Product videos are also big with the younger generation, the GenY’s or Millenials. The folks over at EXPOTV.com shared with me their research confirming that the 16-34 age group are even more interested in product video than other age groups.

However the big challenge facing a lot of e-commerce businesses is, how do I produce quality web video? Since the foundation for a compelling product video is engaging the audience, your videos firstly need to be of an acceptable technical quality. How many times have you been exposed to a video of a product where the audio was lousy, or the lighting was terrible, or it looked grainy? Without giving strong consideration to your technical quality and pre-production planning, you could end up wasting an entire shoot and making your business look bad at the same time.

Here are some quick tips from my own personal experience on how to prepare for web video production.

1. Look at videos of other popular e-commerce sites. Zappos.com and Crutchfield.com are excellent examples of how to shoot product videos.  You could even contact the company and ask what equipment they’re using, or if they ever use 3^rd party vendors.
2. Work with people who know how to shoot for the web. I’ve dealt with video producers who just presume their television background will translate to the web. It’s not the same! They should also know how to do post-production and export to the web, and that includes knowing how to export in both HTML5 and Flash. Find out what equipment they use for both hardware and software.
3. Have an online workspace to review videos. This saves me a great deal of time. Having a shared workspace allows the video production team, clients, and fellow stakeholders to review the work quickly and share comments, for quicker edits.

If you’d like to learn more about how to create quality product videos, check out Liveclicker’s upcoming webinar on Thursday, Feb 9:

Retail Video Production A to Z

Here are some of the retail video production challenges they will address:

• Choosing a video format that will scale well
• Importance of a solid pre-production process
• Considerations for in-house production vs. outsourcing
• Who should be on camera? Staff person or outsourced talent?
• What skills and equipment are needed to produce video in-house
• Computer requirements for video editing

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.

E-businesses from eBags to Costco are realizing the importance of maximizing the scale and visibility of their video programs. For those who need more convincing, here are a few stats underscoring video’s importance to traffic and conversion:

1. Online video dominates search. According to Marketing Week, video results appear in about 70% of the top 100 listings, displaying most often in universal or blended search results. Forrester Research agrees, finding that with proper optimization, video is 50 times more likely to appear on the first page of Google search results than a text page.
2. Consumers’ love for video shows no signs of abating. comScore’s 2010 US Digital Year in Review revealed 60 % of the U.S. population watched online video content each month in 2010, with the average American spending 14 hours plus watching videos in December. YouTube is now second largest search engine, with 4 billion videos streamed on the website daily.
3. Video reduces shopping cart abandonment. CBS Interactive Business Network reported that company websites displaying video convert 30% more visitors into buying customers on average. As an example, shoppers who view video at Onlineshoes.com convert at a 45% higher rate, with the site seeing a 359% year-over-year increase in video views. Product pages with video also have higher conversion rates than those without video.

Take steps to optimize your product videos

Given the persuasive power of video, it’s a shame that many retailers are failing to take steps to maximize its effectiveness. Here are some tips for getting the most out of your website videos:

1. Keep product video length short and focused. Anything longer than a few minutes and you run the risk of losing shoppers’ attention. For more expensive purchases, consider a series of short videos, each centred on a different product feature.
2. When you haven’t seen an item in person, it can be difficult to commit to a purchase. To help shoppers determine if a product is right for them – or overcome any lingering doubts – highlight its key differentiators or show someone demonstrating it.
3. Getting your videos indexed by Google is an important part of the video SEO process. To appear in search results pages, submit a video sitemap in the correct format, including an optimized video title and unique description.
4. While making a video for every product may not be an option, particularly if you have an extensive catalog, you can still deploy video across your entire range. In each category, start with top sellers and products generating the highest margins.
5. Make your videos easy to share to reach the widest possible audience. Include social video sharing buttons like Facebook share/like, Google +1, Twitter, email links and embed codes.
6. Measure the impact of your videos on sales. Don’t just look at conversion rates on their own, also review video metrics like page traffic, view rate, time on page and bounce rate to determine success.
7. Smartphone adoption is on the rise. If you’re a multichannel retailer, think about putting video QR codes on hangtags linked to informative product videos as Columbia Sportswear has done. In-store shoppers can scan the codes with their handsets to find out more detail on items of interest.

Above is an entertaining video extolling the benefits of Columbia Sportswear’s Omni-Heat Electric product technology that the company links to QR codes on their hangtags.

Scot Wingo

I recently had the opportunity to interview Scot Wingo, who is on the Board of Directors for Shop.org as well as the Founder and CEO for global e-commerce platform provider, ChannelAdvisor. In the interview, Scot shares his insights on how the retail industry can utilize video commerce to strategically improve product conversion.

Interview with Scot Wingo:

Justin Foster: Today we’re speaking with Scot Wingo from ChannelAdvisor.  Scot, thanks for joining us.

Scot Wingo: Hey, thanks for having me.

Justin Foster: Can you tell our readers a little about yourself, and specifically share with us what your background is in the e-commerce industry?

Scot Wingo: Sure, I’m the CEO and one of the founders of ChannelAdvisor. We are a software company that started in 2001.  Our software is on-demand, or used in a browser. Our customers are retailers.  We have over 3,000 retailers as customers, and what we do is help them manage what we call the e-commerce channel, and there are three different buckets in there. There’s paid search like Google, Bing and Yahoo!  There are comparison shopping engines. We actually support over 130 comparison shopping engines.  And finally, there are marketplaces like eBay and Amazon.com, and also new marketplaces out there, like Buy.com that we support.

Justin Foster: Our listeners here tend to be from large multichannel retailers and midsize retailers as well.  A lot of them are fairly new to video or have been producing video content for maybe just a couple of years.  Many of them, when they started retail video production, they would produce a product video and then they put that video on the product detail page. Do you see opportunity outside of the product detail page to syndicate video content other places?

Scot Wingo: Yes, if you’re going to invest in these digital assets, and video is obviously a very important one, you might as well syndicate that out there as well.  Marketplaces like Amazon allow for submitted videos.  eBay, which a lot of our customers use, especially on the luxury side, allows you to include a video with an eBay listing.  Comparison shopping engines are a little bit tougher. Only a couple of them will allow you to send a video, but right now it’s kind of limited.

Justin Foster: So it sounds like there is some opportunity in some of these marketplaces, and it sounds like there is also some limited opportunity in comparison shopping as well. Now in regard to the media assets in general, are you seeing clients experience greater sales and higher conversion rates when they push these assets out to these marketplaces?  What have your clients’ experiences been in that area?

Scot Wingo: The way I look at it is from a very high level view.  In the world of e-commerce, only 7% of sales are online, and I view video as a really exciting technology that helps bridge that gap between offline and online, and will hopefully take us from that 7% penetration level up in the 20s. That is the 30,000 foot view of it

The way we encourage retailers to look at it is that we view video as a strategic conversion enhancement. Usually, the best measurement is an a/b test of the conversion rate before and after video.  We definitely see a significant increase anywhere from the 10-20% range when you go from a flat presentation to a video presentation.

Justin Foster: How would that fit within the context of these rich interactive catalogues? Can you help me understand if video is a part of these catalogues or do you think of video as something completely separate from these?

Scot Wingo: In many times, video will live on the item page of the e-commerce site.  Sometimes retailers will have a separate interactive catalogue that could absolutely contain some video.  Retailers also sometimes have a separate video section on their site that shoppers can use if they want to see less product specific videos, and more category videos about a family of products, or a new line coming out.

Justin Foster: Today, does ChannelAdvisor have any clients that are syndicating video content out to any of these marketplaces or that are actively using video?

Scot Wingo: Yes we do.  They tend to be in the luxury segment, so folks like Saks Fifth Ave, Ann Taylor, and a lot of our jewelry customers tend to have video. We do have some TV networks as customers and they do everything they can to syndicate their video.

Justin Foster: Why do you think you’ve seen greater penetration of video syndication in those particular segments? Any thoughts there?

Scot Wingo: I think when you have a commodity product like, Nintendo Wii, or something that’s pretty well understood by the consumer, the video can be useful for some of the advanced things going on, but it’s not as compelling as if you have something like a diamond ring.  With a luxury item, the user wants to not only learn about that product and see it in its two-dimensional format, but they also want to see it on a person, and learn more about it in a way than you can only do through two-dimensional display.

Justin Foster: That makes sense. When you look across your entire client base, is video a topic that really comes up a lot? Or is it something that is just kind of hit or miss right now? Are you seeing any increased momentum among your clients with regards to trying to get into video or has it just been kind of stagnant?

Scot Wingo: I would say it is increasingly coming up into more conversations, especially in those categories that we talked about. In consumer electronics or media, it doesn’t come up much at all.   In contrast, in apparel, home and garden, sporting goods and jewelry; it is definitely on top of mind. I think part of it is that the competitive landscape is such that you have Amazon doing a lot of video, a lot of the flash sites are augmenting what they do with some nice video, and retailers feel like the bar is being raised with video and they need to catch up. You also have vendors out there that are offering a lot more services around video, so that retailers can outsource it if they don’t want to do it in house. There are even some that have templated programmatic ways to add video.  It used to be that if you have a lot of SKUs, you would think video is out of your range, but now maybe you can take your top 5% of SKUs and do a heavily customized video, and then the rest you do in an automated video. There are a lot of retailers experimenting with these different options that didn’t exist 2 or 3 years ago.

Justin Foster: I want to probe a little bit deeper there as well, and this is just with regard to importance of quality.  I think that a lot of retailers for a while now have believed that having high quality media assets, particularly image assets or even flash demos, are important, but there are still scalability issues with video.   You have this idea in which you do a higher quality, more customized kind of video for the top 5%, and then do the more automated video for the rest of the products. Do you believe that the automated method of producing video content runs a risk of harming the user experience of the shopper? Do you feel like those more automated methods of producing video add as much value?  What are your thoughts there in general?

Scot Wingo: There’s definitely a trade-off, where if it is automated, it’s not going to add near as much value as custom produced video. The automated ones I have seen fall under two kinds of experiences.  There are ones that add absolutely no value at all, and after you watch the video, you almost feel like you want those 30 seconds of your life back. On the other hand, others I have seen are somewhat informative and have told me things that I probably wouldn’t have known, so I think right now I’m kind of cut both ways with regards to automated video. I do tend to see more that are maybe a waste of time than that are helpful on the automated side, but I think as those technologies get better that they can perhaps further add value.

Justin Foster: That makes sense.  We call this the implied contract that retailers have with shoppers. We live in a very ADD culture in my opinion, where shoppers are clicking around a lot and are spending very short periods of time on different places around the web.  When you ask someone to watch a video, the contract that you’re making is that in exchange for giving me your time to watch this video, you have to add more value than the time you’re taking away from the shopper. It is interesting to hear you say that you think there’s a trade-off there.

Scot Wingo: Yeah, definitely.

Justin Foster: Before we wrap up, what are some of the largest obstacles that you see retailers facing with video?  What advice might you offer for those retailers?

Scot Wingo: When we talk to retailers, I think their main concerns are the cost. Obviously, if you’re going to do it in house, it’s extremely expensive.   Even with some of the outsource options that retailers try to look at, I think it’s their natural inclination to multiply the per item cost by the number of items they sell, and then that makes it really seem very large and insurmountable.

A lot of them also question the efficacy of video.  Many think that if it only moves the conversion rates 2%, it’s never going to pay for itself.  We often see this scenario where retailers think these problems are insurmountable, and we encourage retailers to just kind of nibble away the problem and do some smart testing.  The nice thing about e-commerce is that we have so much data.  If we know what the top sellers are, and we know what our conversion rates are on those items, you can pick 10 – 20 items and do a $5K-50k pilot test. Most retailers can afford to experiment at that level.  After you measure the conversion rate on those items, you have actually eliminated a lot of the variables, and you can actually make a smart decision.   Let’s say it increases conversion rates 10%, and then you can now do some math and figure out what items video will pay for itself.   In your test, if you pick some strategic products that span across multiple categories, not only do you eliminate one variable, but two. That is why we really encourage retailers to experiment with these things and use some smart a/b testing.  Then when you evaluate the opportunity, you can have a solid sense of what your video ROI would be, versus just kind of being scared of it.

Justin Foster: Absolutely. Good advice. Well Scot, do you have any other thoughts that you’d like to share with our listeners here before we wrap the interview?

Scot Wingo: The only other thing I would mention is that a lot of our retail clients tend to have low single digit conversion rates.  If you can do anything to move the needle on that, then the top line will grow, and the margin will just kind of come out of the equation.  Many of these video technologies can help move that needle, and they are definitely worth the time to evaluate.

What could be happening?

First, it’s important to note that when trying to send video IN the email, there are only two ways to do it: use an animated .GIF video (which plays silently in the email body), or use HTML5 video, which allows the entire video, with audio, to play within the email body.  Neither of these formats are supported everywhere, but there are techniques and technology like my company’s video email express software that can optimize the use of both, for example by displaying an animated .GIF video in the case where HTML5 video isn’t supported by the mail client.  The final method is to use a plain static image thumbnail in the email, linked to a landing page which features a video player.

How do the different methods impact A/B tests?

As more webmail and mobile mail clients support HTML5 video, more video viewers will see HTML5 video in email as opposed to an animated .GIF when you’re using a fallback method.  Probably the best illustration (since it is fresh) is Hotmail’s surprise rollout for HTML5 video support in summer of 2011.  Since Hotmail previously only supported animated .GIF videos, and with Hotmail comprising, on average, 12% of the overall mail client audience (this will vary, and could vary greatly, based on your list), then if you ran a 50/50 split, you would not be measuring up to 12% of the animated .GIF clicks for the “video plays” because those clicks are going to the HTML5 video version.

HTML5 video’s dirty little secret

No big deal, you say?  You can just have the 50/50 split measure clicks on the animated .GIF, add that to the clicks for the HTML5 video version, and your test is valid – you’re measuring what you want: video in email v. no video in email – all good!

Well, not so fast.  While one would think this is possible, it’s not.  And that’s because the dirty little secret of HTML5 video in email is that it is not possible to measure the clicks on an HTML5 video element.  These videos can not be encapsulated in an <a href> tag!  Keep in mind, I’m only talking about HTML5 video IN email, not HTML5 video on landing pages or in a web browser.  In those cases, it’s possible to measure all kinds of things about the video: plays, duration consumed, which player controls were clicked, etc.  But in email, this isn’t possible – since Javascript is needed to do these things, and Javascript isn’t supported in email.

Keep it apples to apples

The lesson here: if you’re trying to measure video in email v. static image in email, and you want to measure the lift of video based on a clickthrough rate metric, then make sure you are not using HTML5 video in the split of your list that includes the video version in the email.  Only clicks on animated .GIF videos are measurable.

Of course, measurement is still important, and most email marketers probably prefer to deliver HTML5 video as opposed to animated .GIF video.  If this sounds like you, then you will need to use another metric outside of clickthrough rate to get the data you crave.  Other metrics that could be used would include:

• At what rate did people visit the site after receiving the email for each segment?
• Did time on site increase for one segment or another?
• Did one segment demonstrate a higher conversion rate or higher average order value?

Regardless of the metric you choose, if you want to get full HTML5 video in front of as many people as possible in the email body itself,  then you will need to live with HTML5 video’s dirty little secret.

Susan Weinshenk

I interviewed usability and user experience veteran, Susan Weinshenk, on some of the ways that the professional UX community can do a much better job with incorporating video to create more positive customer relationships on e-commerce websites – both for improved sales and overall shopping experience.

I’ve had the fortune of personally working with Susan on a client usability report back in 2003. Here’s just a short list of her accomplishments:

• She’s the Founder and President of the User Experience Institute. (Previously she was the Chief of User Experience Strategy for Americas at Human Factors International.)
• She has 30 years of experience in the field of human factors/usability/user experience (UX) – including author, trainer, researcher, consultant, presenter, and developing user-centered methodologies – with both web design and e-commerce.
• Her most recent authored books are 100 Things Every Designer Needs To Know About People and Neuro Web Design: What Makes Them Click? (She also has a companion blog at whatmakesthemclick.net and a podcast series on user experience.)

You can also follow Susan on her Twitter handle: @thebrainlady.

Susan, as a veteran UX professional, to what do you attribute the lack of published UX/Usability research for online video to date?

Most UX/usability people don’t have a background in video. They are used to working with computer screens, Internet, software or even products (like medical devices.) Video is relatively new as a form for study in the usability/UX community, beyond basic items like user controls for video: playback, recording, etc. In general, the UX community hasn’t been focusing on content. Fortunately, I do see that changing.

Is it time for the professional UX community to spend more of its efforts researching and testing online video so they can provide their findings to the public?

Definitely. Video is such a powerful medium (online). I believe that video is the big opportunity on the Internet right now, so I do expect that the UX community will start paying attention to video, but it will be slow to permeate.

What do you think needs to change for more UX professionals to be involved with usability research and user testing for online video?

I think UX people need to realize that video is not just “content” that someone else is responsible for; it is part of the UX responsibility. That speaks to my larger point: Content in general, whether video or not, is within the responsibility of the UX person. Right now, in many organizations, the UX people are responsible for the presentation of the content, but not the content itself. I think it’s time for that to change. Otherwise, who’s minding the content?

User Experience Tips for E-Commerce Video

• Keep it social. Shoppers now expect web videos to have sharing features. You definitely want to include standard social video features like Facebook Like/Share buttons, Twitter “Tweet” buttons, along with “Send to a Friend” email and embed code options. You also want to give your audience the opportunity to share their own feedback from the video experience, so leave a space for comments as well.
• Give users a virtual shopping experience. Liveclicker’s Video Commerce platform is an excellent example of a “social technology” that lets customers select and compare related products right from within the video display, including interactive video capabilities allowing customers to both shop and share the video with others.  See the example screen shot below of their client, Advance Auto Parts’ interactive video player:

For more information on this topic, check out the 2 part series I did in October featuring tips on how to optimize user experience in e-Commerce videos.

Linda Bustos

I recently had the opportunity to interview Linda Bustos, Director of Research for enterprise e-commerce solutions provider, Elastic Path.  Linda is the author of the number #1 subscribed e-commerce blog, Get Elastic, and provides conversion optimization consulting to some of the web’s largest technology companies.   In the interview, Linda shares best practices and tips for using videos on retail websites, in email, and on mobile devices.

Enjoy!

Interview with Linda Bustos:

Justin Foster: Please tell our readers a bit about yourself, Linda.

Linda Bustos: I’m the Director of the E-commerce Research at Elastic Path Software. So a part of my job is writing for the Get Elastic E-commerce Blog three times a week on conversion, optimization, marketing, and anything to do with selling more products on an e-commerce site. Aside from that, I also do some consulting for our clients on the same topics. Prior to Elastic Path I was an SEO with a web design firm, where I had my first experience with online marketing for ecommerce sites.

Justin Foster: Briefly, can you share with us, what Elastic Path Software does?

Linda Bustos: Well, we are an e-commerce platform, and we’re focused more on digital commerce, technology and virtual goods.  Really, the big difference between retail and that industry is there’s different ownership, and different payment models, so our customers have different needs for our e-commerce platform, so we’re kind of niche.

Justin Foster: Got it, thanks for sharing that with us. Now I know Linda that you’ve blogged before on some of the benefits of using video in the context of e-commerce. Can you share with our readers what you think the most important applications of videos are in an e-commerce context, and where you think video makes sense in e-commerce?

Linda Bustos: Well, I think that video is the closest thing that we have to experiencing a product in your hands.  This is the big challenge about buying online things you have not seen in person, and relying on teeny tiny images on the screen. Plain and simple that is the big value of video, but also we know through customer research and that customers primarily want content. Although they like to read on the web, they want to see images from every angle.  Video allows you to see the product in use, and you can get a person actually demonstrating or reviewing the product, and giving you additional information that you can absorb better. Some people absorb by listening rather than reading.  It’s also interactive.  We have become a YouTube culture, so it just makes so much sense to bring the type of content that people want to consume to your e-store.

Justin Foster: Now, when you think about video, are e-commerce merchants mainly using video to sell products, or do they use it more for branding or for entertainment?  What is the right mix? Or does it really just depend on the brand?

Linda Bustos: Yeah, I think it depends on the brand. There are different functions of video, like you can use video to sell, you can use video to inform, you can use video to engage, and you can use video to build your brand and create a passionate community.  That’s more of the entertainment side of the videos that might appear like a blog instead of on a product page, or on your YouTube channel, on your Facebook page, or that kind of thing. So, I don’t think there’s any right or wrong way if you’re selling.  I think that making something more informative about the product and very persuasive is going to actually get you to the conversion, but it depends on what your goals are.

Justin Foster: You mentioned your focus on conversion optimization.  As we look at the different types of video content on the product page, what type of content makes the most sense would you say?

Linda Bustos: Well, product related content of course, but you can have multiple videos on a product page.  You can have one that demonstrates, you can also have a little section like Amazon has, where people can upload their own videos.  Just like you can have multiple sections of content on your product page, you can have multiple videos.  Now, keep in mind that that can add to the page load, and it can add to the visual overload of your product page. You don’t want to just throw it up there for the sake of, “hey, let’s have some more content, let’s have lots of videos up there.” It should be tested.  Know your audience and know your products, and also keep the videos very hyper focused. Even in length, you don’t want to have a super long video on there just because you want to explain absolutely everything that could be right on the product page.  Understand what parts of the video are going to be most effective to sell your products.  This might come out through your testing, or user testing or doing other types of research. It’s not necessarily whatever your gut feels is right, or what your team feels the first time,  there’s a lot of room for experimenting.

Justin Foster: What has been your experience in particular on the issue of video length best practices? Is there one length of video that tends to work the best? Or does it again, really depend on the brand?

Linda Bustos: Well, you’ll be able to see using your video analytics where people drop off during the video, so you’ll be able to know.  There are some products which are such highly considered purchases that people will watch an entire hour long webinar on the product.  There are some things that people only have an attention span for one to two minutes for video. There is a lot of research about that. If you can’t keep your video content down to a minute or two, then just break it up into chunks.  If there’s a software demo that goes on for ten minutes, we’ll break it down feature by feature, and give the user control to learn about the features that they find most interesting to them.

Justin Foster: That’s very helpful, thank you. What are some of the retailers that you think today are doing an especially good job with video? And what about their implementations do you like?

Linda Bustos: Well there’s a lot of different ways that retailers are using video, so for example Tiger Direct is selling electronics and they really understand the fears and uncertainties and doubts that their customers have.  I was looking for a camcorder. I don’t know what all of the technical jargon means about the features, I just wanted something that’s going to allow me to take good video, and something that’s easy for me to use.  I found that on their product page they had a channel with a personality who’s definitely trained in broadcasting.  It makes you feel excited about the product and builds trust. So you trust this reviewer, he comes across as an expert, and he demonstrates everything on that product in a way that that all the features and benefits are explained. That works really, really great with electronics.

If it’s a fashion site, look at As Seen On Screen over in the UK, they have multiple pictures, and also a runway and a catwalk.  You just see a model come down and turn around, there’s no narrative, there’s no close-ups or anything, and you just see the product in use. Other good examples are videos that are tell a story about the brand. For example, eBags, they have a lot of different types of video content and it sometimes comes from the manufacturer, and sometimes it’s produced in-house, but that doesn’t really matter.  Some are brand experiences where you want to know a little bit more about the designer and that appears on the category page.  The actual product specific videos will appear on the product page. So there are a lot of different ways that you can do it.  One other example is Dylan’s Candy Bar which sells all types of candy.  For their nostalgic retro candy bundle, instead of actually showing the candy or people eating the candy, they’ve got old cartoons on there.  It builds this atmosphere where you start getting nostalgic, and once you’re in that state of mind, you’re like, “yeah, I have to have this candy.” So, there’s a lot of ways you can get creative with video.

Justin Foster: Do you think it is okay to blend a little bit of entertainment in with the product oriented videos, if it’s congruent with the brand?

Linda Bustos: Yes…I mean you should test it as well, but yes definitely there’s room for that.

Justin Foster: That makes sense. Now Linda I want to switch gears a little bit. There’s been a lot of talk in the industry about video SEO and you indicated you have a background in SEO and web design, and I know that you’ve blogged about video SEO in the past.  I’m curious if you think that video SEO represents an untapped opportunity for a lot of retailers? Or do you think it is more of red herring?

Linda Bustos: No, I think video SEO is extremely important and even more so this year, next year, and the year after, because YouTube itself is a search engine, right? And we’re getting tablets and people love to watch video on their iPads, and even on their phones. People are searching in mobile engines now too, so it’s very, very important that your videos are being indexed, and that their meta data is being indexed, and the keywords that are actually in your video transcript are getting picked out. The most important thing that you need to have is a video site map inside Google webmaster tools or your other search engines, because that will show you where there is problems or errors with your file format or anything else.  It is also important to make sure all of your videos are hosted on their own URLs, so that they can show up in the video search.  You will know when you go into Google and it has links with image verticals, video verticals, and social links. The traditional SEO works tactics of building back links, creating good title tags, and syndication are important as well.

Justin Foster: You mentioned a lot of great tactical recommendations; let me see if I can list them out here: Publish video site maps, include video transcriptions, make sure that videos have their own URL, and include links back to videos.  Did I miss anything?

Linda Bustos: One more thing would be to utilize the video site map for troubleshooting. If you have some formats that are not working or if your tags aren’t working, the sitemap will show you where you can fix those problems quickly and easily.

Justin Foster: Great. Now moving on from SEO, I would like to touch on the topic of video in email. This July, Hotmail became the first major webmail client to begin supporting HTML5 video directly within the body of an email message. Do you see this trend of video in email accelerating particularly when it comes to retail and e-commerce? Or do you see it as something that just happens to be the latest bell or whistle, but doesn’t actually create value for retailers?

Linda Bustos: Well I think it poses a challenge for retailers, because now you’re going to have to segment your list by the clients that support video. So in this sense we have to create a campaign that works with compatible clients. I think it’s too early to know whether this is a proven tactic, so testing is really important. The videos would need to have some kind of clickable call to action either inside the video or around the video. What makes email works from our e-commerce perspective is its ability to generate interest; you don’t convert right from the email message. It’s there to generate interest and desire for your products and to point people back to your site and your site has to pick up that job. I absolutely think that there is a place for this in online retail, and that it can create a lot of excitement and interest in visiting your site again. It’s easier to show someone that video content right there in the email than to try and sell them in the email to actually come to your site to watch the video. I think there is room to test it and generate new ideas for using it, but I think it is too early to say what the best practices are.

Justin Foster: When it comes to using video either in or with email, do you feel that more email marketers are focused on driving click-through rate in e-commerce or more focused on driving conversion rate? And what is the metric that email marketers in your opinion should be focused on when it comes to determining the success of the campaign?

Linda Bustos: Usually with any type of metric, marketers want to drill down as far as we can into revenue. You can have a great conversion rate, and still have poor revenue. With any type of email, you have got to be focused on all the metrics, because all of them matter. If you have a low click-through rate, then you have to fix that because that will ultimately affect your revenue. Adding video in the subject line, just like you do in a blog post or in a Twitter post, might even increase your open rate. That’s something to play around with, and then measure open rate, clicks, and ultimately conversion. I think that if you’re just trying out video that it would be a success if you have a higher open rate than your regular emails.  It doesn’t necessarily have to convert more.  You would come away with the knowledge that putting video in the email subject line gets more clicks.  Then you could start to learn how to optimize the creative layout, and call to action.

Justin Foster: That’s something that we see as well.   Marketers that use video in the subject line of the email consistently drive higher open rates, and see anywhere between 5 – 20% increase in a/b split testing.  It can of course depend on the particular segment and retailer list. One last question for you Linda on the topic of mobile video: do you see real opportunities in the e-commerce space to leverage video on mobile devices for shoppers that are maybe in store, or looking to make a purchase away from their computer?

Linda Bustos: Yes, I think so.  Going back to that example of Tiger Direct, I could be inside the electronics store talking to a sales rep, and still not get that demonstration that I had on that video.  You can’t just open up boxed product, plug it in, and start using it to see if you like it. If the retailer had little kiosks, or had customers sales reps walking around with iPads showing video demos.  It would also be cool to have kiosks where you would be able to wave your mobile device in front of a larger screen and activate some kind of interactive video or multimedia.  There is so much potential for mobile video both in store and on the go. There are more and more mobile devices supporting HTML5 video with larger, more shopping friendly screens.  Many people are already using their smartphones to do quick searches while shopping, and that is where your video SEO comes back into play. The technology is going to catch up and I can see that rather than reading through tons and tons of customer reviews, people will be using mobile devices to see the product in action.

Justin Foster: Absolutely. Linda we’re close to out of time here. Do you have any closing thoughts that you’d like to share with our listeners here before we break?

Linda Bustos: If you are using video right now, congratulations, because you are now ahead of the pack.  Never stop testing, never stop pushing the boundaries of your creativity and make the most that you can out of it.

Target appeared to have been the sole major retailer with custom video content around Black Friday, with many of their videos featured on its own YouTube channel. The individual clips were built off their popular television commercial which was an extension of their successful 2010 Black Friday campaign.

Other retailers simply repurposed their original Black Friday television ads for their own YouTube Channels, including:

• Macys – “Guys Scream for Justin Bieber in Macy’s Black Friday Commercial”
• Best Buy – “Black Friday at Best Buy”
• Walmart – “Black Friday 2011 – Hand Cramp”

Holiday Video Marketing Tip #1: Consider featuring a notable and humorous personality reflective of the consumer craziness associated with the holiday shopping season. Target seems to have nailed it rather well, and they committed themselves to doing an online video series, rather than just a “one-and-out” like the other big box retailers did.

Black Friday print ads transformed into videos

This person created a video channel on Vimeo dedicated entirely to 2011 Black Friday print ads using what appears to be a basic template solution incorporating graphics of Game Stop’s print ads.

Holiday Video Marketing Tip #2: Consider repurposing some of your traditional advertising into video pieces.

Black Friday “haul” videos

I’m particularly surprised that many retailers missed what I think would have been a good opportunity to sponsor some of the more popular YouTube channel creators’ own Black Friday retail haul videos. At the very least, they could have monitored where their brands were being mentioned in the videos, and ran sponsored Google overlay ads alongside them.

Some of the more interesting and popular Black Friday haul videos I saw came from YouTube channel owners DulceCandy87, missglamorazzi, and TheGridMonster. TheGridMonster featured actual footage of the video creator and personality going to a big retail store on its Black Friday opening.

Holiday Video Marketing Tip #3: Look into sponsoring video content by some of the more popular haul video personalities that match your target audience and market.  You can feature your brand content in the video as well as in a corresponding overlay ad.

First, what is Google+ Pages?

Google+ Pages is Google’s latest platform for expanding and enhancing social relationships with business stakeholders – consumers, investors, colleagues, media, and the public at large.

“With Google+ Pages, we wanted businesses to build relationships online with their customers the same way they do offline. Video is clearly a huge part of that. The ability to give a behind-the-scenes glimpse of your business, or connect with customers face-to-face is something that can benefit businesses of all sizes,” said Google Spokesperson, Andrea Faville.

“We’ve already seen a number of retail and e-commerce businesses do great things with video on their Google+ Pages,” says Andrea.  Examples:

• Intros – Burberry created a custom video introduction welcoming people to their Google+ Page. (Notice the long chat stream of individual Google Page users on the right of the page.)
• Shop tours – Zen Bikes, a bike shop in NYC, features a video tour of their store. Watch “Zen Bikes In The Beginning.”
• YouTube feed – This example would make the most sense for any business with a YouTube account because it can be setup so that any newly posted videos from the YouTube channel can be included in your Google+ feed.

Google+ Hangouts

Hangouts is the video chat and conferencing program available for all Google+ Page owners.  Each Hangout can include up to 10 people. Andrea mentioned the fashion retailer H&M as a good example of how e-commerce businesses use Hangouts. “They’ve posted quite a bit of video content around their new Versace collection. Retailers can use video and Hangouts to showcase and have conversations with customers about their products, as well as answer questions.”

Here are some suggestions Andrea gave along with some of my own tips for how e-commerce businesses can make good use of Hangouts:

• Have an open conversation with customers.  “This can be as simple as holding an ‘open Hangout’ and letting customers join and leave as they’d like,” said Andrea. “Hangouts can also be used to answer customer questions in real time or solicit feedback on a new product.”
• Create a unique experience. “A restaurant could host a Hangout with the chef showing off his latest recipe.  A bookstore could host a Hangout with an author that visits the store,” she said.
• Showcase new products. Just like Zappos.com has its staff announce new items in stock, you can do the same with Google+ hangouts. The difference is that you can also offer an exciting “live chat” feel, where up to 9 other selected people (which could be a mix of journalists, personalities, colleagues, sponsors, and the public at large) can be part of the video chat room while the product is being released and demonstrated live.
• Customer support. You can post an advance schedule of Hangout sessions, which could feature an individual customer specialist on any product/topic/issue, and include up to 9 other individuals who are in your “customer” Circle.
• Check out the new “Hangouts with Extras.” Andrea mentioned that these new features are in preview mode for users. Currently, they allow you do screen share, sketch and share notes, and include Google docs with your live and recorded video chat in Hangouts.

For more on setting up, featuring, or being part of Google Hangouts, check out the Google+ help page, “Start a Hangout,” or you can check out all the available Hangouts over at Where to hangout at Google+.

• Actual e-commerce features! Currently there isn’t any ability to shop and order from a Google+ Page or video, but Andrea said that it’s something Google is looking into.
• Include other video platforms. Right now Google+ Page users are limited to using YouTube for uploading and embedding a video. (While you are able to include a text link to videos on other video sharing sites, their video player won’t show up in your page.) YouTube embeds also don’t enable all the interactive video features other video commerce platforms can provide for retailers and brands.  If Google wants to have its Pages program really be effective for both e-commerce and business needs in general, it should allow for embedding videos from other platforms not affiliated with Google.
• Allow people to search for Hangouts by business name. Right now it appears Google’s Hangouts directory does have a category for “Business” in its Permanent Hangouts page, but nothing specific to retail or e-commerce, and nothing with an actual search function beyond typing in an exact URL.

Meyar Sheik

Hello VCC readers!  A couple weeks ago, I had the opportunity to interview Meyar Sheik, CEO and Co-Founder of leading product recommendation and personalization provider, Certona.  Meyar’s company focuses on personalization for retail and brand web sites, and Certona is doing some interesting things with personalized video.  In the interview, Meyar shares his thoughts on personalization, personalization with video, and some general opportunities he sees in the video commerce industry moving forward.

Enjoy!

Video-Commerce.org Interview with Meyar Sheik:

Justin Foster: Meyar, thank you very much for taking time to be with us here today at the Video Commerce Consortium. I was hoping to start you could let our readers know a little bit about yourself, and specifically if you can share some of your background in the ecommerce industry.

Meyar Sheik: Sure. It is my pleasure to be here.  I have been in this business quite a long time, but more specifically since 2000, I have been involved with large ecommerce sites around web analytics, personalization and behavioral profiling and targeting.

Justin Foster: Can you share with us a little bit more about what Certona is doing with personalization and behavioral targeting?

Meyar Sheik: Certona serves large and midsized online and multi-channel retailers. We have a Software as a Service solution that tracks each visitor in real-time and profiles their interest and affinities individually using predictive algorithms.  It enables every consumer to find what they need quicker, and have a more personalized experience.

Justin Foster: Our audience here at the VCC, is primarily large multi-channel retailers as well and midmarket retailers. And one of the challenges that I can think of with regard to personalizing video content is that it might be a little different than when you’re just working with say, an image asset or with text that you can swap in and out of a page easily. I know that Certona has been doing some things with personalization and video, and I was wondering if you could share with our readers what it is you’ve been working on.

Meyar Sheik: You’re correct, Justin. It’s more challenging to work with a video asset, but video assets are also tagged with certain attributes, whether they’re tied to a specific product, category, or brand, and those types of attributes are important. Our platform can use those attributes to tie particular videos to a general or specific interest of site visitor at any given moment. So for example if you’re looking at a specific backpack on eBags, a common customer we have with Liveclicker, on the product page there is a video for that backpack. We can dynamically generate recommendations for similar products or backpacks, or related products that are embedded on that video. These recommendations really help the consumer with the discovery process, and provide a more personalized experience.

Justin Foster: So you’re actually taking recommendations for products and placing them within the e-commerce video player. It seems like it is becoming more like a shopping experience within the video player itself. Is that what you are saying?

Meyar Sheik: Absolutely. It’s a more integrated holistic shopping experience that ties different assets tighter together specifically to the current interest of the visitor at the moment.

Another example could be also if you have a number of video assets, and you’re manually trying to show a specific video at a given time based on our behavioral targeting and profiling, we can serve up the more relevant video asset to the right consumer at the right time.

Justin Foster: So it’s not just about personalizing content within the video player, it’s about making a determination as to whether or not a video should be served based on past actions from a customer or a shopper.

Meyar Sheik: Yes, because it’s not always intuitive and obvious if watching a certain video results in higher conversions for a segment of visitors on the site.  Our engine can predict those outcomes, and put the right video in front of the right person at the right time.

Justin Foster: Do you see the future of personalized video more along the lines of showing recommendations  right in the video player like in your first example, or do you believe that the future is to actually change the video itself dynamically, based on a recommendation of a shopper to buy a product?

Meyar Sheik: They both have great potential. I believe personally both as a technology professional in the e-commerce space and as a consumer that we’ve just scratched the surface on the potential of video commerce and video marketing in general. I think both of these options are compelling depending on where you apply it.  Videos within emails I think are very powerful and very engaging.  I read in one of the Shop.org SmartBriefs that people who watch personalized videos have a 73% higher intent to buy.  Clearly, more and more retailers need to differentiate themselves in their different channels, whether it’s in email or on the site. , I can envision landing pages that are tied to past visit with an engaging video on it.  Also as you know, mobile is exciting and emerging channel.  More and more smart devices can display video, and that’s another great opportunity for video and personalization.

Justin Foster: What do you think are some of the biggest challenges holding back video today in the retail space? Just in your experience, what are some of the reasons why retailers choose to not use video?

Meyar Sheik: Based on what I’ve heard, retailers as you know, are always resource challenged. They always have more projects than they have resources or cycles to do. For a lot of the bigger brands that take their brands very seriously, I think the production cost and the quality of the video is a big factor. Also the I think the up-keep of the videos is a big factor as well because once you put videos out there, they’re enticing, they’re engaging and the consumers will want more. You can’t be stale, you have to expand that asset base and keep on improving the quality. I think the production cost and the quality are some of the negating factors.

Justin Foster: That is something we hear as well. I’m curious as to whether you feel there’s a role in addressing the production cost side for personalization? Perhaps to keep the video fresh, for example maybe you have a personalized video that shows up, or a video that plays a pre-roll video ad before a product video, based on the shopper’s past actions. Do you think the idea of dynamically displaying products in a video can extend the life of video content by ensuring that there’s always going to be up to date information that will be shared?

Meyar Sheik: Certainly. I think that the personalization factor is one that can help with engagement as well as having more dynamic content that augments the video. That’s where we’re excited about the role of personalization in video, and the work we have being doing with Liveclicker. But beyond that, you still need to have engaging videos that really appeal to your consumer base.  Every retailer has to figure out what that is for their own brand. Not everyone needs the same level of quality. There’s also a place for user generated videos. There’s nothing wrong with them, as long as your brand can support that style and embrace that in a way that’s not disruptive to the consumer experience or the brand itself.

Justin Foster: Well Meyar, I wanted to thank you very much for your time today. On behalf of our readers, we’re excited that you were able to take a few minutes out of your day to share your thoughts on Certona, personalization, and video. Thank you very much.

Meyar Sheik: My pleasure, I appreciate the opportunity Justin.

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.

Advance Auto Parts

Advance Auto Parts’ video library features a number of customer-related video categories including: How-to’s, product information, and installations. Here’s one of their how-to videos from their Changing Disk Brakes series.  In the video, Advance breaks down the process into individual steps to make it easier to follow.  Such a step-by-step approach is especially useful for the DIY crowd like myself who are complete beginners.

Here is an example from the installation video series, which breaks down the how-to category further for one of the most obvious needs for people working on their own autos. It’s a nice touch that they mention the model of the auto that they are performing the work on.

Two things I would recommend to improve this example:

• Keep the room noise to a minimum. Having to hear a lot of noise being picked up from the AC, along with some intermittent beeping from some outside work activity can become a distraction (even an annoyance) that gets worse the longer the video is. This particular video was nearly 20 minutes, and already by the 7^th minute I was thinking about when the next beep was going to happen rather than focusing on what was going on.
• Have short text graphics explaining each key point or object. People who learn visually also will retain information better if shown text of what’s being done rather than just being told.

The Lowes How-To Project Library features little film-reel icons next to each of its individual how-to page links that feature videos to watch. Below is a popular example from the Flooring category: How to prep a wood subfloor. What’s especially helpful in this example is that during the video, the demonstrator mentions the how-to project library subdomain, and even refers to a related how-to video the viewer may also what to watch for additional assistance. I also like how they showed product photos of each item you will need to do the job, along with the graphic name of it in the photo.

Below is an interesting example of how SkinStore.com pairs with the user-generated video review platform, ExpoTV to feature regular people who are actual product users demonstrate how to use a product. This video features a consumer how-to demonstration and user review of the Clarisonic Skin Care Brush.

This is another great example featuring a how-to installation for a specific part to a product. The host is excellent in explaining exactly what the purpose of the video is about right from the very beginning, and speaks to the customer (who we presume has already purchased the product) for what they need to check for in the product package before beginning the installation. It’s a good example of how you can make a video for each individual part that requires installation, likely in order of the setup. Note that this example only needed to be 30 seconds long, and is very easy to remember.  When possible, try to use shorter videos to capture the attention of the viewer, but do not make videos so short that important details of the installation are left out.

Musiciansfriend.com labels their how-to videos as “instructional.” In this example of how to restring a guitar, they do a great job with close-ups that shift with each key step, but not too much to seem distracting. They also added background music for a nice touch, but it could have been done at a lower volume so the viewer could hear the demonstrator more clearly.

To learn more about the role of how-to videos in a retail social video program, I encourage you to check out the recorded webinar: The New Social Video – How to Build Relationships with Shoppers through Video. It was presented this past Thursday by video commerce solutions provider, Liveclicker, and features social video case studies from both from Advance Auto Parts and Crutchfield Electronics.