It's no secret that consumers use the Internet to do product research. Before making important product-buying decisions, more and more people are going online to research products, prices - and alternatives. Even though word-of-mouth and recommendations from friends remain the most important methods for deciding on future purchases, even these are moving online with the help of e-mail or services like Twitter and social networks like Facebook.
Recent research suggests that even offline sales are being influenced by online research. Accenture last year released a survey showing that while a majority of respondents in the US still preferred to shop in physical stores, 69% researched product features online and 68% used the Net to compare prices.
Instead of replacing bricks-and-mortar stores, the Internet is an extension of consumers' in-store shopping experience. “Retailers and manufacturers must understand this consumer behaviour trend in order to reach shoppers, educate them, serve them and earn their loyalty,” the Accenture research noted.
It has become critical for businesses to pull out all the stops online on their own Web sites and on the commerce sites that sell their products. With access to broadband increasing rapidly, video has become an important method of highlighting product features. This isn't only true of International audiences - think how popular YouTube is among South African Internet users.
So, how exactly does an online video presentation influence customer behaviour? "Firstly, we know that shoppers choose to spend an average of almost three minutes viewing each product tour," says Rick Martin, CEO of SellPoint, a US-based provider of on-demand video product tours. "Secondly, third-party analytics have verified that shoppers who choose to watch video product tours are 12% to 30% more likely to complete a purchase of the product. And, lastly, we believe that buyers who watch product tours are more informed and, therefore, less likely to return online purchases." SellPoint claims use of online video resulted in an up to 35% increase in the conversion rate of e-commerce sales for some of its clients.
As part of its video offering, SellPoint also creates a one-stop space that includes printable material such as user guides and owner's manuals. Over half of the shoppers who view the video tours choose to also view the printable collateral content, according to Martin. "Can you imagine the response a shopper might receive walking into a typical retail store and asking to read the owner's manual for a complex product?" Martin asks. "Product tours make it easy for shoppers to find and navigate through the information that's important to them."
Jacques Nel, MD of digital marketing agency Stonewall+, agrees that online video is great marketing format, especially when you need to explain complex features/functions of products. "It comes in really handy where products are rather technical in nature, and a one-minute video can inform the viewer in far richer format, adding detailed moving video and audio," says Nel.
Video also allows you to feature a product in a completely different way. Nel points to the incredible amount of product and brand exposure that Blendtec received through its 'Will it Blend?' online video campaign. Blendtec created a viral marketing campaign and a Web site called WillItBlend.com that featured video takes of Blendtec founder Tom Dickson blending anything from golf balls, marbles and Thanksgiving dinner to mobile phones using his blenders. So popular is the site that it even has its own entry into Wikipedia, and the phrase “Will it blend?” has become an Internet meme, not to mention putting a smallish company on the map overnight.
It's not all plain sailing, though. Last year MTN caused some controversy when it posted videos on YouTube that some online users felt was “recycled and uncredited” because it was based on original material posted by other YouTube users.
For the most part, South Africa's online retailers do not seem to have adopted video to drive product sales.
Herman Manson is a journalist and the editor of Marklives.com.
For the most part, South Africa's online retailers do not seem to have adopted video to drive product sales. It seems it's up to distributors to take their sales strategy into their own hands.
Yaron Assabi, CEO of Digital Solutions Group (which runs digitalmall.com), highlights poor bandwidth availability and quality as the reason video doesn't feature on his site. "What is promised to be broadband is very narrowband," says Assabi. Keeping an eye on the near future, he notes: "We are all waiting for Seacom to launch next year when bandwidth availability and pricing will hopefully become more reasonable."
YouTube, the popular video-sharing site, recently announced it will start experimenting with new advertising formats to grow revenue. This should boost awareness among marketers even further.
The global credit crunch and the resultant economic slowdown also means consumers are spending even more time researching before making a purchase. Micro product sites that contain lots of printable information such as product manuals as well as video seem an obvious way of helping customer decision-making. Making these accessible from both the corporate and e-commerce sites as SellPoint does means you go where the consumer is.
It sounds like a pretty smart move to me.
LINKS:
SellPoint http://www.sellpoint.net
Blendtec http://www.blendtec.com
WillItBlend.com http://www.willitblend.com
DigitalMall http://www.digitalmall.com
* Herman Manson is a journalist and the editor of Marklives.com
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