01/11/2006 - Video Content. Are there aspects of YouTubes success that are useful for e-tailers?

October saw Youtube sold for an incredible sum. Undoubtedly its proved successful for the founders and shareholders of that business, and the massive traffic and downloads has proven it is popular and 'of the moment'. But short of recreating the Youtube model or a part of it, does thier success point to areas e-tailers should be considering to make sure their customers are getting the richest possible experience from visiting their site?

Most retail sites follow a very similar pattern; category pages, sub category pages, and product pages. The product pages will more than likely contain an image (usually just one) and a short description of the product. From small specialist retailers to this typical product page on the Tesco site : Product Page, the format is very similar; description, spec, one image.

So what about video clips? The hotel industry has been using video clips for some time to give 'virtual tours'. However, because most hotels don't allocate rooms until the day of arrival, the guest is rarely able to see the actual room they will be staying in. But for physical products a two minute demonstration video adds a wealth of information. Working with a website that trial 15 video clips, IRT gathered customer feedback a/ as to whether visitors found them useful and b/ areas for improvement. 94% found the video demonstrations useful. A very high percentage indeed, but probably not surprising. With the rapid take up of broadband video content is now almost universally accessible.

In some ways very little has changed in the last 5 years, but in other ways, everything has. Whilst 'Content Is King' is an old adage, the definition of good content has moved on. Multiple images will become the norm as will video demonstrations and detailed descriptions.

You may also find your video content lends itself to being used for marketing. As long as your logo and URL are embedded in the clip it can only be a good thing to have them distributed across the web. Perhaps they can be used in a viral marketing campaign, or linked to from a promotional email.

So whilst it was recently reported that there are over 300 new websites in the UK covering various niche areas of online video content, largely due to the heady success of YouTube.com, there are clearly aspects that can be applied to many areas of general web retailing which will add greatly to the customer experience.

About Us

Internet Retail Technologies Ltd ( IRT ) works with manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers to help them enjoy greater advantage from internet distribution. Through offering consulting services, and web distribution services and channels, IRT helps is network of partners start or further develop their online sales and marketing strategies.

IRT also operates its own consumer facing web site in the form of yourblueworld.co.uk