Video e-commerce is kinda a big deal....so says retailers. eMarketer blogs post on May 21, 2010 reads, "Retailers are responding to the growing consumer appetite for online videos by adding them to their websites both to differentiate themselves from competition and to keep up with what consumers expect from their online shopping experience". My own personal opinion on videos is that of annoyance. They slow up my shopping experience because the video needs to load and half the time they are not advertising anything I am interested in. eMarketer blogs also reads, " Retailers find that videos boost sales conversions rates and reduce abandoned shopping cart and product return rates". I wonder if I should start watching these videos to see if my abandoned shopping cart rate decreases?
My shopping habits are a mixture of goal oriented and experiential and I can see the video's having a higher impact on those people who experiential. Experiential shoppers are letting their search guide their shopping behavior, which means they can be easily marketed too if they have no strong opinion on what they are looking for. Let the video wars begin:)
Videos are even going to get hotter as bandwidth increases and get served based on customer needs. The key: when in the purchasing cycle do you want to see a video? Are you in heads-up mode (just looking and videos are annoying) or heads-down (getting close to buying and maybe more interested in seeing a relevant video?) The video dynamic is evolving before our eyes!
ReplyDeleteI agree with your assessment of the videos being a pain, and I can personally attest to a high abandonment rate! Although now not a common enough practice yet....please let me decide if I want to see the video and let me decide if it's relevant!
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