CommerceVideos.com

Like many Americans, when it comes to possessing home improvement/repair acumen, my skills range somewhere between amoeba-brain and chimpanzee (much to my wife’s dismay, I might add).  Fortunately, some of the web’s leading home improvement retailers are on a mission to share knowledge with the throngs of folks out there like me who might know more about marketing or computer programming than kitchen remodeling or electrical repair.  How are they accomplishing such a noble mission?

With video, of course!

In this upcoming three-part blog series, we’ll examine how two large home improvement retailers (The Home Depot and Lowe’s) use video to educate shoppers about  common home repairs, then focus on how one smaller web upstart (Improvement Direct, IR #127) leverages video as a core component of their overall e-commerce strategy to  create an advantage versus their larger big-box rivals.  In typical CommerceVideos.com fashion, we’ll dole on the praise where it’s warranted, but also provide each retailer with areas of focus to bring their video commerce program to the next level.

The Home Depot

With $436 million in reported web sales for 2008, The Home Depot (#43 in the IR Top 500 List) is no wallflower in the world of online home improvement retailing.  Still, with Q2 2009 revenues alone totaling $19 billion (down 9% YoY), online revenues are little more than a drop in the bucket for this retailing giant of 2,240 stores.  Given this as a backdrop, it makes perfect sense for The Home Depot to leverage online video as a multi-channel tool as opposed to an online-only strategy.  In this regard, the company is doing several things well, but there’s still plenty of room for improvement.

First, The Good…

The Home Depot is well beyond the point of questioning the worthiness of online video.  I counted 418 videos on The Home Depot’s web site, mostly consisting of how-to content (262 videos), followed by product demos (118 videos), corporate workshops (30 videos), and “Home Depot News” (8 videos).

The focus on how-to video content makes sense for The Home Depot.  These videos can instill a sense of confidence in DIYers to prompt either a shopping trip online, or [more probably] at the local store.  Home repairs range from simple to nightmare-inducing, and with how-to-videos ranging between 19 seconds and 19 minutes, The Home Depot seems to understand that instead of asking, “What’s the right length for a how-to video?” the more important consideration is, “What’s the most effective way of communicating how to solve this particular problem using video?”  The videos take the time to set the stage for what can cause the need for home repair, suggest ways to prevent the repair from needing to happen, then explain how to complete the repair in a step-by-step, easy to follow fashion.  By blending the step-by-step guides with educational content, The Home Depot builds trust as an authority in home improvement and repair.

The Home Depot integrates a video call-to-action spawning how-to-videos in the “Know How” section of its site.

With regard to video product demos, The Home Depot appears to have taken a ‘partner-heavy’ approach with manufacturers, often featuring co-hosts, with the first host as a Home Depot employee (donning the recognizable Home Depot orange apron), and a manufacturer expert representative as co-host to explain the intricacies of the vendor’s product or product line.  The Home Depot is not unique in this regard; they’re just one of the many retailers we’ve covered on CommerceVideos.com that appear to be tapping into manufacturer’s willingness to produce or assist with video to help give life to a retail video initiative.  I’d be shocked if The Home Depot were not tapping new co-op dollars to help fund video.  The product demos are universally well-choreographed, but by catering to the wishes of so many manufacturers, The Home Depot does struggle to preserve a consistent look and feel across its product demo video library.  They seem to recognize this and work to maintain consistency through standard intros and branding elements such as the orange aprons, but at times it’s a stretch and somewhat jarring to the viewer.

Prominent Kohler branding and a co-host format showcase The Home Depot’s commitment to partnering with manufacturers in producing online video content.

The Home Depot also handles video syndication better than any other Top 100 retailer we’ve covered to date.  Not only do they offer a branded YouTube channel, but they’re also pushing videos out to other video syndication services like Yahoo Video, Viddler, Graspr, 5min, in.com, Howcast, MetaCafe, Vimeo, and others.  Video syndication can help with search results.  This could be one reason The Home Depot has pursued video syndication with such fervor.  Importantly, The Home Depot realizes the world of online video does not start and end with YouTube.  Their more sophisticated approach nets their videos higher results in organic search rankings.

The Home Depot syndicates its video content to many video services beyond YouTube

Specific searches for video content yield one of the benefits of video syndication – more videos in universal Google search results.

More generic searches yield The Home Depot with page 1 real estate on Google with strong video callouts using search terms that otherwise would have left the retailer with no presence in top organic rankings.

While it’s far from an ideal branding experience, The Home Depot has taken advantage of YouTube’s branded channel capabilities.  Additionally, and perhaps more importantly, they appear to be using the click-to-buy functionality for promoted videos, enabling text overlays to HomeDepot.com while the video plays while 3rd party advertisements are banned from the videos.

In summary, there are more than a few reasons to praise The Home Depot’s online video efforts:

1. The company understands online video plays a critical role in instilling confidence in DIYers, driving demand in both online and offline channels.  They’ve made a substantial commitment to video, with semi-professional to professional production of video content.  The Home Depot currently features over 400 videos.
2. The company is past the stage of asking questions such as, “How long should our videos be?” and instead is tailoring video content length for different product demo and how-to scenarios based on what’s most appropriate for the situation.
3. The company has partnered with manufacturers to boost its library of video content.  If The Home Depot is like other mass merchants deepening their commitment to video, they’re funding at least some of their video efforts by tapping into co-op dollars from key manufacturers.  Of special note, The Home Depot is not just pulling pre-packaged vendor content and re-purposing it for their site; they’re actually partnering with the vendor to create new, retailer-specific video content.
4. The company has invested in video syndication and distribution, enabling it to generate solid search results and a leg up in the SEO game.

Now, the Bad…

While The Home Depot’s commitment to video puts many retail video programs to shame purely on the basis of  commitment to video production, one powerful lesson to draw from the program to date is just how difficult it can be to create an integrated video commerce initiative.  Creating integration with video is easily one of the most challenging, yet highest value undertakings a retailer can embark on as it rolls out or expands its video commerce efforts. Still, given online video is so new for so many retailers, you may have not heard of an “integrated” approach to video (or video commerce) before.

Not to worry – lack of video integration is common among retailers.  More often than not, it’s the natural result of one department  ‘taking the reins’ with video early on and constructing a vision of video best suited to that department’s usage requirements or own particular aspirations.  For example, programs geared toward video SEO, email video, video advertising, video merchandising, video/social media, or video syndication would all be examples of usage-specific driven video.  Lack of integration often has less to do with the “focus” of the video program (e.g. entertainment, information/education, service, selling), but rather a video program’s inability to integrate across channels or showcase video in several contexts such that the entire retail business benefits.

Retailers that fail to build integrated video commerce programs also fail to extract the full value of video’s potential:

• Non-integrated video commerce programs fail to consider video’s impact on commerce, branding, and media, resulting in a skewed focus that tilts the retailer too far in one direction at the expense of another.  This “tilting” of the program can result in the following, secondary problems:
• Lowered e-commerce and offline revenues, lack of video reach, and inability of video to adequately support the brand – depending on the tilt of the program
• A litany of video platforms that don’t talk with one another and make sharing and re-use of video content difficult since the systems don’t meet each department’s unique requirements
• Interdepartmental warfare over the direction of online video, with branding, merchandising, and marketing often pitted against one another
• Lack of accountability and ability to measure the effectiveness of video
• The creation of additional, expensive silos of video production

In looking at The Home Depot’s video program, it’s clear they suffer from lack of integration with a definite skew toward media, secondary focus on branding, and tertiary focus on merchandising and e-commerce.  For example:

• None of the product video demos we searched for showed up on product pages.  This represents a major missed opportunity to drive conversion.
• The how-to-and product videos featured on HomeDepot.com aren’t linked to actual products
• There is no integration with site search results, category, or brand pages that we could find
• Opportunities for interactive video are missed, lowering engagement.
• Videos on-site are confined to the Know-How section
• Some syndicated videos lacked links to the e-commerce site where they could (including YouTube videos)
• There’s no in-email video integration with the email program we could find over the last several months
• Dearth of social networking options and consumer engagement

In Summary…

The Home Depot is far ahead of most multi-channel retailers with regard to video production.  While the company has jumped out to an early lead in online video, the approach has focused heavily on branding, media, education, and interactive marketing. Online commerce and merchandising have been neglected.  As a retailer, The Home Depot should be proud of its video SEO and syndication initiatives, but seek to more deeply integrate video across channels, and seek to augment its branding and educational videos with commerce opportunities and deeper integration with the e-commerce site.  Additionally, the company should consider upgrading or re-vamping its video browsing application with deeper social network integration and consumer involvement.

Next post –

Lowe’s.

Across the United States, retailers remain mired in one of the deepest recessions in the country’s history.  News last week revealed retail sales slumped for the 12th straight month, prompting additional concern about the upcoming 2009 holiday season.  Macy’s, for their part, saw an 8.1% decline in August same-store sales, and though the company beat analyst expectations in the second quarter, the holiday outlook for Macy’s and much of the retail industry still looks highly uncertain. It begs the question – how is a massive, 840-location retail powerhouse like Macy’s supposed to break out of the slump?

Innovation – that’s how.

In late August, Macy’s announced they were teaming with New York designer Rachel Roy for the launch of a new line called RACHEL Rachel Roy.  For those who have never heard of Rachel Roy, I’ll quote the LA Times: “Roy is a bona fide socialite who can flit easily between luxe and edgy. She was inducted into the Council of Fashion Designers of America two years ago and has seen her red-carpet-ready creations worn by First Lady Michelle Obama and Hollywood actresses Eva Mendes, Kate Hudson and Penelope Cruz.”  Sounds exactly like the kind of designer a stodgy retailer like Macy’s needs to break out of the mold – and hopefully out of declining sales territory.

Of course, it’s not all doom and gloom over at Macy’s.  Online sales remain a bright spot.  According to Internet Retailer’s Top 500 Guide, Macy’s online sales grew 28% in 2008.  With numbers like that, it’s no wonder the retailer is beefing up its online presence with a high-profile rollout of Roy’s latest collection.  And, unlike many apparel retailers, Macy’s understood the power of video in capturing the essence of fashion while developing innovative strategies for incorporating video despite high inventory turn.  The company made use of a professional set and video  production staff with the TalkMarket video production automation technology to optimize much of the planning, filming, and post-production work that too often scares retailers away from making meaningful investments in online video.

The videos are surprisingly simple.  There is no spoken audio. Videos are only 15 – 30 seconds in length. The model’s body language does the “talking” as several shots are blended together in a seamless sequence synced to edgy background music.  Sweet. Simple.  It works. Check out a couple of examples:

Of course, this wouldn’t be CommerceVideos.com without at least a few suggestions, which we’ll happily offer:

• The treatment on the product page isn’t ideal.  There is no “play” button, thumbnail, embedded player, or prominently placed button or link suggesting video.  The shopper has to dig through the “details” section to even to see a video is there.  Why go through the effort of producing video only to make it so hard to find?
• It looks like Macy’s is trying to incorporate some social elements into the videos, such as the “like” functionality featured just below the video player.  It’s a good first effort, but Macy’s isn’t really going to ’social-enable’ these videos until they enable consumer syndication to social networks, and push the videos out to video sharing services.  Note that Macy’s does feature a commercial on YouTube highlighting RACHEL Rachel Roy, but none of the actual product videos are there.  Not that I can really blame Macy’s, as the YouTube page hardly does its brand justice.  Like so many other retailers that are having their brands butchered on YouTube, Macy’s appears to have also fallen into the trap.  They’d be better off building a media destination like other retailers in other verticals have done to encourage this type of sharing (e.g. Home Depot TV, OnlineShoes.TV, even Ralph Lauren’s RL TV) if there is worry about losing people on the product pages.
• It would be interesting to see Macy’s explore adding some minimalist interactivity with the videos, such as JC Penney did with their Spring Runway Show. That would enable a shopper who’s interested in buying a dress to easily navigate to a product page featuring the earrings worn by the model in the video.

Macy’s YouTube channel: Nice videos.  Crappy presentation.

Based on the depth of Macy’s overall video library, it’s clear they’re still very early in the rollout of video, so we’ll spare them the usual grilling offered to merchants featured on CommerceVideos.com.  In all, Macy’s is doing a lot of things the right way that other large apparel retailers should take note of in growing a video commerce program:

1. They’ve figured out a way to maintain their brand integrity while automating some of the video production process (by using experienced staff in conjunction with some production automation techniques and technologies).  This helps to minimize the impact of inventory turn that other apparel retailers so often cite as a reason to steer away from video.
2. They’re using video in conjunction with a high profile product/line launch.  This decision will help maximize the impact of the video investment since the investment is paired with hot selling/high revenue, and presumably high profit margin products.
3. They’re keeping it simple.  Short video segments are stitched together to create a rich viewing experience.  A professional yet inelaborate set (at least in these videos) also helps.  A single model is featured across the line.  Scripting isn’t even a consideration.

Let me know your thoughts on the Macy’s video RACHEL Rachel Roy launch by commenting below and tweeting this post on Twitter.  Thanks!

Like many retailers with large US operations, L.L. Bean suffered through a tough fourth quarter in 2008.  The retailer’s overall 2008 sales closed below 2007 levels.  Despite the setback, the company came out on top in the National Retail Federation’s annual Customer Choice Survey, and it appears  a brighter future may lie ahead thanks in part to a new online video initiative.

Shoppers on llbean.com will notice a link to Product videos in the footer of the site, where a small collection of videos (currently under a dozen) are found.

Just a few notes on the videos:

- Some videos are produced on location (e.g. Manatee Kayak, Runaround Cruiser, Bigelow Day Pack, Ascent Gore-Tex Jacket), while others appear to be filmed in an in-house studio (Waterproof Storm Jackets, Fleece Jackets)

- Cost-cutting techniques that incorporate still shots are found in some of these videos (e.g. SunSmart Apparel, Waterproof Storm Jackets).  Less complex shots that are “more or less” product stills are also featured in several of the videos.  In terms of production quality, all the videos are ‘good’ while some of the videos are higher quality than others (notably, Manatee Kayaks, Ascent Gore-Tex Jackets, Fly Rod & Reel Outfits) while poor lighting and lackluster set design made Fleece Jackets a bit lower-grade.  Based on the variety of production techniques used (different locations, incorporation of video product stills v. actual stills, number of different angles used for product shots, and educational v. product videos) it would appear L.L. Bean is still very much in the ‘experimentation’ mode with regard to online video.

- A variety of in-house employees are featured in the videos as product experts.  L.L. Bean has chosen to feature employees who work in Product Development to appear as the experts, thereby showcasing their in-house expertise and strong, direct knowledge of the products sold.

As far as next steps for L.L. Bean, they already appear to be using video for merchandising.  Of note, they place they callout for online video on a product page as a prominent secondary element, as the first callout under the product title.  The design, however, isn’t completely ‘clean’ and I wonder if a video icon placed next to view/zoom might be more effective given how the eye is naturally drawn to the main product image.

L.L. Bean takes its product page treatment a level beyond prominent callout, as they embed the video player directly on the product page.  Though the placement is below the fold, it appears on the default overview tab and clearly is designed to elicit engagement from shoppers considering product purchases.  The strong ‘play’ button callout works well, and I didn’t encounter rendering issues with the video.  As a best practice, Flash is used (as opposed to Cabela’s, which does great harm to its online video efforts through the choice of Windows Media Video).

Since L.L. Bean is interested in efficient production, they might benefit from some of the techniques I outlined in the last Video Commerce Consortium blog post describing how private label retailers can produce reasonably high video at reasonably low cost.  As a retailer selling both apparel and gear, L.L. Bean might also want to conduct a study of its high margin/hot seller products and consider inventory turn as a way to guide its video production efforts moving forward, as a method to get the most bang for its buck.  The initiative also appears to be primarily a merchandising effort to date.  L.L. Bean could possibly get better results by syndicating its video assets to other marketing channels, especially high impact channels like email and search.

By Kristi Treder & Justin Foster

You may know Howie Mandel as the face of Buy.com and the 13+ million views his YouTube videos have amassed. Is it any wonder that video and the Buy.com brand are inseparable?  The company takes its connection to the entertainment world seriously, as evidenced by the creation of Buy.TV. Buy.com’s video initiative has even gone from the computer screen to the small screen in your living room (TV, that is).  Every Sunday morning, BuyTV is featured on G4, the cable network. Lest you think Buy.com’s video commerce/entertainment initiative (or “commertainment,” for those of us into buzzwords) aren’t really relevant to your business, the company also parades its commitment to video by trumpeting video merchandising and video marketing best practices that would put most e-commerce merchants to shame.  No matter your vantage point, the company’s devotion to video is undeniable – it’s literally plastered all over the company, everywhere you look.

The leap from e-commerce to entertainment is one that a few large e-commerce merchants are experimenting with now.  Borders Books & Music is another player eyeing this space; CompUSA gears its video program more toward an entertainment angle as well.  Ralph Lauren blurs the line between e-commerce and online media with RL TV, while Karmaloop, a smaller online retailer featuring urban apparel, produces video content with an entertainment twist.  Other retailers are sure to follow suit if these pioneers are able to prove a sustainable business model and successfully bridge the world of media and e-commerce.  It’s a tall order considering the sweeping cultural and business differences between the two industries.  Thinking about video as a business unto itself as opposed to as a tool used to support the core business of selling products and services online is a major strategic decision, and Buy.com is only a few chips shy of going ‘all in’ in this respect.

What can retailers learn from Buy.com?

An entertainment angle is not for every retailer, but there are elements of the Buy.com video strategy that any retailer could appreciate.  To start, Buy.com’s videos are professionally produced in-house.   The company clearly has the afterburners turned on in the video production department, as it is offering a slew of new videos each month, with hundreds available in its on-demand video library already. The BuyTV set was professionally built, and BuyTV ‘webisodes’ feature clean graphics of product images, professional intro/outro animations, smooth transitions between shots, and polished on-screen talent.  Scripts are clear and well edited; several camera angles are standard. Even the lighting (which is especially difficult to do well) appears to be handled by pros that understand what it takes to deliver TV-quality video.

BuyTV’s format mimics a news broadcast, with two co-anchors seated behind a large wooden desk.  Interviews with manufacturer reps appear in abundance. There’s even footage from trade show floors that’s a little less produced, although it does humanize the talent and show how the company is closely connected to the action in its industry.  Buy.tv features a special ‘Top 10′ series that provides a rundown of top selling products in different categories.  The site even showcases a large selection of movie trailers available on-demand, a nice supporting use of video for Buy.com’s sizable entertainment DVD sales business.

The company does well in other departments also:

• By presenting ‘add to cart’ options on video pages featured on Buy.tv, Buy.com is taking an important step forward where other retailers intent on going the entertainment route fail in dramatic fashion: connecting content to actual commerce. Karmaloop is a great example of an online retailer with video entertainment cred that fails miserably in this respect.
• SEO techniques on Buy.tv were clearly not ignored.  The practice of featuring one video per page, using descriptive page titles, appropriately using H1 tags, including permalinks for the video pages, delivering relevant meta descriptions, syndicating video content to YouTube, including nav links to other video content are all best practices in use here.  A quick SEO check showed many of Buy.com’s video pages ranking high in Google – with a good chunk even occupying the coveted #1 slot.
• While simple and somewhat basic, Buy.com’s video player is manages to remain elegant.
• Quality of the video is high.  Motion is crisp and clear, with little buffering on high-speed Internet connections.
• Buy.com places video on its product pages.  In addition to email video, product page video remains one of the key drivers of video commerce revenue.
• Video availability is integrated into the on-site search results
• BuyTV is linked directly in the top nav of Buy.com.  I wanted to cry when I saw that, I was so happy!
• “This week on Buy TV” is featured on the home page above the fold.  I was impressed!
• Just in case a shopper missed the other prominent video callouts on the home page, BuyTV is featured in the bottom page nav.
• Related videos displayon product pages.  So cool.

While Buy.com is doing a lot of things right, every site can improve in some areas.

Areas of Focus for Buy.com:

• The design of Buy.com’s YouTube channel is a disgrace.   How a serious brand like Buy.com could commit itself to such an amateur presence goes beyond the common rationalizations one might use to support it: e.g. to  ‘humanize’ the brand or to make it seem ‘more real.’  The investment here is clearly not on par with the rest of the company’s video initiative; a standalone video presence (e.g. Buy.tv) with syndication to a standard YouTube page would even be better.
• Videos are set to auto-play on product pages.  We consistently find that setting videos to auto-play vs. user initiated play on product pages is a losing proposition that’s more likely to distract the shopper than aid conversion.
• Video sharing options on Buy.tv are nonexistant, or so difficult to find that we couldn’t after doing a fair amount of digging.  There are no visibile options to email the videos to a friend, embed on social networks, share via blogs or social bookmarking services, or allow affiliates to pull down the videos.
• Some of the videos on Buy.com product pages appear to be served with YouTube, while others are done with Buy.com’s own player.  In addition to creating technical complexity and needlessly introducing manual processes into its video publishing process, it forces YouTube’s branding on Buy.com’s site.
• Even worse, when clicking on product videos on product pages that are served with YouTube, the user is directed to YouTube. This is definitely not a best practice.  Any retailer showcasing a product page to a shopper should do everything in its power to get the shopper to add to cart – or at least stay on the site.  Driving traffic to YouTube makes little if any sense.
• I signed up for Buy.com emails a few months ago and haven’t seen any with video embedded directly within the emails.  I wondered why Buy.com is not exploring that opportunity given its large email audience and potential to drive additional site traffic and higher sales from email campaigns using video.
• It looks like the product videos on the product pages are being added manually, one product at a time (at least the YouTube ones).  Time suck.
• Top 10 videos – it’s not entirely intuitive to feature top products below the video; it might be easier to place calls to action to buy the products in the video player itself.
• There are no links to Buy.tv or the product pages on the YouTube channel.  It’s a missed opportunity for traffic, albeit a small one.
• There aren’t any detailed descriptions of the products I could find by any of the YouTube videos.
• I couldn’t find Buy.com’s videos anywhere other than on Buy.com and YouTube.  While YouTube is the largest video sharing service, many others exist that could drive additional traffic for Buy.com
• Buy.com’s Twitter updates are driving people to YouTube instead of product pages or pages w/integrated checkout on Buy.tv.  I wondered why that was, as it would seem to make more sense to drive people to a place where they could check out.
• I thought it was interesting that Buy.com was selling ad space to T-Mobile on Buy.tv.  Is Buy.com driving more revenue through advertising on the site than actually getting people to buy products on Buy.com?  What is the balance of advertising vs. selling?  I have yet to find a single retailer that’s been successful in their online video efforts in driving any sizable amount of advertising dollars on their video pages.
• It didn’t make sense to me that Buy.com would use YouTube as the central comment system.  For SEO purposes wouldn’t it make more sense to have people comment and share videos over Buy.tv, where Buy.com could more effectively control the look and feel of the pages?

In all, Buy.com is far ahead of the e-commerce world with regard to how aggressively it’s pursuing video.  I suspect we’ll see in the next year or two whether Buy.com continues down the path of pursuing its entertainment dreams, or instead falls back on its e-commerce roots should those ambitions not pan out as hoped.  No matter the outcome, as one of the pioneers of video commerce, the rest of us would be well served to keep their efforts on our radar as we plan our own expansion of video online.

Cabela’s is the largest mail order, Internet, and retail outdoor outfitter in the world.  The company’s direct division, which includes the web, generated $1.1 billion in revenues in 2008, while visits to Cabelas.com increased 32% year-over-year.  Cabela’s can claim bragging rights as the most-visited e-commerce site in the sporting goods category for 2008, and it is currently perched at #40 on the Internet Retailer Top 500 List (2009 ranking).  From the outside, it looks like the company is firing on all cylinders.

Video seems to be a natural fit for Cabela’s.  After all, the company has focused on delivering innovative experiences to shoppers through its ‘destination’ stores which were expanded aggressively in the 2000’s, and by sending out nearly 100 catalogs each year to hunters, fishermen, and outdoor enthusiasts of all types.  As the company grew, it also began to expand into media with the launch of Cabela’s Outfitter Journal and Cabela’s Television.   Today, the company now features a collection of roughly 250 videos on its web site, Cabelas.com [in addition to its TV shows].

Cabela’s aggressive push into new media is admirable. Of the videos it features on-site, most appear to be product-related from its “Field Clips” series, but there are a good number of how-to videos on the site as well.  The videos are professionally shot, most appear to be on location, and the on-screen talent was polished and well-rehearsed in the videos I watched.  It did appear Cabela’s might be using some manufacturer video content as well, then layering in their own intros and outros, but it was a little difficult to tell for certain – they all might have been Cabela’s-produced.  The post-production work was also great.  Shots transitioned nicely and fancy graphics spruced up some of the product videos, which was a nice touch.  The product videos for the most part were 30 – 60 seconds in length (some were longer) and the how-to videos I watched were longer on average, in the 2 – 4 minute range.  In addition, I suspect Cabela’s is tapping into co-op opportunities with videos like this how-to video featuring Purina dog experts which is interesting to note only because co-op is a primary strategy behind how many online retailers are funding their video production efforts, based only on my own observations.

So it’s undeniable that Cabela’s understands video production, that they ‘get’ some of the opportunity to take video online (and presumably how to fund it).  In addition, it’s clear they’re busy exploiting different types of video content both to sell products and educate their customers.  All of this puts Cabela’s well ahead of most retailers in terms of having a solid video commerce program.

So why would I say they fall flat on web execution, given how far ahead they are on the production side?

For starters, Cabela’s is using Windows Media Video format for their videos.  On a brand new computer running Vista, I couldn’t watch the videos without downloading a plug-in.  I use Firefox (not that it should matter, as 22% of Internet users do also), but the problem also reared its ugly head running Internet Explorer 8.  That’s right – a new computer running Vista and IE 8 could not render Cabela’s videos. What’s the point in spending all the time and money on creating video content for viewing online when end users can’t even watch the videos?

I can’t really see any way the decision to use Windows Media Video (instead of Flash, which is installed on >98% of web browsers) is helpful to Cabela’s.  In addition to the poor user experience, engagement analytics aren’t available, and what about everyone using Macs?

One area where Cabela’s is doing well though is in placing videos on product pages.  Placing videos on product pages is a proven method to increase conversion rates (not that it matters if no one can watch the video).  Cabela’s designates  video is available on the product page through a video camera icon, which makes sense as a product page trigger. The product page treatment is more aggressive than the one I last profiled on B&H’s site, for example.  Unfortunately, the video callout is still below the fold (see below) – a more effective treatment might be to move it directly under the hero image.

Cabela’s also features their video collection on-site in one central location, which is great.  It’s a handy way of browsing all the videos available from one spot.  There’s only one problem – finding the video collection is nearly impossible.  For those of you young enough (or old enough) to remember, the “Where’s Waldo?” books are an apt analogy.  A user has to first click on the “Outdoor Info” tab, then the word “Product Videos” is buried in a nondescript left sidebar text nav, which links to the video collection.  The built-in site search isn’t any help.  Despite the fact that video is the most searched for media online, searching for the word “Videos” when the site search is pre-selected to ‘articles and information’ (the section one might logically assume contains the videos), nothing of use is returned.

A third area where Cabela’s does well in video execution is in placing how-to videos on category level pages.  For example, check out the how-to video link in the right nav of this category page for “Black Powder.”  Category page videos are a great way to build trust into the shopping experience and provide differentiation when stacking up to competitors.

The SEO + video department appears a little behind at Cabelas.com.  Of the 15 searches I performed on the product name plus the word “video,” only one returned Cabelas.com on the first page of results in Google, and that was for a Cabela’s branded product and the result was for the generic video page on Cabelas.com.  More typical was a result like this one, where Cabelas was beaten out by competitors like Walmart.com and shopping portals for specialty products in the outdoors segment where Cabela’s should be more of a shoe-in.  Cabela’s appeared not to be following many video + SEO best practices at all, which might explain the poor showing.  For example:

• Videos were launched from Javascript (this is sometimes the only way to do it efficiently from product pages, but for video pages, a better practice would be to display the video in-browser, one per page)
• No meta descriptions and keywords calling out the product or nature of the video
• No use of H1 header tags to describe the videos
• No ability to download the video (this can aid with indexing)
• No mRSS feed available for the videos
• No descriptive text on the page where the video played
• No transcriptions supporting the video
• No permalinks
• No interactive links in video content
• Limited (if any) video syndication

Related not only to SEO but also in driving traffic to Cabelas.com, I wasn’t able to find evidence of Cabela’s initiated video syndication.  I searched for 10 videos on YouTube for products Cabela’s featured with video on their site, and couldn’t find any that appeared to be uploaded by Cabela’s even though there are a ton of videos on YouTube that feature Cabela’s.  Also of interest, it appears that Cabela’s is advertsing in YouTube’s new click-to-buy program. I couldn’t find a Cabela’s YouTube channel, though. (If you know if Cabela’s has a channel, please comment below and I’ll update this post).  One thing of note, I did see a user generated video featuring a Cabela’s product that featured a competitor’s overlay ad, which serves to emphasize a possible downside to hosting videos on YouTube:

Syndication of video represents another opportunity for SEO if you’re smart with embedded links on YouTube, provide useful descriptions of video content, and allow commenting.  However, syndication to YouTube, if not carefully monitored, can actually cannibalize on-site video SEO, as noted by Craig Bokesch of Altrec.com at last week’s video commerce summit.  I searched other video services for Cabela’s video (Vimeo, Google Video, Yahoo Video) but couldn’t find syndicated Cabela’s videos – looks like another missed opportunity for Cabela’s.

While the choice of Windows Media Video as a standard format and real lack of instituted video SEO best practices make succeeding with video more difficult, there are other untapped opportunities for Cabela’s.   For example, Cabela’s doesn’t appear to offer their videos to their affiliates, which is a shame given there’s so much content on the web around the ‘outdoors lifestyle’ – so this is yet another opportunity missed by Cabela’s in their online video effort.  Cabela’s also hasn’t featured any videos embedded in their emails that I’ve received (video GIF support in across popular email clients represents an opportunity to increase email marketing campaign results and Goodmail’s CertifiedVideo service now allows delivery of full motion video with audio to AOL).

Last, Cabela’s appears to have completely bypassed the intersection of video and social media.  Even though folks are creating their own videos about Cabela’s products and new research shows video sharing is more than popular than ever across demographics, Cabela’s offers their customers and viewers no options to share their videos to social networks, embed them on blogs, post them to Twitter, etc.  Another opportunity missed to engage with shoppers and gain additional site traffic without paying out a CPC or CPA.  Then again, given the choice of WMV as the underlying technology powering the Cabela’s video program as opposed to Flash, sharing would be pretty useless, anyway.

In all, Cabela’s has built a strong foundation for a video commerce program with a massive and growing library of video content which includes a robust collection of both product videos and how-to videos, not to mention the company’s TV efforts.  In addition, the company seems to take video seriously, as noted earlier when awarding props to the high quality of talent and video production.  The company seems to understand some of the basics behind a revenue generating video program (merchandising/educating on product pages, educating on category pages, leveraging co-op) but they’re missing the boat with off-site video (syndication, SEO, email, affiliates, social media) and are crippled by some technology decisions that would make expansion difficult (choosing Windows Media over Flash).  It will be interesting to watch Cabela’s video program evolve over the year.

B&H Photo/Video has managed to carve out a nice space for itself in the world of online electronics retailing by catering to a specific niche: higher end photographers and videographers seeking a deeper level of product expertise, solid value, and a convenient online shopping experience.   What makes B&H remarkable when it comes to video commerce, however, is that they extend their video expertise to actual video production; the company invested in an in-house video production team that shoots videos featured on http://www.video.bhphotovideo.com and product pages on the e-commerce site.  They also appear to have devoted significant in-house technical resources to support the program with custom player development and other functionality.  As with other consumer electronics retailers like CompUSA and Buy.com that have launched ‘video channel’ initiatives, B&H realized that video plays well when explaining the numerous features and benefits of gadgets and equipment that are often complex and also expensive.  Unlike CompUSA and Buy.com, however, the B&H approach is less entertainment centered and more education-oriented.  They’ve created the B&H video site as a way to feature their library of features & benefits video, with a host explaining the features on-camera.

I’ve got to give B&H props for how far along they are with video compared to most online retailers – below is just a short list of what they’ve managed to accomplish:

- Invested in in-house video producers, creating quality video content with polished post-production work evident through integrated product shots and host shots.

- Featuring access to B&H videos above the fold on the company’s HOME page – not insignificant

- Placing links to view videos/demos on their product pages

- Providing some basic syndication options for consumers

- They’ve even created their own custom player that features low/high bandwidth modes, full screen options, and simple standard player controls.  B&H also features email video sharing (static product image in the email), social bookmarking, and a simple navigation and video search that lets viewers quickly find the videos they’re looking for on-site.

- Additionally, B&H appears to be doing a great job with their video SEO.  A quick search on a few of the products featured on their video site featured first page Google results when the word “videos” was appended to the product name.  They use descriptive meta keywords & descriptions, offer a video download option, support mRSS feeds, create descriptive page titles, feature the video site under their own domain “bhphotovideo.com,” and also feature one video per page.  Doesn’t look like they’re using permalinks right now or featuring keyword-rich video transcripts, but on the whole they seem to have their act together when it comes to some of the more important video SEO best practices and based on a few searches this approach seems to be working for them.

- B&H has also come on board with video syndication, at least in a limited way.  They are putting their videos on YouTube, for example.

The biggest beef I have with the B&H video site initiative is that it doesn’t really seem to serve the larger e-commerce mission of the site.  In a recession and with video under pressure like any other marketing initiative, especially in the consumer electronics industry where there has been heavy pullback on consumer spending for many retailers, it’s no longer enough to create a video destination site for SEO purposes or a ‘video channel’ where consumers can ‘browse’ the video library.  In this regard and in some areas, B&H has a way to go.  For example:

- Links to the product page are featured to the right of the video player and aren’t really noticeable – I had to hunt to find the link.  The link also doesn’t state that clicking will take the user to a product page – it just provides the name of the product – the call to action could be clearer.

- B&H is probably missing an opportunity to create engagement with their videos by completely bypassing player interactivity.  There aren’t any clear calls to action shown in-video that would promote e-commerce – for example by linking to a product page, and definitely no contextual merchandising, in-video sharing, or hotspotting (though I question the value of hotspots anyway without clear calls to action).  I’m a big fan of using strong calls to action at appropriate ‘trigger’ points in-video to drive the desired behavior; creating the call to action outside the video forces the viewer to divert their attention from the video to engage.

- They don’t appear to have extended video to their email program, and it’s unclear as to how much of the program (if any) is available for affiliate marketing – no matter, without both, the video program appears limited beyond their site and video site.

- The social bookmarking options are limiting as well.  For example, the most prominent social networks (Facebook and MySpace) aren’t available for video sharing, nor is Twitter.

- The product page implementation is definitely not featuring video in any kind of prominent way.  The shopper has to hunt to even see that a video is available for a product.  The option is hidden below the hero image, and a strange looking icon appears next to ‘view demo’ (is that an eyeball?  a webcam?)  I doubt B&H is seeing the full benefit of product page lift given such a light treatment, which clearly is ignoring one of the most immediate opportunities to generate more revenue from video in the short term.

- I also encountered issues twice on two separate machines [running Firefox 3.0.10] where the video didn’t load on the first try when the view demo button was clicked on the product page and had to be reloaded.  It did reload the second time on both machines.

- I don’t really ‘get’ the idea of a podcast for product videos like the ones B&H is creating.  And the concept of a ‘playlist’ on the video site?  Do people really want to create a playlist of product videos?  Maybe – if they’re comparing two similar products I suppose.  It seems like a bit of a stretch.

- B&H also doesn’t appear to have an automated way of managing their video syndication to YouTube.  For example, click the link in the “more info” section at the upper right of this YouTube video featuring a product for sale on B&H’s site.  I get a 404 error but am guessing B&H is trying to link to their video site.

- I checked for other syndication other than YouTube for a couple of products, but wasn’t able to find other video sharing services where B&H was posting its content. While YouTube is by far the largest video sharing service out there, many others when put together add a significant chunk of reach, so it looks like B&H might be missing some opportunities there as well.

Still, overall these are minor details for a retailer that is clearly ahead of the pack when it comes to using video.  Their video production is top-notch.  The videos themselves clearly convey that B&H has strong product knowledge; the company’s support of video is evident in that they took the plunge to build out a video team and based on the fact they’re supporting video with in-house development resources.  B&H is overall a great example of what’s possible with video when a retailer really devotes itself to the medium.

JC Penney is bringing fashion video shopping to the small screen with its Spring Runway Show. In the show, models walk down a catwalk while the price of a product displays in a custom Flash applet.   As the model turns at the end of the catwalk, an ‘in-player’ button appears, encouraging users to click for additional product details.  When the button is clicked, a second ‘details and buy’ button appears, linked to the product page, along with options to share the video to social networks and via email (neither of which seemed to work for me – as the Facebook option only linked to JC Penney’s Facebook photo album instead of prompting the user to post to their profile, while the email option appeared non-functional).

Each model sports a coordinated outfit, offering JC Penney an opportunity to cross-sell items, including high-margin accessories like sunglasses.  However, the cross-sell opportunity did seem to get a bit lost in the face of the bolder calls to action driving shoppers to the product page (which makes sense).  The Flash applet allows a user to skip from model to model via a custom top nav which separates outfits by their theme.  Or, shoppers can just sit back and relax while one model struts her stuff and vanishes before the next one appears.

In all, I like the idea of the catwalk video to showcase apparel.  The format provides a natural way for apparel retailers to show the fit and feel of clothes on real people (well, people that look better than you or I do, but I guess that’s the point .  The catwalk format also provides an opportunity to showcase many outfits in quick succession, which can lower production costs (in theory, though not always in practice) and the format encourages interactivity, provokes curiosity, and also provides a vehicle to engage shoppers with longer form content, always a challenge in e-commerce.  Downfalls of this model include much higher production costs than simpler, though perhaps less produced content (for example, paying models, renting space, building a set that HAS to look good), dealing with professional lighting, and more nuanced/complex post-production work).

Emporio Armani implemented a similar concept, with the notable difference that viewers could actually click on models as they walked down the runway.  However, Armani missed opportunities to encourage sharing of videos over social networks, and the interactive implementation was also a bit kludgey – for example when clicking on a pair of slacks, an option to browse jackets appeared.  On other models, not all of the items even appeared navigable while other models didn’t allow any interactivity at all, leaving one to wonder if the items were even for sale.  This created a confusing, if novel, user experience.  Still, it’s clear that the trend in video overall is toward interactivity.  Still up for debate is whether consumers yet understand the concept of ‘lean in’ interactive video, or whether interactivity needs to be prompted via clear calls to action, such as through hyperlink or image overlays as in the JC Penney example.  I suspect that for now, consumers feel more at home with JC Penney type implementations, as most consumers don’t yet “expect” interactive video content.

Another challenge faced by both merchants is the heavy weight of the interactive Flash applications.  Both shows took over 10 seconds to load on a high speed connection.  Retailers serious about implementing video on site for the most part seek both richness of presentation and speed – finding the right balance is key.  The need for fast page load times at the product level and the impact on sales has been well documented by players in the CDN industry for some time, so merchants seeking richer experiences need to continue focusing on pushing the boundaries of interactivity while watching conversion funnels closely to assess where users are dropping out of the purchase path.

What do you think?  Do you agree with my assessment or not?  Comment below, and Happy Selling!

Hi all, and welcome to CommerceVideos.com!

This blog is designed to complement the blogging efforts already underway at the Video Commerce Consortium, which maintains a research/best practices/trends focus on video commerce and facilitates an industry discussion group, and VideoRetailer.org, which maintains more of a focus on the video commerce industry and its players.  As opposed to the themes of those blogs, CommerceVideos.com will instead focus more on actual implementations of e-commerce video by leading online retailers.    The idea behind this blog is to offer readers commentary and analysis focused on retail video, and also to help ’spread the gospel’ of e-commerce video by covering retail video implementations folks otherwise might not know about.  If you are an online retailer, and are interested in having us cover a specific video project you or your company has deployed, drop me a line at justin [a t] video-commerce [d o t] org.  I try to return all email within 24 hours but due to the volume of mail I receive it might sometimes take a little longer.

I’m Justin Foster,  the founding blogger on CommerceVideos.com.  I’m also the founder of the nonprofit Video Commerce Consortium and co-founder of the for-profit video commerce technology startup Liveclicker, Inc. While I do maintain for-profit interests, this blog is designed to promote general understanding of video in e-commerce and not just my narrow interests.  With that in mind, I’d like to make a call for bloggers to join me in helping to make CommerceVideos.com a thriving blog dedicated to covering online retail video.  If you’re interested in joining me as a founding blogger, send me an email at justin [a t] video-commerce [d o t] org and we’ll discuss.

Until next time…

Happy Selling!