including video content into their digital catalogs – thanks to a new partnership between Zmags and Invodo. full article »

Invodo, the business video experts, today announced that the company has further strengthened its management team by appointing John Whitmarsh, a corporate financial management veteran, to the newly-created position of Chief Financial Officer. full article »

Businesses that want to know how video can improve customer service need only to look to Verizon Wireless for the answer.The wireless carrier faced a big challenge, as increasingly sophisticated smartphones meant customers were requiring more support at the same time that call center costs were rising. These customers could be served online—but only if the information could be conveyed in an easier format than plain text and images. full article »

When it comes to retail and commerce, mobile site visitors are three times more likely to watch a video than traditional visitors. That’s the result of a research study conducted by Invodo, which provides video commerce solutions for brands and retailers. In studying more than 100 retailer and brand clients and surveying consumers, Invodo found that only 5.5% of its traffic comes from mobile devices, but that mobile visitors account for 14.3% of all video views. full article »

You’ve seen the compelling benefits that video can offer to merchants, and you’re ready to start using videos to help sell more products in your catalog. But there’s just one problem. You have tens of thousands of products, and you’d like to make a smart investment in, say, about 100 product videos. full article »

Invodo, a privately-held company in Austin Texas, creates videos for retailers and brands to enhance their communication to their customers. Invodo has found that videos increase the conversion rates from exposure to sales, and the conversion is even greater on mobile devices. Consider this: According to Invodo research, mobile shoppers are three times more likely to click and view the video than desktop or laptop users. full article »

The effect of online video on the purchase cycle appears to be strengthening, particularly in the apparel sector. According to a study conducted by Google and Compete, four in 10 online shoppers visited a store or retailer website as a result of watching apparel videos online.Customer testimonials and reviews are the most commonly watched videos, but email marketing videos and consumer-generated videos are not far behind. Google and Compete’s study also indicates online shoppers are giving time and consideration to video ads while shopping for apparel online. full article »

According to Invodo research, mobile shoppers are three times more likely to click and view the video than desktop or laptop users. Internet Retailer reports that those that view a video are 144% more likely to place that item in a shopping cart. And, 52% say that watching the video makes them more confident about their purchasing decisions (read: fewer returns). full article »

Using YouTube the wrong way may cost your company credibility, lost traffic and sales. Using it the right way, as a key piece in your holistic, multichannel video strategy, can achieve great results for your business. Many retailers struggle in deciding between whether to host videos on their site or whether to upload them on a social sharing site like YouTube. My suggestion is this: use both, but for different purposes. full article »

Spell it out. If you want a prospective customer to watch the video on your Web page, say so. Use a clear and direct call to action. full article »

For online retailers, a text call to action (CTA - such as “Click to Play,” “Click to View” or “Learn More”) can increase a video’s view rate by 12 times over passive labels like “Video” or “Video Here,” (6.16% vs. 0.5%) according to an August 2012 report from Invodo. full article »

Austin-based Invodo, the provider of a business video platform aimed at the online and e-commerce market, has expanded its customer based, adding several major manufacturers and retailers to its list of clients, the firm disclosed this week. full article »

New data out from Nielsen finds ad spending is up for the first quarter of 2012 - an indicator that consumer confidence is also up and, potentially, that the global recession may be nearing an end. According to Nielsen's data advertisers spent a total of 3.1% more, but several categories saw heavier ad spend increases for in Q1 2012 (Year over Year) with the bulk of the increase seen online outlets. full article »

Specialty retailers are always searching for strategies that separate them from mainstream stores selling similar products. BizChair.com has an additional hurdle: The online retailer must compete with big chains offering a chance for a customer to sit in a chair. full article »

Consumers are watching a lot more videos online than they used to. 52% of the U.S. population spent time watching online video in December, and the average viewer spent more than five hours and watched 138 videos. Total video views topped 22.62 billion, up 122% from 10.21 billion 18 months earlier, according to The Nielsen Co. full article »

The world has gone multimedia, and video is a growing part of that. But this goes much further than just video for entertainment or videoconferencing. As Invodo explains, more companies are now leveraging video to help educate and inform their customers, often increasing customer satisfaction in the process. Customer Interaction Solutions magazine recently interviewed Craig Wax, CEO of Invodo, about the power of video. full article »

Product videos are proving their utility to consumers on the hunt for information online. According to a November 2011 study by the e-tailing group and Invodo, US consumers who encountered product videos on websites watched them 60% of the time. And 36% of respondents said they had watched five or more product videos on brand or retail websites over the preceding three months. full article »

ver clicked on a video link on your mobile phone only to encounter a video that - gasp - didn’t play?Yep, thought so. Me too.Even in this mobile-centric day and age, I still run across videos that just don’t start on my smartphone, or videos that require the viewer to scroll back and forth across the screen.But brands and businesses should do whatever it takes to optimize their videos for mobile devices because consumers are increasingly watching product videos on their handhelds. About half of smartphone users and 61% of tablet owners have watched product videos on their devices in the last three months, according to an Invodo study conducted in partnership with e-commerce consultancy the e-tailing group. “Tablets may have greater long-term potential for effectively delivering the product videos that today’s consumers currently gravitate towards,” the study said. “Monitoring all mobile devices will be important as ‘devices’ grow in importance and forever alter the daily lives of shoppers.” full article »

According to the results of a recent survey, 31 percent of consumers as a whole have already viewed at least one product video over a smartphone screen within the last three months.Among owners of smartphones, themselves, the number of individuals who had watched a product video on their mobile device screens spiked to 49 percent.According to Craig Wax, the CEO of Invodo, they were surprised by the results of their research. He explained that while they naturally knew “that consumers were watching entertainment videos from YouTube on their smartphones, but we didn’t realize how high the number was for product videos — especially as this is still an early trend for retailers.” full article »

52% of consumers who watch product videos say those videos make them more confident about purchases, according to Invodo. In a new study, the e-commerce video provider suggests that the main reason consumers stop watching a particular video is if it offers little information that helps with decision making; on the other hand, 66% of consumers who watch information-heavy videos about a product watch them two or more times before buying, Invodo says. full article »

When I wrote up the first part of this interesting whitepaper from Invodo, (Retail Video Builds Consumer Confidence & Aids in E-Commerce Purchase Decisions) I said I’d be back with part two which looked at the more technical aspects of online video for shopping from a consumer’s perspective, so here we are. full article »

Invodo recently dropped a whitepaper titled Delivering Superior Shopping Experiences Via Video: Consumer Insights and Retail Execution which looks at video on ecommerce sites, but from the perspective of the consumer. full article »

The e-tailing group, with sponsorship from Invodo, recently released a report titled "Delivering Superior Shopping Experiences Via Video" that details the impact of video on retail and illustrates the increased demand for video content. full article »

Overall, 31 percent of consumers have watched product videos on a smartphone over the past three months, based on a recent survey. Among smartphone owners, that number jumped to 49 percent. "That surprised us a bit," said Invodo CEO Craig Wax. "We knew, of course, that consumers were watching entertainment videos from YouTube on their smartphones, but we didn't realize how high the number was for product videos -- especially as this is still an early trend for retailers." full article »

The report, from video solution provider Invodo, shows that educational and demonstration videos are the most popular among consumers, often being watched multiple times prior to a purchase. In fact, product videos may even cut down on returns, with 52 percent of surveyed consumers claiming that they are more confident when they watch a product video and less likely to return the product. full article »

Online product viewers can have a powerful impression on consumers, according to a March 2012 report from the e-tailing group, sponsored by Invodo. 51% of respondents, who qualified by having watched product videos on retail or brand manufacturer websites, said that they have more confidence in the purchases they make after watching a related video onsite. full article »

With 49 percent of smartphone owners and 61 percent of tablet owners having watched a product video on their device in the past three months, there is an opportunity for retailers to add video to their mobile strategy, according to a new report from the e-tailing group and Invodo. full article »

As several companies have already learned, having videos on product pages gives a big boost to sales. Customers like to see a product demonstrated before they buy, and video gives a more complete picture than pictures alone can. full article »

“The best thing about eCommerce is that you can do anything; the worst is that you can do anything.” With a one blunt observation, President of FreshPair.com, Matt Butlein summed up the complicated nature of the eCommerce industry and the foundation for the Internet Retailer Web Design & Usability Conference held in Orlando, Florida last week. [...] full article »

Sometimes the little things make a big difference. That’s what Shannon Wu-Lebron, director of ecommerce searchandising, at Office Depot Inc., found out as the e-retailer began adding product videos to it e-commerce site. full article »

We recently wrote about the role video currently plays in savvy Internet retailers' e-commerce strategies. But do videos make sense for products with a short shelf life? Do videos help with SEO? And are we entering an era where product videos will replace written content altogether? full article »

Whether home-grown clips on YouTube or professionally produced Hollywood shows, video is growing in strength each month. Billions of video clips are served and along with those clips are millions of advertisements. How to stand out from the crowd in the video space? full article »

Consumers care more about what’s in a brand video than how long it is. That’s the conclusion of a new study from Invodo tracking consumer response to e-commerce and shopping videos. Invodo is an online video e-commerce company with clients including Office Depot, Toys R Us, and Verizon. full article »

Invodo, a full-service video partner for business, announced the company has commissioned "the first-ever comprehensive study on how consumers embrace video in a retail context, revealing that many of the common perceptions about how video is used in shopping are actually incorrect." full article »

Among other findings, the study’s research shows that consumers care more about the quality and content of the video than the length of the clip, and that consumers have come to expect video as part of their online shopping experience rather than regarding it as an added feature or bonus. full article »

Looking to add product videos to your ecommerce site? We've put together a sampling of product videos from a variety of sources. And be sure to check out the following article - Best Practices for Creating Product Videos - for more on the subject. full article »

The viewing of videos on ecommerce product pages is growing at an extremely rapid pace, according to reports that surfacedthis past holiday season. Case in point: Lone Star Western Decor, a cross-channel seller of Western-themed home decor, added video to about 40% of its product pages, and saw as much as a 300% increase in conversion. full article »

Adding videos to retail sites was once a complicated and costly undertaking, but that has changed, says Craig Wax, CEO of Invodo, which sells online video services to e-retailers. “Video is coming to retail like a tidal wave, presenting both challenges and opportunity for web design ,” he says. full article »

Product videos are increasingly playing a key role in driving consumer purchase decisions. Online video e-commerce company Invodo said that its online retail partners saw a 9 times increase in video views on their sites at the start of the just-completed holiday shopping season. That includes companies such as Crocs, Golfsmith and Office Depot -- all Invodo clients. full article »

Online video solutions provider Invodo has released some new data about the use of video on retail sites during the first holiday shopping spree of the season. Invodo customers such as Verizon, Office Depot, Crocs, L’Occitane and others showed a significant rise in the number of consumer views during the Thanksgiving weekend, and some of the key points of data are below. full article »

It’s that time of year where we look up from our keyboards to find the holiday season freight train barreling down on us at an alarming speed. For obvious reasons, this time of year is especially critical and demanding for online retailers. Here are four ways to leverage video content to boost sales this holiday season. full article »

Consumer usage of video is increasing at an astonishing rate. Cisco has estimated that video will increase from 30% of Internet traffic in 2010 to 90% by 2013. Online retailers are already using video, and service companies, manufacturing, and many others are also hopping on board. full article »

I’ve attended the InnoTech Conference and Expo and its associated eMarketing Summit for several years now and always learn a lot. This year I wanted to pass on some comments from experts that I heard yesterday relating to emerging trends that are becoming more and more important: full article »

Retailers are leveraging video to engage shoppers and provide an in-depth look at featured products. To extend video life, maximize search rankings and expose their brands, merchants are tapping into Facebook, YouTube and other sharing sites at an increasing rate. full article »

In the rush to launch a new e-commerce feature it can be easy to lose sight of the key objectives, resulting in a disjointed video presence, lack of metrics and insufficient business impact. The best way to avoid that is to create a focused video strategy and ensure that everyone understands it. full article »

There are several key metrics that help us understand how video impacts customer experience and quality of engagement. This article explores how both quantitative and qualitative metrics can be used to evaluate the customer experience. full article »

At the recent shop.org Summit in Boston, Invodo CEO Craig Wax took a few minutes to talk with Retail Touchpoints associate editor Amanda Batista about video. Check out the video interview. full article »