I recently spoke with Jamie Salvatori, founder and owner of Vat19, about his company’s comprehensive video program. Vat19 is an established e-commerce retailer that sells unique and unusual gift items.

In this interview, Jamie talks about Vat19’s approach to video and shares his tips on building a successful video program.

Enjoy!

INTERVIEW WITH JAMIE SALVATORI

Amanda Dhalla: Please tell our readers a little about Vat19. What types of products do you sell?

Jamie Salvatori: Vat19 is an online gift store, and we try to find unique items that are fun and functional. We sell a wide variety of…

Video is becoming ever more important to online business. In the few minutes it takes to read this post, at least 200 hours of video will be uploaded to the Internet and 8 million or so videos will be watched. And these stats are for YouTube alone.

With so much video about, you’d think every mid-to-large-sized e-commerce site would be running a well-oiled, high impact video program by now, but you’d be wrong.

Many e-commerce merchants are still learning the hard way that producing and incorporating video that boosts traffic, conversion and brand value isn’t as easy as it seems.

Before launching…

E-commerce video continues to scale. Last year, a whopping 73% of US retail websites incorporated video clips, according to eMarketer. Still, video remains woefully underused and hard to find on many e-commerce sites.

In our continued coverage of how-to videos, we’ve decided to stuff your virtual stocking with some good examples from an assortment of retailers that can inspire you with creating your own how-to videos.  Also, feel free to check out my previous post on how-to video tips for e-commerce for some background on how to create good how-to videos if you’d like to supplement ideas from this post.

Ho! Ho! Ho! ‘Tis I, Granta Claus! I recently interviewed Shop.org’s Head of Research, Fiona Swerdlow, to learn more about the annual Shop.org eHoliday Study.  Of note for VCC readers, this study contains some special insights on video! Below are some great video stats and trends from Shop.org alongside seven of my own video tips to help online retailers have a merry 2011 holiday.  Enjoy!

In our continued “how-to” series on creating product videos in retail and e-commerce, I interviewed Jon Schroeder, Video Director and Editor for Crutchfield Electronics. Jon shared with us about Crutchfield’s own formula for effective ROI and customer relationships with how-to videos, as well as some tips for what other retail and e-commerce businesses can be doing with instructional videos today. (To read more about why I think how-to videos are effective for retailers and brands, and for some tips on creating them, you can read my previous article, “How-To” Product Videos Tips for Every E-Commerce Business.)

How-To product videos are one of the most under-utilized features that every e-commerce site should have.  Many brands and retailers should be doing a lot more of them for real financial gain as well as social value with their customers. Learn in this post what are the many benefits of doing how-to videos for your own brand, and some helpful times for getting started.

Previously, I talked with user experience web expert Paul Bryan on the importance for retail and eCommerce professionals on implementing user experience, aka “UX” best practices in their online video program. This time I showcase with Paul what is perhaps the very first Product Video Usability checklist that all businesses can and should learn from, including the UX industry itself.