How to Leverage Product Videos to Grab Attention of Busy Holiday Shoppers

There's every indication that during the 2012 holiday season tablets will be as important a shopping accessory as low-interest credit cards. According to the 2012 Shop.org/Forrester Research State of Retailing Online survey, 49 percent of retailers say their average order value from tablet shoppers is now higher than traditional web sales. And nearly three in 10 retailers say they're seeing about the same average order value from tablets as their website.

Clearly, consumers are catching on to the advantages of using mobile devices to shop, and this year you'll see even more of them whipping out their tablets or phones in-store to do research before they buy. The challenge for retailers is to push out as much product information as possible to smartphone and tablet users so that they get a full picture of what you have to offer. However, the usual shortcomings of mobile device browsing — e.g., having to reload pages, lots of scrolling and fingertip swipes — can discourage shoppers from digging into your website, whether in-store or on the road.

Video is one way to solve this problem, provided the available bandwidth is great enough. Product videos are very popular with consumers. They can deliver far more than just product images, and more easily than text. Depending on the complexity of your products, your product descriptions can offer an overwhelming amount of information, which is tough to scroll through on a mobile device.

A video, however, can display key product information to viewers so they don't have to scroll through text. You've got their attention for 45 seconds or so, why not make the most of it by boosting the amount of useful data for video viewers? In fact, videos are the perfect way to draw greater attention to your holiday promotions and make you stand out from your competition. If you offer free overnight shipping, gift wrap in-store or holiday discounts, for example, add this information to your video so shoppers don't miss it. (They may overlook banners with the same information, particularly on a small-screen device.)

Product ratings and reviews are another great addition to videos. Consumers are increasingly relying on them when making their buying decisions. If your video reveals that a product is rated five stars by the majority of your customers, that creates a big push to pick it up in-store or buy it online.

The same goes for colors, product specs and shipping costs — it's all valuable data for shoppers when included in a video. To stay timely, change out your promotional messages as the holidays draw nearer, encouraging shoppers to take advantage of limited-time offers — e.g., Black Friday or Cyber Monday deals. Automated video solutions can make it easier to manage changes in promotional messaging, so you don't have to recreate new videos each time your promotions change.

Once you have your holiday videos lined up, you need to make sure consumers can find them. Create a video site map on Google as the search engine giant is still giving prominence to video in search results. Cross-post all of your product videos to your YouTube channel, which will help you gain ever more traction on Google, not to mention increase the reach of your videos during this crucial selling season.

Melody King is the vice president of marketing and sales at Treepodia.