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Shopping and .tv

Michaela B., Verisign — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 00:05:17 +0000

We’re wrapping up our November focus on shopping (yes, bad pun intended). So far, this season looks pretty bright. Black Friday’s shopping was up 9% to $648MM. Since the beginning of November, which comScore considers the holiday shopping period, through the 26th, people have spent $11.6B on web shopping, up 13% from last year. And according to IBM’s Coremetrics, Cyber Monday was up a whopping 20% over last year as of 6pm.

Seems the pundits we mentioned at the beginning of the month were correct — shopping online is up. And video is helping that cause. Over the month our .tv spotlights have highlighted everything from snobstyle.tv that provides style advice for your shopping, to the the granddaddy of British retail, Marks and Spencer’s innovative use of .tv, to a company that provides the tools to retailers to sell using video — Overlay.tv (they started via a need to buy shoes…my favorite as you know if you’re a regular reader of this blog).

Here’s to video, .tv and shopping.

Update: comScore came out this morning (Wednesday) saying that Black Monday passed $1B and was the biggest shopping day ever online and the first to hit $1B. Hopefully this bodes well for the economy and kid’s smiles on Christmas day.

The .tv Spotlight: Overlay.tv

.tv Spotlight — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 18:02:01 +0000

Previously we spotlighted an online retail site that allows you to check out their products via video before making your purchase. Now we feature a company that specializes in creating the tools to help retailers create these engaging video experiences for their customers. Overlay.tv combines video with an interactive layer of clickable hotspots allowing your customers to shop directly from the video – using .tv to communicate their video focused business. Founded in 2007, the initial concept for Overlay.TV came about when the wife of one of their founders commented to her husband that she loved the shoes sported by the star of a TV show but, alas, did not know where to find them. It was then that her husband had an epiphany – what if you could click on stuff while you watch it and find out more about it? The addition of .tv just helps to better communicate that this company means video. Take a look.

The .tv Spotlight: MarksandSpencer.tv

.tv Spotlight — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 16:09:41 +0000

As one of the UK’s leading retailers – with over 21 million people visiting their stores each week according to their site – Marks & Spencer (M&S) has found an innovative way to showcase their products online using MarksandSpencer.tv. Using .tv as a means to communicate video on their site, M&S features carefully stylized video segments of their products. These featured products are then made available in the sidebar of the web page for purchasing. M&S products ecompass everything from stylish, high quality, great value clothing and home products, to outstanding quality foods sourced from around 2,000 suppliers globally. Why is this so great? Despite the fact that you can’t physically try the item on for size, you still get an opportunity to see it in action, or on different models, before moving forward with a buy. And, according to Eyeblaster, video increased dwell rate time on ads by 20% and dwell time by 100%. Web video also increases brand awareness and brand loyalty. This is just another great use of .tv that we hope to see more of in the near feature. Happy shopping!

The .tv Spotlight: SnobStyle.tv

.tv Spotlight — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 16:00:52 +0000

The first site we turn our spotlight to this month is not a retail site in and of itself. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t serve an essential purpose in the retail experience. SnobStyle.tv is all about helping the viewer or visitor find out what they need to know about the latest fashion trends, whether those are coming from celebrities on the red carpet or a new and exciting independent designer. With content ranging from video interviews (as befitting a .tv) to written Q&As with designers, SnobStyle.tv is definitely a must-read if you plan on shopping for the latest styles.

Retail and .tv: Our November Focus

Michaela B., Verisign — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 21:46:23 +0000

In keeping with our themes of the month, we’ve elected (pun intended for those in the U.S.) to make November Retail month and take the opportunity to highlight some retail sites that use .tv.

November, at least here in the U.S., is the big build up to the Christmas shopping sprint. There’s “Black Friday” which was born from the physical store era where everyone went out to brick and mortar stores the day after Thanksgiving. The digital era added “Cyber Monday”; which was the day we all went back to work and used our employers broadband connection by buy our presents.

According to a study just released today from ComScore, 3Q 2010 e-commerce spending was up 9% year over year to $32B. This news has the pundits cautiously optimistic for the upcoming holiday shopping season. Last year’s Black Friday online shopping was $595MM and Cyber Monday was $887MM just in the US.

So, come back over the month and we’ll show you how adding video to retail makes cents and sense. And if your site has a play button, it should have .tv

Companies Throw Their Weight Behind Online Video

Michaela B., Verisign — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 18:00:39 +0000

When I read this eMarketer article, it really hit a hot button. Just ask my co-workers, this is a mantra for me: online video is breaking out of just the media entertainment space. Yes, we here at Watch.tv love MLB.tv, TNT.tv and Justin.tv … entertainment is great. But, online video is so much more than that. Think of Mercedes-Benz.tv, MarksandSpencer.tv and Adobe.tv all great non-entertainment brands that use online video to engage with their customers and showcase it using .tv.

eMarketer’s Paul Verna points out rightly in his report that video has become a necessity for companies that are looking to truly impact and engage with their customers and audiences. That goes regardless of what industry you’re in. The audience wants and expects their interactions with brands online to include some sort of video component, so it’s time to get on-board with that or risk being left in the dust.

Some interesting stats:

Mutichannel Merchant asked retailers to identify rich media features that they used, 46% picked video making it the highest ranked category in the survey. Another 42% said they planned to add capability in the next year.
Forrester says the percentage of the top 50 US Online retailers that offer video on their sites skyrocketed to 68% in 2009 from 18% in 2008.
The Society for New Communications Research noted 31% of Fortune 500 companies with public-facing blogs used video blogging in 2009, up from 21% in 2008.
Ad-ology ‘s statistics showed “video ahead of mobile marketing and search optimization as budget priorities for US marketing.”

Online video is entertainment. It’s cars. It’s shoes. It’s shirts. It’s engaging with your users, viewers and customers. And, online video is .tv.