'Net Features : sundaysky

Videos Impact Conversions, Revenue

Amberly Dressler — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 15:08:00 GMT

On-site videos deliver brand awareness and engagement, but what is most appealing to companies is the performance and financial impact videos are generating, specifically conversions and revenue.

That’s according to SundaySky, the creator of SmartVideo (a personalized, real-time video experience). The company recently published its 2012 State of Online Video report, which captures and analyzes the current trends in online video including consumption, personalization, advertising, retail, mobile and 2013 predictions.

Highlights of the report include:

• Personally relevant video: While the average email click-through rate is 5.4 percent, Forrester confirms email with video increases this rate 11-16 percent

• Video advertising market growth: Forrester predicts the online video spend will grow 26 percent each year

• Mobile video: 33 percent of marketers could use mobile video to replace the traditional 30-second spot

• Online retail: The number of online retailers that feature videos on their websites is up 200 percent from last year

Also interesting to note, is video’s impact on email. The report indicates that the average text email open rate is 11 to 22 percent, but when you add ‘video’ to the subject line of marketing-related emails, open rates rise up to 30 percent.

SundaySky data also reveals that when customer emails contain video content that is personally relevant to the recipient, such as a bill, statement or account status - open rates jump to 40-60 percent. Furthermore, the click-to-play rate for personalized video ranges from 80 to 99 percent.

Personalized content clearly goes a long way in driving deeper levels of customer engagement.

“We all, as consumers, want to be treated like individuals more and more,” said Sears CTO Dr. Phil Shelley. “We want to personalize engagement, including real-time offers and rewards.”

In addition to using SundaySky’s Smart Video product for showcasing products, Sears also leverages a big data program to drive customer loyalty.

Other retailers have also seen video’s impact on their bottom line. In fact, 48 of the top 50 online retailers feature videos on their website. This is a 200 percent increase from 2011. Higher conversion rates are likely the reason.

“Five percent of consumers who get to the configuration stage and view one of these videos makes a purchase, tripling the conversion rate from before we implemented,” said Lewis Broadnax, Executive Director, Web Sales & Marketing, Lenovo.

Looking forward to 2013, SundaySky predicts the C-suite enhancing customer experience and engagement strategies with smarter applications of videos. Naturally, the company also anticipates the continued rapid growth of digital and mobile video consumption and ad views.

Get Smart By Boosting Video Engagement

Allison Howen — Sat, 19 May 2012 20:00:00 GMT

Businesses looking to implement a video strategy into their website marketing efforts might want to consider leveraging SmartVideo technology.

SundaySky’s SmartVideo solution offers a personalized way to engage with consumers. The solution's goal is to deliver the right message to the right person at the right time, based on information such as the consumer’s browsing behavior, customer history or geography.

Recently, personal technology company Lenovo decided to leverage the SmartVideo technology throughout its online product catalog in order to deliver personalized, real-time video experiences to consumers. The solution not only drove higher-quality traffic to Lenovo’s website, but also boosted conversion rates.

In fact, during a two-month testing period, Lenovo discovered that SmartVideo's automated creation and delivery of 1,300 product videos contributed to an average increase in revenue of 2 percent across all products. Furthermore, 5 percent of visitors who watched the product videos made purchases, and a video-viewing completion rate of 88 percent further proved that the SmartVideos both increased and improved online engagement.

“Lenovo joins other leaders in online retail in using automated, real-time product videos to increase website traffic and conversions, and to bring value to other areas of its business,” says Jim Dicso, president of SundaySky. “SmartVideo creates more effective engagement throughout the customer lifecycle, and Lenovo’s SmartVideo strategy is a prime example of that.”

Why You Need E-Commerce Video Now

Linc Wonham — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 16:35:00 GMT

The biggest takeaway from the State of Video in E-Commerce that we published several months ago, citing conclusions from SundaySky’s Q4 2010 report, was that the large majority of online merchants have thus far underutilized or altogether neglected this simple yet potentially very valuable medium.

The latest release from SundaySky includes new data from the first quarter of 2011, and while relatively little has changed in terms of retailers’ widespread adoption, it appears that consumers’ appetite for e-commerce video continues to grow.

The increasing interest from online shoppers, combined with retailers’ general inability to meet that demand, presents a unique opportunity for ambitious merchants both large and small. Below are some of the key findings from SundaySky, which paints a very convincing picture of why you need to implement e-commerce video as soon as possible.

Give consumers what they want
The number of subscribers to online retailers’ YouTube channels increased 21 percent from the fourth quarter of 2010 to the first quarter of 2011. That number climbed to 571,000 subscribers to retail channels, totaling 420 million views of retail videos on YouTube alone – a 13-percent increase. Meanwhile, the number of retail videos posted on YouTube reached nearly 96,000 during Q1 2011, which represents a 9-percent increase. Shoppers are consuming e-commerce video at a significantly faster rate than merchants are providing it, but that window of opportunity is closing.

All or nothing for major retailers
Among the largest online retailers in the world, it seems that video is either being mass-scaled or all but ignored. Thirty-two percent of the top 50 online merchants boasted more than 1,000 videos on their sites in Q1 2011, compared to 22 percent in the previous quarter. However, 36 percent of the top 50 had fewer than 10 videos on their sites, and a staggering 68 percent of all retailers are not yet exploiting the obvious and accessible rewards of on-site e-commerce videos – in any way, shape or form.

Time to act is now
While the large majority of retailers continue to ignore the benefits of video, a definite shift is taking place in the e-commerce industry. The number of major retailers posting more than 100 videos on YouTube during the first quarter of 2011 increased by 15 percent since the fourth quarter of 2010, indicating that the race may be on. Still, that number represents the minority, with 48 percent of the top 50 surpassing the 100-video mark.

Enormous SEO benefits
According to the SundaySky report, nearly 18 percent of the major search engine results pages during the first quarter of 2011 contained video results, and most video results for retail-related keywords were posted only on YouTube. In an analysis of 34,000 top keywords within 17 categories from Shopping.com’s top searches, computer gaming had the highest presence of video results while furniture had the lowest.

Getting results
Zappos has for a long time been a benchmark of many online retail best practices, and its use of e-commerce video is no exception. The company annually generates more than half a million dollars in incremental revenue simply by following video SEO guidelines, and the amount of traffic accredited to video results is estimated at more than 77,000 visits per month.

While Zappos is one of the top 50 retailers to adopt e-commerce video on a massive scale, smaller retailers simply need to get into the game rather than watch from the sidelines. From posting a handful of simple product videos onto your site to leveraging your company’s own YouTube channel and building out your brand, the power of video is growing and too many retailers are missing out.