February 10, 2010
By the ZippyCart Ecommerce Software Content Team
We took a moment to interview one of our guest bloggers, Mike Darnell, to bring you an expert view of the current state of online video and how it impacts ecommerce. Mike is the Social Media Manager for Treepodia and a guest author for ReelSEO. A few weeks ago, he sent ZippyCart his first guest blog post in what we hope to be many. You can review the post, Thoughts on Spokespeople Videos, to learn more about video and ecommerce. And now, for the interview:
Background – Who are you, why are you’re an expert in the space (we know you are, but our readers could use a brief bio)…
Originally I studied Industrial Design and I gravitated to the web as it developed. My Industrial Design experience served me well as a user experience designer, especially as I’ve always felt comfortable with the pragmatic view of design, which is: “Good Design is Design that SELLS.” In the decade I’ve been involved with the web I’ve had the opportunity to gain a fair deal of hands on experience as a Creative Director, Project Manager and Online Marketer. The bottom line is I truly feel privileged to belong to the first generation of netizens and I still feel wonder and joy every time I log on to the web.
Why do you feel more online retailers will plan to add video to their advertising strategy in 2010?
The simple fact is video sells. The amount of testimonials to this glaringly obvious fact is accumulating at an accelerating rate. I’ve collected a few examples here – http://blog.treepodia.com/2009/12/why-ignoring-video-is-costing-you-money. Interestingly this isn’t so much a grass-roots movement, as one led by the top online retailers out there. The people extolling the virtues of product videos are the CEOs of top ecommerce sites such as eyebuydirect.com and electricshopping.com.
Furthermore according to an article published in Emarketer last year %43.3 of retailers surveyed planned to add video to their sites in 2009, so it’s obvious video’s effectiveness as a marketing and sales tool hasn’t gone unnoticed by the general etailer public. The same article quotes a comScore survey stating that the number of online shoppers who watched retail videos grew 40% from 2008 to 2009.
The funny thing is that, according to a post published recently by ecommerce video guru Mark Robertson, video is effective at increasing sales conversions regardless of whether visitors watch the video or not. Mark stipulates that in the numbers (http://www.reelseo.com/videos-sell-products-watch – disclosure the post is based on statistics provided by Treepodia).
What do you think about user generated video for advertising?
I think UGC video, just like UGC photography, and indeed all forms of UGC, is as good as the users generating it.
You’ll get your classic bell curve distribution where some of the content is marvelous, some stinks, and the majority is pretty average. The big potential for this type of effort is in the buzz and promotional value it has. As such I think it’s probably the type of effort that may be very difficult for small and medium businesses to pull off effectively, although I’d be happy to learn otherwise.
Where do you see performance based video advertising going in 2010?
I hate giving predictions – it’s unlucky… ; )
That said, I think the key phrase in your question is “Performance Based”. Clients are increasingly becoming aware of the ability the web gives them to monitor their campaigns independently, without having to rely on numbers provided by their agencies.
It doesn’t take a genius to notice the “Views” number for a Youtube clip, nor do you need to be a rocket scientist to monitor your Google Analytics. Vendors, even the slow adapters, are quickly catching on and wising up. Especially in the current economy people are increasingly looking for proven solutions that guarantee stable results over time and are less prone to go for high-risk high-return options.
Do you expect more ecommerce sites to generate sales via mobile phones due to video advertising in 2010?
I actually wrote a post relating to this very point a couple of weeks ago. The main premise of the post was that this is a classic issue of supply and demand. To date, the smart phone market was pretty much a single player monopoly. The iPhone ruled supreme. This year we see the market opening to real competition via the launch of Android based phones, Google’s Nexus One, the Nokia 900, etc. This opening of the market can have only one result – more people will own and use smart phones, More people with smart phones will translate into more revenue for ecommerce sites from these platforms. It’s pretty much inevitable (original post is here – http://blog.treepodia.com/2010/01/why-googles-nexus-1-and-the-nokia-900-are-big-news-for-mobile-video).
Can you tell us more about Treepodia and examples of U.S. retailers using your online video services?
Treepodia was founded in 2007 by Tal Rubenczyk, a serial entrepreneur with one global success under his belt already. Celebros (http://www.celebros.com), which Tal founded in 2000, has grown to become a worldwide leader in search and search related solutions for ecommerce.
Tal established Treepodia to help e-businesses improve their offers and enhance their customers’ experience with online video. The company has evolved to become a leading provider of video solutions for online retailers, largely due to it’s development of unique automated video production technologies, that enable retailers to cover their entire catalog with product videos in a matter of hours. Furthermore Treepodia’s platform continuously optimizes the videos displayed according to their conversion rates.
Treepodia’s client list includes some of the biggest names in ecommerce from the US and Europe too: Eyebuydirect.com, Electricshopping.com, elady.com, onlinegolf.co.uk, BedBathStore.com, Ice.com, Diamond.com, etc. A partial list is on our website at: http://treepodia.com/customers.html
A big thanks to Mike Darnell for taking the time to answer our questions. We hope that his expert opinion has helped promote and explain the value of video in ecommerce and hope that our readers will start exploring this space further!
Every once in awhile we will have guest authors write for our news as well. These guest authors are always experts in the industry and we require that they write from a non-bias point of view, unless the content is noted as an OpEd piece. If you would like to be a guest author on our site, please contact admin at zippycart.com. Anyone who would like to become a regular guest author has the option of being featured on this page.
