Luckily for you, Internet Retailer has a stellar agenda laid out for the Internet Retailer Web Design & Usability Conference in Orlando, FL, February 13-15^th.

Since this event is clearly something you want and NEED to go to, allocating your time is going to be a challenge!  In an effort to help, I’m sharing my Top 5 Must Do’s for IRWD 2012.

1. Get Twisted with Cirque du Soleil!
Orlando is synonymous with Walt Disney World but did you know that Downtown Disney, which is outside the park, has a ton of fun offerings as well?  For example there is the Cirque du Soleil- La Nouba show.  La Nouba is a show that can only be seen in Downtown Disney; the show’s title translates to “to party, to live it up.” La Nouba is a visceral show receiving 5-star audience reviews.

“[When an 11-year old boy ‘s father asked him how he liked the show the boy responded with] “My throat hurts.” “Why?” asked the father, [to which his son responded] “I think, I forgot to breathe.”” — The Orlando Sentinel

2. Stop by Booth #211!
Why?  Because we want to meet you! Soon we will be releasing an e-tailing group research report that shows consumers shop with video in a different way than you probably think they do.  Come get the inside scoop on some surprising new research.  Say the secret password, “video strategy,” and we will give you a sneak peek at this invaluable report.  We will also hook you up with our secret weapon to boost your energy and help you power through the conference!

3. Attend the Session: “Design 101: 10 Best Practices to Pick From the Pack”
A key component to any modern website design is delivering a site that can operate on any platform effectively.  Mike Sidders, VP of E-Commerce at ShopKo Stores Operating Co., and Todd Luckey, Senior User Experience Specialist at Usability Sciences, will host this session on Tuesday, February 14^th from 11:15a- 11:45a and share their best practices for modern retail web design. You won’t want to skip this one!

4. Swim with the dolphins at Discovery Cove!
Need I say more?!?  If you’re like me, you love animals and have always wanted the opportunity to swim with a dolphin!  If not, you can always just chill out in the lazy river or take a snorkeling adventure!

5. Attend the Session: “Revving up Your Retail Website with Online Video”
On Wednesday, February 15^th from 12:00p- 12:30p, Invodo’s own Craig Wax is partnering up with Office Depot’s Director of E-Commerce Searchandising, Shannon Wu-Lebron, to discuss how to deploy and merchandise video in a way that improves the user experience and drives conversion, SEO, and more.  Don’t miss out!

If you have any questions or would just like to get some more ideas on things to do at IRWD don’t be shy and give us a shout!  You can also schedule a specific time to discuss video at IRWD right here!

MediaPost featured Invodo in a recent article about how video viewership is positively impacting purchasing behavior in online retail. The article cited a 9x increase in 2011 retail video views at the start of the holiday season as well as a Forrester report showing improved SEO due to video. Daisy Whitney goes on to discuss what we’ve known all along—video sells. Check out the full article here.



Last week Internet Retailer published an article entitled Retailers need to prepare for the online video wave. Internet Retailer recognizes that video is going to be a hot topic at their upcoming Web Design & Usability Conference in Orlando, FL and took this opportunity to point curious minds towards our session. On February 15th Invodo CEO Craig Wax will be discussing how video can be used most effectively while also providing good and not so good examples of what retailers are doing with video today. Read all the details here.

Tena Crock, Online Marketing Director for The Step2 Company, recently answered a few questions about what Step2 is doing with video. Her answers make it clear that Step2 is doing some great work across video, social, and cross-channel mobile campaigns in major retail stores.

Q: Tell me about Step2’s target customer. What do they care about when they shop? Can video help them choose the right product for their children?

A: Step2’s target customer can easily be described in one word, Mom.  She is all about convenience, finding quality products for the right price, and having the peace of mind in knowing that she is making a purchase that will last for years to come and will be enjoyable for her children.  The quality of our products, we feel, is what sets us apart.  The videos do a nice job of showing our products in use and highlighting the features that we know Moms care about.  How do we know they care about them?  We ask.  We have a group of MomShare panelists that we survey and ask questions to on a pretty frequent basis.  From that, we know what is important to them.  That is specifically why we feature children playing with our products in the video.  Moms want to see other kids having fun with our toys so they know that their children will have fun too.

Q: Step2 does a great job connecting with customers via Facebook. How do social and video marketing work together?

A: Moms are a savvy bunch.  They enjoying connecting to others and to companies via Facebook, so they make the connection factor easy on us.  Moms are looking for authenticity in any sort of marketing that we do.  Video gives us the opportunity to talk to Moms from other Moms in “Mom Speak”.  Of course our videos are scripted, but they are written and revised by Moms for Moms.  We know that in order to keep that connection with our target consumer, we need to meet her where she is able to engage with the Step2 brand, and right now, that is predominantly in the online space.  We also recognize that she doesn’t have a lot of time, so we like to keep our video content short, sweet, and to the point.

Q: After getting video on your site, what’s the next step? How will you use video to connect with shoppers who may be on retailer’s sites, on social networks, or even on mobile devices in store aisles?

A: We have already started a poster program with Toys R’ Us for 2012.  Since our products are often big and bulky, in store retailers often don’t have the space on their shelves to feature our products.  Our solution to that was to create a large poster that features Step2 items with a QR code that links the customer to the product video.  This allows them to see the product in action and have all of the details to make an informed decision about their purchase while in store.  We know that it is imperative to have our videos featured on every retailer’s website that carries our products.  We hope to have all of our videos pushed out to our online retailer sites in the upcoming months.  Additionally, we intend on using videos to announce an email promotion or to introduce a new item to market on Facebook.  Linking the potential purchaser to a video showing the product in use is a lot more powerful than a static photo.

Over 1,000 shoppers were surveyed to find out how they use video in shopping and what elements matter to them. We invite you to join the e-tailing group President, Lauren Freedman, and Invodo Director of Marketing, Russ Somers, who will share these research insights and the implications for online and multichannel merchants. Register today>>

Learn:
- Where, why, and how consumers watch video
- Where video performs best
- What consumers will watch – and what they won’t
- How consumers use video to make purchase decisions

Consumers expect video to be a part of their shopping experience. But how do you know what type of video will engage and convert them? Find out why video quality matters, what today’s consumer will watch, how to extend your video investment across channels to leverage the power of social networks and mobile devices, and more.

Leave with insight into consumer behavior and best practices to engage and inspire your shoppers.

This was a record-setting season for online retail. Cyber Monday was the busiest ever, at $1.25 billion according to Comscore.

To dive a little deeper into the record-setting activity that occurred in eCommerce video, we dived into data from across the Invodo client base. That’s the largest network of video-enabled retailers in one place. Tens of thousands of videos across about 100 retailers and major brands gives us a good read on how shoppers used video during 2011 and during the holiday season. Key learnings:

Today’s shopper relies on video more than ever – and more experienced shoppers lead the trend. As previously reported, Cyber Monday video views increased by 897% and Black Friday video views increased by 337% over 2010. But that’s only the tip of the iceberg. Looking at all of Q4 2011, video views increased by more than 3x. Why was Cyber Monday even bigger? Good question. My take – Cyber Monday shoppers are the most sophisticated and dedicated online shoppers. They know how to take full advantage of the tools available to them, from reviews and free shipping to video and 3D interactive experiences.

Shoppers prefer Facebook and email for sharing. 46% of Q4 video shares were on Facebook. Email was nearly as popular, accounting for 40% of shares, and Twitter was used 14% of the time. If you don’t have sharing enabled for your videos, you’re missing out on an easy opportunity to get additional views and sales.

Today’s holiday shopper is wired, multichannel, and multiplatform. Mobile browsers accounted for 12% of holiday season video views on Invodo client sites. Over half of that – 6.3% – was iPad, and Android was 3.5%. I saw plenty of people using their phones in store aisles to check prices and availability as well as to get product information without waiting for a store associate.

That’s a lot bigger than any discussion about HTML5 versus Flash. The same shopper may research on a laptop, stop into a store to kick the tires, view a product video on their phone while in the aisle, and ultimately purchase on their iPad. Are you leveraging your videos and other content smoothly across these touchpoints?

A final point: if this season was groundbreaking in terms of tablet usage, I can’t wait to see what happens in 2012. Reason: the Kindle Fire’s adoption rate has overtaken the iPad’s. Amazon has planted an Amazon-connected storefront in the hands of millions of consumers. Am I the only one who sees eCommerce implications there? How will that affect Apple’s iPad strategy?

Shoppers are vocal about which videos help them shop – and which do not. Shoppers using Invodo’s Ratings and Comments feature rated videos an average of 4.19 out of 5 stars. Apparel, do-it-yourself and toys received the highest marks, but multichannel retailers scored well across all product categories.

In a subset analyzed for content, videos that included a demonstration of product features receives almost a full star more than videos that did not. User comments on videos without clear product demonstrations included responses such as “I expected to see the product in use.” This is a “video coming of age” phenomenon. Consumers expect video, like any other site content, to provide value above and beyond simply creating motion to catch the eye.

Video drives conversion across product categories, but does so differently depending on type of product and type of shopper. Given the size of the Invodo client base and the depth of our analytics, there’s some surprising and useful data there. Stay tuned – that’s coming in a second post as soon as I have an hour to crunch the data and an afternoon to put it in context. If you’re not subscribed to the blog, this might be a good time to sign up.

Online shopping lacks the physical experience that accompanies browsing and purchasing in a brick-and-mortar store. As a result, ecommerce retailers must constantly be on the lookout for new methods to showcase their products in effective and compelling ways.

One popular way that online retail brands set themselves apart from the competition and engage consumers more effectively during the shopping process is through the use of videos that tell a visual story about how products can be used.

Online merchants can incorporate video into their visitors’ ecommerce experiences in a number of different ways. Let’s examine six considerations for testing the effectiveness of how video performs on websites:

1. Video vs. No Video. Perhaps the simplest way for you to test the performance of video on your website is by segmenting traffic so a percentage of site visitors receives a video demonstrating the product on the product page while the rest receive the same page without the video. In a test like this, one version of the page would contain only a product photo accompanied by its description, while another version would contain a video of the product accompanying the details.

A major retailer that Monetate works with recently learned that seeing was believing with product videos. While management initially thought that the play button would obscure the product and confuse visitors, this assumption did not bear out when tested. In fact, the video version of the product page was more successful, and lifted the conversion rate by 1.26% while generating a significant projected annual revenue impact.

2. Video A vs. Video B. Another way to test the impact of video on your website is by delivering two different product videos to different groups of website traffic. A test of this nature is important when you have a number of merchandising videos to choose from (perhaps showcasing different product attributes or styles) and are interested in identifying which video is more likely to resonate with consumers, and ultimately influence sales.

3. Which Play Button Is the Best? You have countless options for enticing consumers to play a product video, but how can you be sure which one will have the biggest impact on whether the consumer decides to actually click ‘Play’? In order to make an educated decision, marketers should test different options of what the play command looks like and optimize all website videos towards the version that is shown to generate the most clicks, boost the add-to-cart rate, increase conversion, etc.

A few options for the play button include a semi-transparent overlay on top of the video itself that’s intended to make it stand out on the page, a play arrow that points to the right, or a version of the word play that appears somewhere on the image thumbnail, as shown in the example to the right from Altrec.com.

4. Auto-Play vs. Click-to-Play. You will want to decide whether to serve consumers video that plays on its own as soon as a page loads or video that has to be triggered by a user action before it plays. This can be tested by segmenting different groups of traffic to receive auto-play and click-to-play video options, and then determining what is more efficient for the particular goal you are trying to accomplish with each video.

5. Thumbnails, Titles and Descriptions. The video thumbnail is the first thing a consumer sees when visiting a page with a video. This important first impression can make or break a video’s success. Working under the assumption that more compelling thumbnails will drive more views, you should not neglect this essential aspect of merchandising the video on your website. Constantly test new thumbnail options to ensure you’re displaying the most successful image at all times.

While video titles and descriptions can seem like an afterthought compared to the production of the video, they are essential to the video’s ultimate performance—titles, descriptions and thumbnails are the foremost attributes that consumers use to determine whether they watch videos online.

6. Video Badging. Product badging, a simple way to do smart merchandising, is the modern version of what shopkeepers have been doing in-person with customers for decades: calling attention to product features and benefits to get shoppers to interact with the merchandise.

Badging represents a powerful psychological tool that taps into consumers’ inherent need to be directed toward particular products, and the same rule applies with video. Just like badging a product thumbnail with messages like “staff pick” or “free shipping,” you should consider implementing the same method with videos, as shown in the example below from FreePeople. The most important thing to remember when badging videos, of course, is to test different variations and iterations to identify the ones that perform best.

Lastly, and most importantly, the guiding principle behind testing whether video will make an impact on your business is to have a clear vision of your goals before you test video content. You have to understand what you want to achieve from video—whether it is driving traffic, increasing conversion rates, boosting the average order value, or something else—before integrating it into visitors’ website experience.

When testing to get the most out of your video efforts, ask yourself the following baseline questions:

• Who is the test for?
• What does the test show?
• When will the test run?
• Why are we running the test in the first place?

The answers will help establish clear goals for your video campaigns and serve as a guide when you work towards meeting or exceeding them.

Adam Figueira is Product Marketing Manager at Monetate, the leading provider of website A/B and multivariate testing, targeting & personalization.

Babies “R” Us was noted as having an exceptional online store that helps shoppers find exactly what they are looking for. Babies “R” Us employs video to showcase products as well as to offer service support. In the example below, a virtual advisor explains the perks of the Rewards “R” Us program.

Office Depot made the list for their multi-channel approach that enables customers to shop and buy anywhere. Their scan-and-go mobile app makes ordering office supplies easy, with only a few swipes of a screen. As you can see below in the videos, Office Depot pros give detailed information along with demonstrations to equip shoppers to make the best purchase decisions.

• On Black Friday video views increased 337% over the same day last year
• On Cyber Monday, there was an 813% increase in video views over 2010
• Video views on Cyber Monday were 2.5 times the number of views on Black Friday

Look at those numbers skyrocket! It makes sense that video views were significantly higher on Cyber Monday as it is the preferred day for online shopping. The increase in views YOY shows how video has proliferated on retail sites and is becoming the preferred way of gathering information when shopping online.

Social sharing was up for videos as well. On Friday, Facebook dominated for video sharing at 50% with email coming in at 36% and 14% for Twitter. On Cyber Monday, Facebook and Email tied at 43% with Twitter coming in third at 14%.

Holiday shoppers  had a lot to say by rating and commenting on the videos they watched. Invodo videos averaged ratings of 4.3 out of 5 stars, a higher average than videos from other sources. Invodo knows how to create eCommerce video that sells, and consumers can see the difference. Comments included words like:

How does video affect conversions? Watch the on-demand Internet Retailer webinar in which BizChair.com explains how video helped them boost average ticket, reduce returns and increase conversion rates.

Due to visible benefits of increased conversions, enhanced customer experiences and improved SEO, retailers are deploying as much video as they can, but need brand manufacturers to fill the gaps. Brands, or manufacturers, who bring video to their products will be the early winners in a crowded market where the consumer’s voice has so much influence. Here are three ways brands can leverage video content to maximize results:

Brand Videos on Retailer Sites
It’s no secret that retailers want video. Earlier this year the eTailing group reported that 73% of online retailers used video on product pages in 2010. For a major retailer selling thousands of products spanning hundreds of brands, universal coverage is probably not feasible. But, brands can gain an advantage and break through competitive noise by supplying video to their retailer channels.

Video viewers have been shown to purchase at higher rates and greater volumes than site visitors who don’t view video. In fact, according to Comscore, video viewers are 64 percent more likely to purchase and, on average, stay on the site for two minutes longer than other site visitors. Innovative brands that take advantage of this opportunity are a step ahead in terms of customer engagement and brand exposure, which greatly affect shopper behavior.

Brand Videos Link Social Media Channels to Purchase Pages
According to a recent survey by the Content Marketing Institute, 50 percent of manufacturers surveyed had established a YouTube presence for brand-building and connecting directly with consumers.
Click the image to view a video that shows how Crocs leverages video content on their YouTube channel with a clickable overlay button that links directly to the product page. This way, people who view the video can be easily directed to the brand’s site, making a more fluid purchase process.

Brand Videos on Brand Sites
Of course, brands will want to leverage video content on their own site, but that strategy can extend beyond product videos. Brand sites that offer instructional or how-to videos may have a better chance of standing out to the consumer. The brand website is an ideal place for consumers to be directed to when they are researching or looking for help. These types of videos guide shoppers through the purchase process, leading to higher conversions.

Engage Consumers Anywhere they Shop
Placed on the brand’s website, a retailer’s site, social media pages, viewed from a kiosk, or launched on a mobile device from an in-store QR code scan, brand (or manufacturer) video engages consumers, boosts sales and projects the brand voice across all shopping channels.

See more examples of Invodo Video for Brands here.

Shopping is an interactive sport. While smartphone wielding consumers are the main players of the sport, retailers are the ones who set the field of engagement, both online and in the physical world. A variety of methods, tools and technologies exist for retailers to engage consumers, but few are as mature and easy to utilize as 2D codes.

The Rise of 2D Codes

2D codes are two dimensional (hence the name “2D”) images encoded with information. The information can be decoded with a camera-driven scanning application, which will perform a variety of functions including displaying texts, linking to a specific URL, or linking to video content. 2D codes are used for a variety of industrial uses, but 3 key types are used for consumer-facing uses:Quick Response Codes (QR Codes), Microsoft Tags (MS Tags, aka High Capacity Color Barcode) and barcodes. There are different reasons why retailers would use one type over another.

QR Codes and MS Tags in particular have risen in adoption among consumers, especially those that use smartphones. Smartphones provide consumers with the hardware (including the camera) and a platform for the software applications (i.e. ScanLife, ShopSavvy, MS Tag and others), making 2D codes easily accessible and practical for shopping like never before.

Forrester estimates that adoption of 2D code reading applications has risen to 15% in 2011 among smartphone shoppers and is expected to continue to rise in the future. Indeed, it’s difficult today to walk down the street or into a store or open a newspaper or magazine without finding a 2D begging to be scanned.

Uses of 2D Codes
2D codes are applicable throughout each stage of brand engagement with the consumer, which make them a great tool for retailers to create a more interactive shopping experience and connect the online and physical worlds. If applied properly, the benefits retailers can reap include greater brand recognition, greater online and in-store sales, an increase in average order value, greater customer satisfaction and repeat purchases, as well as reduced return rates and support costs. To realize these benefits, retailer should focus the application of 2D codes around four main uses, namely to:

1. Create brand awareness with consumers.
2D codes are a great tool for marketers to capture the attention of shoppers—particularly those on the go with mobile devices and those inundated with other information sources– to create market awareness and craft brand perception. Barney’s New York used QR codes as part of a “Back Stage Campaign” in early 2011 where they displayed ads in the New York Times and online that contained QR codes which linked to online, content-rich “backstage” stories of the products. This energized the approach to traditional advertising and helped drive brand awareness among consumers who may have otherwise not been reached.

2. Share information to educate consumers.
2D codes can guide potential consumers towards purchase by providing them information about products, services, events, and more. Columbia Sportswear produces world-class outdoor apparel for consumers who are interested in learning about how the product was produced, what materials were used to produce it, what conditions the products are meant to be used in and what additional features the product contains that may not be readily apparent. They use QR codes as part of in-store signage and hangtags on products in company stores, as well as other retailers who distribute Columbia gear, to provide consumers with more information about products through video and other content while standing in the store aisle.

Electronic Arts, a leading producer of video games, provides its distributors with in-store digital signage that contain QR codes for content samples of their products. For their game Dragon Age II, shoppers could scan the QR code and get a video demo of the game.

3. Drive consumers to purchase.
2D codes give retailers a unique opportunity to convert sales, especially when they help solve specific problems consumers face, such as cutting down on checkout time or offering immediate rewards. In addition to using QR codes to share information about how their coffee beans were produced, Ethical Beans Roastery and Ethical Bean Xpress Café give consumers the ability to scan QR codes on their products, allowing shoppers to skip waiting in lines and pick up the orders at checkout. Axis Salon, a trendy hair salon in Washington DC, uses QR codes in its storefront that link to videos featuring beauty icons and coupons for discount services—all helping to drive consumers to purchase.

4. Foster customer loyalty post-purchase.
After the sale, 2D codes can drive foster customer satisfaction by providing extra services, support and personalized offers. Nike uses QR codes in its stores to allow consumers to “Like” a product on Facebook, enabling consumers to share their affinity for a brand through recommendations on Facebook. A logical extension to this concept would be to provide rewards (loyalty points, mobile coupons, immediate discounts, etc.) for shoppers who provide such feedback. Ikea entertained the idea of using QR codes to provide video instructions on how to assemble products, such as furniture, making the post-purchase process a more enjoyable one.

Similarly, QR codes can serve as an easy way to locate product manuals online or warranty information, which could be a real benefit to consumers who often do not keep such information that come with the products, and need to locate them immediately when something goes wrong. This would help cut down on support costs for retailers, in addition to fostering customer loyalty post-purchase.

The Future of 2D Codes
While 2D codes have reached a level of maturity where they are an effective tool for retailers today, they still have a number of challenges to overcome– standardization of code technology (open QR codes v proprietary MS Tags), reader availability, and deeper level consumer awareness beyond where it’s at today– optimally reaching the same level of consumer awareness that UPC barcodes enjoy today. They also face long-term obsolescence from Near Field Communication (NFC), but that is a ways off in the future given NFC nascent state at the present. Bottom line is that 2D codes do not require a lot of time or money to implement and can have large potential returns, so retailers should experiment with them while the cost of learning is low.

Gary Lombardo leads Commerce Solutions marketing at Demandware, a trusted, global leader in on-demand ecommerce. As part of his role, he helps retailers navigate the world of multichannel, mobile and social commerce. Gary tweets @garylombardo and can be reached via email at glombardo at demandware dot com.

Be sure to download the whitepaper “Quick Response Codes in a Multi-Channel World” to learn more about how retailer’s should take advantage of 2D codes.