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Sion Wynn-Jones discusses why online video content is helping marketing and digital executives find new ways to engage and create dialogue with consumers

Sion Wynn-Jones discusses why online video content is helping marketing and digital executives find new ways to engage and create dialogue with consumers

 

While the High Street seems to be struggling, online retail is in full swing, with more people using the internet to shop than ever. According to the IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index, British consumers spent a total of £5.2 billion pounds online in October, a 23% increase on the previous year.

 

According to Sion Wynn-Jones, product manager at NTT Europe, this explosion has been the tipping point for big High Street names such as Zara and H&M, who launched transactional websites over the summer to take advantage of consumer confidence.

 

“Supermarket giant Morrisons is also set to launch an online offering in 2011,” he continued. “With 31 million UK consumers now shopping online, the internet is a lucrative channel for those that can adapt in these uncertain times. However, the online market is becoming increasingly competitive as retailers fight to catch consumer’s attention, particularly during the festive period. Marketing and digital executives are having to think of new ways to engage and create dialogue with consumers so they make purchases; video content is proving to be a successful way of doing so.”

 

Is online video worth it?

 

According to the Pew Internet Project, seven in ten adult internet users (69%) have used the internet to watch or download video. Research from Burst Media, shows that this includes people of all ages, while Cisco predicts that there will be 46 million people enjoying video online in the UK alone by 2014.

 

“This behaviour has transferred to online shopping habits,” Wynn-Jones said. According to comScore, the number of online shoppers who watch retail product videos before buying a product grew 40% last year. Flixmedia.tv found that video views lead directly to a purchase online, as they give buyers more confidence in the product at the point of purchase.

 

Supermarket giant Sainsbury’s has already started to explore this opportunity in a bid to drive growth for non-food products. Even in the current state of the economy, seeing the sales lift from video content on their websites, retailers are reluctant to cut online video production spending. According to SLI Systems, only site search, email marketing, user-generated content and search engine marketing were considered less dispensable than online video. “Crucially for digital marketers, multimedia keeps people engaged with brands, drives online traffic and sales,” he said. And Forrester Research reported that videos are 53 times more likely to receive an organic first-page ranking than traditional web pages.

 

How can you get involved?

 

“There are a variety of challenges that retailers will need to overcome before tasting the fruits of using online video,” Wynn-Jones pointed out. “The increasing availability of affordable web-TV enabled devices, tablet computers such as the iPad, and smartphones means that there is now a large range of important media platforms to cater for. Working across multiple platforms has traditionally been complicated, time consuming and costly, as it often requires a separate provider and system to format and stream content to each one.

 

“However, the advent of new offerings, such as Smart Media Delivery services has made implementing video online easier and more cost-effective. These can be used to help format and manage the publication, distribution and syndication of video content through one system and with one supplier. They provide detailed reporting, pay-per view billing and traffic data analysis making it easy to calculate ROI [return on investment].

 

“Most importantly, these systems simplify the monetisation process at each stage of the value chain, and give businesses the control to integrate video based advertising from established ad serving organisations into media streams: bridging the gap for retailers eager to push video based advertising to the desired audiences via platforms that are technically capable.”

 

He added: “Retailers such as white goods suppliers, DRL Ltd have already successfully implemented this technology to integrate video into its website, allowing them to create an engaging and enjoyable consumer experience for what is a fairly unexciting item. DRL Ltd has even created a specific customer-centric website, www.appliance-reviews.co.uk, which provides consumers with video reviews of products.

 

“With the right systems in place it’s possible for any retailer to enjoy the sales uplift associated with online videos, without over-stretched budgets or complicated processes,” concluded Wynn-Jones. “There is now no excuse not to provide consumers engaging content, and not to enjoy the rewards of doing so.”