In an ongoing quest to learn more about video commerce, I spend a lot of time thinking about the ideas actually driving the industry forward.  Through countless interactions with e-commerce professionals, business people and folks outside the industry, I’ve finally come to the conclusion these are the central “breakthrough ideas” behind video commerce.  I’m curious to learn your thoughts, especially if you disagree with them or you believe there are others that should be on the list.

To understand the paradigms driving video commerce forward, I started looking at the central problems facing the industry today:

1) Obtaining/producing video content
2) Distributing video content
3) Making money from video
4) Figuring out the creative process behind video

On 1, the breakthrough idea is that video content can come from anywhere, capitalizing on the YouTube paradigm: “Everyone’s a Producer.”

- self-produced
- customers
- suppliers/partners
- from the community (YouTube, Vimeo, Viddler, etc)
- from outsourced production (amateur, prosumer, professional, big agency)

On 2, the breakthrough idea is that video is a cross-channel media with falling distribution costs. Video can be published anywhere.

- on-site
- ad networks
- YouTube & video services
- affiliate networks
- social networks
- blogs and consumer sites
- mobile devices
- digital television
- net connected game consoles
- etc etc.  The point is that as things accelerate this list will continue to grow.

On 3, the breakthrough idea is that video is not only an awareness tool but a tool that facilitates direct response.

- lift on product pages
- purchase in-video
- links in-video to brand experiences or product pages (doesn’t matter, as long as it moves the consumer closer to a transaction)
- feature related products in-video

On 4, the breakthrough idea is that video is a creative-agnostic media, and video commerce works as long as the content moves a consumer closer to the next transaction

- educational/how-to
- promotional
- commertainment
- entertainment
- etc – doesn’t matter as long as it moves the consumer closer to the next transaction

We are at the very very beginning of this market but trust me, within 12 months we’ll all be talking about video commerce.  We’re far enough along on items 1, 2, 3, and 4 that it’s only a matter of time until it gets figured out.

Until then – Happy Selling!