For a long time, retailers held back from adding video content on their eCommerce sites. This delay was due to high production and hosting costs, inept distribution and marketing channels, and few optimization opportunities. All in all, there was no clear ROI for the investment. Today, technological advancement has cleared most of these roadblocks.
About 68% of online retailers offered video content on their sites. This number is growing rapidly as adding interactive video content has now become the second-highest priority of multichannel retailers. According to a recent Research study, videos are 53 times more likely to generate a first-page ranking than traditional SEO techniques. Let’s first look at some of the benefits of adding video content to a retail site:
Better Merchandising
- Better product display
- Visual appeal
- Shopper engagement
- Time spent on site
More traffic
- Search Engine Optimization
- Effective marketing tool
More sales
- Improved conversion rates
- Low cart abandonment
- Increase in average order size
Higher customer satisfaction
- Lower return rates
- Lower support costs
Of course, not every retailer can achieve all these benefits. But, it should not be difficult to accomplish at least a subset. Though, simply adding video content does not produce the intended results. Like SEO and other marketing tactics, video programs require planning and dedicated resources that can create and optimize video content. Here are some important factors to consider when adding interaction design to your eCommerce site:
While online video gives any online business the ability to gain instant recognition in society, the chances of becoming an instant viral hit must be tempered with smart design. The ease at which video allows connection with customers is an opportunity unlike anything since the invention of television. Most back-end web hosting applications have plenty of services to embed video. The challenges for a startup web firm may seem daunting, but traditional selling strategies can be integrated into this web marketing technology.
Take two retail strategies: Customer service and the up-sell. One aspect often missing from professionally developed E-commerce sites is a true sense of customer service. In a physical store, customers have the luxury of interacting with a real salesperson and asking any questions, and receiving recommendations about a product.
Web design must emulate this intimate level of customer service. A sales representative is an asset to a brick-and-mortar store that online stores do not possess. If the representative is not helpful I can leave and go to another store. With an e-commerce site, this volatile propensity to leave for a competitor is much more pronounced. If I have problems with the site, who can I ask? Without a ready solution from web design, it is easier to navigate to another site. Some solutions are video FAQs, interactive designs, product demos, and customer testimonials.
A cinema8 video FAQ helps educate your customers more engagingly than a text-based FAQ and can show a visual walk-through of problems. An actual representative adds a personality to the social experience of shopping on your site. Good information saves money by giving customers the knowledge they need to purchase without taxing customer service.
Interactive Salespeople are popular on many successful eCommerce sites where nothing says “Hello!” like an actual person. Salespeople are vital in retail, and simple text cannot replace them in web retail. Interactive guides can help users through the site and demonstrate products. Real-time interaction from salespeople may soon replace pre-recorded messages.
Product Demos are easy with online interactive video. Effective site design gives the user an idea of what the product will do for them, and nothing does that like a video. Video can do what a still image cannot, through motion, multiple images, and audio overlay. Product demos provide an opportunity for additional product placement and the chance to upsell.
Customer Testimonials add instant credibility to your product. People trust a real review over an internet marketing message any day. People can judge a reviewer’s sincerity through video better than through text. A well-developed testimonial will make an emotional connection with the viewer and allow them to imagine themselves using the product. On the other hand, a crude or insincere testimonial damages your product’s web presence.