One would be hard-pressed to find a singular label that describes EXPO. You could refer to it as a consumer-generated video review site of manufacturers products. You could also describe it as a moderated social commerce video network, where the “social” is about users sharing product experience and offering advice about those same products. In my interview with EXPO’s president Bill Hildebolt, he talks about the value of their business model for e-commerce, and the special challenges of balancing search engine visibility for their own brand with that of their clients.

So, you’ve decided that it’s important to get some video on to your website. Now, the question quickly turns to content. How to get it? What should it do? And most importantly, how will we get it?

It’s natural for many online marketing teams to take stock of the skills and abilities of their existing resources to create original videos. The benefits are obvious: your staff knows the products already, it doesn’t cost much to get a Flip Mino, and you can bribe your staff to talk into the mic with little more than donuts.

But, there are…

“Facebook is turning into a virtual online mall of sorts” – TechCrunch

2010 has been an explosion for Facebook in the merchant space. So what is the link between the much improved e-commerce experience and activity on Facebook, with it’s new technology and social activity around video? Read on and find out…

Yesterday, Jamie Beckland wrote a post highlighting why e-commerce merchants need to think twice about interactive video shopping.  To me, the central point of the article was summed up with this statement: “Most e-commerce marketers have bigger fish to fry than getting someone to convert from a [video] banner.” (I added the word “video” to the quote).

I’ll start this counterpoint article in an unexpected way: I couldn’t agree with Jamie more. But I think the article missed the larger point by confining interactive video shopping to “banners.”  Display advertising for most retailers produces no more than 2% –…

There is a wave of interactive video shopping experiments running across the web. Retailers are looking for ways to differentiate their online presence and create a more compelling shopping experience online.  Interactive video ads fit the bill.

But, as marketers, how useful is this technology in achieving business objectives?

Grant Crowell interviews Deborah Lewis, Director of Creative and Rich Media for Overstock.com, and one of the panelists of “Lessons Learned and Best Practices in Automating Video Production” at the 2010 Video Commerce Summit in Seattle. Deborah talks about Overstock’s online production techniques and production process, how they went about choosing an automated video technology provider, and some tips on how you can be successful with your own automated video production.

Quick quiz: what encoding standard do your online videos have? Don’t know? Well, until recently, that could have cost you – to the tune of 6 figures or more.

Few marketers have time to worry about the backend technologies that drive video on your site. But, these protocols could have had large impacts on your bottom line. Imagine getting an invoice for tens of thousands of dollars from MPEG-LA or Google, owner of On2.

For many retailers today, e-commerce is about having videos for an ever-growing number of their products, which can be produced and delivered quickly, at a low cost-margin as possible. If you fall in this category, then having an automated video production technology may be the solution for you. Here you’ll learn about the benefits for some e-retailers with automated video production, when it makes sense (and when it doesn’t), what vendors are doing it for retailers, and low-cost/zero-cost video production methods you can do yourself.  

Going to the Shop.org Annual Summit? Meet up with the web’s leading video commerce luminaries from the VCC.

Event info:

When: Sept 28, 2010, 5:45PM
Where: Gaylord Texan Resort (Dallas), Pool Bar & Grille
Who: Intimate crowd of the web’s leading video commerce pioneers, “A” List
Contact: justin [at] video [dash] commerce [dot] org or 253-988-3183

This will be a “chill” event not to miss – possibly your highlight of the entire Shop.org experience.

Until next time… Happy selling!

Justin