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Video commerce has come a long way in the last twelve-plus months. Forrester Research pegged the percentage of top 50 retail sites that employed video during last year’s holiday at nearly 400% higher than the previous year despite the crippling effects of the Great Recession. Clearly, video continues to be a bright spot of innovation and promise in an industry that has been focused mostly on incremental developments and process improvements in recent years.
Despite the buzz surrounding video commerce and the emergence of dozens of retailers showing great initial results with video, the many possible applications of the medium create confusion for all kinds of retailers, regardless of experience level. The panel I moderated at StreamingMedia East, Video Commerce: The Quiet Revolution in Online Video, was designed to eliminate some of that confusion by highlighting not only real-life examples and results, but also by illustrating the progression of video as it evolves from early-stage ‘vision’ to becoming a core driver of successful multi-channel retail strategies.
Scott Anderson, Director of E-Commerce for Vitamin Shoppe, a 450-store strong, publicly traded retailer of vitamins and supplements, runs a seed-stage video commerce program and holds big ambitions to improve the customer shopping experience and drive results by bringing some of the offline experience to Vitamin Shoppe’s single largest “store,” their commerce site at VitaminShoppe.com. Robert Schwartz is VP and WW Managing Director at Ogilvy & Mather, where his broad perspective across multiple top-tier client accounts helped to highlight email and demand generation applications of video for two of the largest commerce sites, Sears on the B2C side and IBM on the B2B side. Finally, Jason Arend, Director of E-Commerce, Online Marketing, and Creative Services for PFI Western, a multi-channel retailer of western lifestyle goods helped show off the potential of a multi-channel video commerce strategy. While PFI is smaller than the other companies featured on the panel, Jason’s ability to quickly execute and innovate with video commerce really does provide a template for how video can not just augment, but actually transform the retail experience across channels.
My role in the panel really was only to set the stage and guide the discussion. My experience with both the Video Commerce Consortium and Liveclicker provide an “insider’s” perspective on the evolution of this young industry as its players begin to harness the potential of video in new, creative ways.
This summer, I’d encourage anyone interested in learning more about video in e-commerce to attend the Video Commerce Summit, now in its second year of production. Speakers from retailers including Overstock.com, Costco, Onlinshoes.com, REI, HSN, and REELSEO will share their insights on video commerce. The keynote will be delivered by BJ Fogg, the Director of Stanford University’s Persuasive Technology Lab and one of FORTUNE’s Top 10 Gurus to watch.
