Discover How Online Videos are an Effective Salesperson 24/7

Here’s an interesting research fact.  Online videos sell product even if viewers don’t watch them.

Over the last year, American retailers have begun to realize the power of having online videos displayed with their product information.  US companies like Zappos and Bed Bath Stores are supplementing their e-commerce websites with lots of product videos.

In January 2010, Treepodia did some multivariate testing for their client’s e-commerce websites.

And this is what they found (CVR stands for conversions rate which represents a sale):

E-Commerce Retailer A:
•    Control group (= pure CVR in site, without video at all): 1.04%
•    CVR of people who could watch video but did not: 1.47%
•    CVR of people who watched video: 4.06%
•    Increase when comparing the users who could watch video (whether watched or not) to control group: +46.22%

E-Commerce Retailer B:
•    Control: 3.27%
•    CVR of people who could watch video but did not: 4.06%
•    CVR of people who watched video: 4.82%
•    Increase (as defined above): +27.05%

In summary, while shoppers who actually view a product video are buying at a higher rate than those who choose not to watch the video, what has proven even more interesting is the fact that people who do NOT watch the video are converting at a significantly higher rate than shoppers viewing the same product page without the option for video viewing.

In other words, just by adding product videos to your site, whether they’re watched or not, will help move products.

Eyebuydirect is the number one retailer of glasses online and has recently implemented 800 product videos for each of its products.  The result is an astonishing 30% increased overall conversion rate and 50% increased customer engagement.

As EyeBuyDirect’s marketing manager Matan Armoni said at the time, “In a few years, no one will understand how we ever sold without video. Video is simply essential to the sales process.”

But the good news does not stop there.  According to Forrester Research, pages with video are 50 times more likely to appear on the first page of a Google search result than plain HTML pages.

Of course, not all online videos are going to work.  Just as a poorly written brochure will more likely lose business than win any, so will a badly produced video that has clumsily written copy and bad camera vision.  

To take the words from Mark Robertson, the Founder and Creator of ReelSEO.com video obeys the same fundamental rules governing the performance of all mediums – quality matters!

Marie-Claire Ross is a director from Digicast Productions.  She loves complex marketing problems and solving them with clear and engaging videos.  Contact her on 03 9696 4400.