#invodo

Need video for your eCommerce shopping experience? Then you should join this webinar by Invodo

One of our Ready for IBM Commerce partners, Invodo, is hosting a Webinar on September 29th at 1pm EDT (10am PDT, 6pm BST):

Title: Visual Commerce: A Call-To-Action From Online Shoppers​ Abstract: Visual content – like video, images, and spin photography – is becoming more relevant than ever in the online buying process. In this webinar, we’ll take an in-depth look at visual content and explore the…

Vilynx.com

by Hendrik van der Meer, President and Co-Founder of Vilynx

Go Big or Go Home: Video is Big Business

We have all heard the saying “go big or go home.”  For years, advertisers and marketers alike have used banner ads, pop ups and well placed one-dimensional ads to dominate the e-commerce world.  While these methods have taken them far and been innovative in their own rights, they are not meant for a future filled with video. In order to succeed and engage consumers where they are, advertisers and marketers will need to take the first step and go big, or else.

Video Goes Big on Attention

The brilliance of video is that it offers a visually engaging experience that can bring anything to life, invoking emotion and engagement. Whether it is a funny cat or the sentiment of a soldier’s homecoming, video has the big attention factor with which its counterparts can’t compete.  

The recent Invodo Video Commerce Benchmarks Report supports this, showing the attention span of the average consumer grew 12% in the year 2014 when it came to online shoppers who played video.  Additionally, two in three shoppers who played an online video watched it to at least 80% completion.  

As every good marketer knows, you can’t sell to a consumer if they never see the product long enough to connect with it and buy it.  Video is effectively overcoming the short attention spans of consumers and leaving them engaged within the video world.

Video Goes Big on Influence

Video did not invent the advertising or e-commerce market, but is certainly monetizing on it.  Marketers and businesses have added video as part of a new arsenal to link to consumers, as those who view video through both multichannel retailers and strictly online retailers are more likely to buy.

Invodo also reported that consumers who shopped online and viewed video were 1.6 times more likely to buy than shoppers who did not view video.  This statistic shows that consumers who watch online video are more likely to follow through with making a purchase as opposed to ignoring what might be just ‘another ad.’  

Video has influential power by sharing a story with the consumer.  Whether it is for purses, jewelry or cigars, consumers can picture themselves better with the products after watching a video, leading to a more powerful impact and influence to buy.

Video Goes Big on Devices

Visit almost any coffee shop, grocery store, or university and at some point you will see someone accessing video.  Video is everywhere, and our mobile devices are giving us greater access to entertainment as well as e-commerce. According to Invodo’s report, while PCs at 62% are still the primary medium for e-commerce video viewing, a third of all video views occur beyond the computer. Smartphones and tablets have a share in the e-commerce video market at 20% and 18%, respectively.

Consumers are obviously transitioning into a mobile-driven world while still wanting traditional, at-home shopping options.  This means video needs to meet both marketers’ needs as well as consumers’ demands in order to effectively capture the imaginations of consumers and execute e-commerce video campaigns.

Russ Somers, VP Marketing, Invodo Inc.

  Video has become a go-to tool for retailers and brands. The good news is that the benefits for experience, engagement, and conversion can be measured and quantified. But even with advanced analytics, how do you know if your video results are exceptional, average, or in need of improvement? You can’t – unless you have a benchmark for comparison. That’s why we’ve released the first-ever E-Commerce Video Benchmarks Report.

Retailers Can Expect Engagement

Well, sort of. Based on attendance here at #FashionDigitalNY, very few have "content" in their titles and allocate funds for content strategies. 

But this panel is chock-full of great thought leaders in the content marketing space: from solution providers, to agencies and even retailers! 

Here are a few key takeaways from the panelists on some content marketing best practices: 

Clair Carter-Ginn, KSC Kreate: Look at content from a macro- and micro-perspective. Part of your overall marketing budget. Be relevant, listen to consumers, and be sure you share your content...make sure the entire organization knows about the content that's out there.  Milton Pappas, The Jones Group: A lot of brands struggle to develop content but we're very active in the social channels, so we have a lot of content. How do we marry content and commerce to drive sales and engagement? Work collectively across teams. Start with an inventory of content, determine where it all lives and how to make it accessible. 

Buffy Sash, Alice + Olivia: We make all content available across all channels. A lot of what we do is brand-driven. We don't use user-generated content. We're asking the consumer to remember what they saw in videos, then find it on the site. Which is not a great experience. We worked with a company so consumers can buy products right from videos, which we think will be very exciting. Craig Wax, Invodo: It can be very risky to repurpose video; the reality is you need to think of the customer journey: from awareness through the transaction. Each stage is going to require a different type of content. 

Han Wen, Clarins: We have a lot of heritage and DNA to protect. So it's important for a brand to recognize that they don't have 100% control over the brand anymore. We had to make a decision of whether we were going to ignore it or be a part of it. We had to determine how to use this content throughout the purchase decision to not only maximize e-Commerce but also the brand experience. One of our most successful UGC initiatives is in our relationship with TurnTo. So we're connecting prospects with others who have actually purchased the product and they can ask questions.