For your reading pleasure, and oldie-but-goodie: an excellent article by Bob Tedeschi in the New York Times last year surveyed the state of video in online retail. He reports on early innovations from 1-800-Flowers, Blendtec, and Golfsmith.

I found this article interesting because, about a year ago when it was written, Tedeschi noted that “Whether [video] will help build customer traffic and sales over the long term remains an open question.” Today, it’s clear that video CAN build traffic and increase sales. We’ve seen excellent results for clients ranging from Amazon.com to FrontlineShop to Kate Aspen (Brad Fallon’s testbed for StomperNet research in Internet marketing). The trick is that video is a LOT more complicated than AdWords search marketing! Results are harder to measure and all over the map. Today’s challenge is to optimize online video campaigns (whether video merchandising or video advertising) to maximize your traffic CTRs and conversion rates.

Highlights from Bob Tedeschi’s NYT article, “Online Sellers Discover the Power of Video Clips”:

Online retailers have begun capitalizing on the YouTube craze, offering a video platform for product demonstrations, rants and raves, sentimental messages and just plain bizarre behavior.

…

For at least one company, user-generated videos have led to a measurable boom in business. Blendtec, a manufacturer and seller of blenders based in Orem, Utah, started late last year posting videos of the company’s chief executive, Tom Dixon, blending random objects, including wood, marbles and Mr. Dixon’s iPod.

The company posted the videos on its own site, WillItBlend.com, as well as on YouTube, and promoted them on various message boards and blogs. The marble video, which can be seen at youtube.com/watch?v=3OmpnfL5PCw quickly rose to prominence on YouTube’s entertainment section, and since then, according to Blendtec’s marketing director, George Wright, the company’s 30 videos have been viewed more than 11 million times.

“We’ve seen wonderful improvements in sales,” Mr. Wright said. “Online, we’ve absolutely eclipsed our records, and it just continues to grow and grow.”

…

Mr. Corey said this year’s new golf clubs include even bigger drivers than before, some with square heads. “It’s going to take people some time to understand the features of these,” he said. “What better way to do that than with videos?”

Videos also help increase Internet traffic. The more Golfsmith offers videos and reviews of its products, Mr. Corey said, the better the chances Google and other search engines will point users to Golfsmith when they type a product name into a search box.

Filed under: ecommerce, effective online video, marketing, online advertising, online retail, product demo, retail