By evaluating web site metrics, retailers have learned that video provides ROI through increased conversion rates. According to Internet Retailer, visitors who view product videos are 144% more likely to add products to their cart than other shoppers.
In addition, there are several key metrics that help us understand how video impacts customer experience and quality of engagement. This article explores how both quantitative and qualitative metrics can be used to evaluate the customer experience.
Quantitative Metrics That Track Customer Behavior
What content interests customers? That’s the difficult question. Are they really paying attention to all the information we’ve given them? Though not a fail-safe method, quantitative metrics that assess customer behavior can help you answer these questions.
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First, you’ll want to track the time spent on each page to see what captivates customers. Appliance retailer Living Direct experienced a 9% increase in time spent on page after adding video.
Comscore reports that videos have significant impact on time spent on site, increasing duration by about two minutes. That may not seem like much, but with Coremetrics asserting that the average time spent on retail sites is approximately 7.5 minutes, a 2-minute increase boosts exposure to your brand or products by more than 25%.
Number of page views per unique visitor gives insight about how deep visitors reach into your web site. Are they merely skimming the surface? Are videos placed on the most widely accessed pages? If not, consumers are likely to abandon your site, and even their shopping carts, in search of a more user-friendly alternative.
Bounce rates show you what percentage of visitors left a landing page or web site without navigating deeper into the site. A high bounce rate suggests that viewers didn’t find relevant information or were not enticed to engage. Video can be a great way to get people interested and help lower bounce rates.
The View Rate Customer experience professionals know that a subjective experience can be quantitatively assessed through metrics like view rates and bounce rates. The video view rate (VR) can be thought of as the video counterpart to a click-through rate on other digital campaigns.
VR results in a percentage of the total number of video plays divided by the number of times the player is served. For example, if you have 10,000 impressions on a link for a video and 1,500 actual video views, your VR would be 15%.
The single most important factor affecting the VR is how the video is merchandised. Simple adjustments, such as placing the video above the fold and making sure it’s not hidden behind a tab, can more than double your VR.
Most analytics platforms have a nifty tool to uncover the “hotspots,” or click density, on a web page. By visualizing where site visitors are most likely to click, you’ll be able to place videos in spots that will result in higher VRs.
Qualitative Opportunities To Understand Customer Experience
Unfortunately, we can never truly know what the customers are thinking or feeling as they navigate a web site. However, you can gain insight by including one or two simple site experience questions. The feedback on the customer’s experience can be intrinsically valuable.
After implementing video on its web site, Swimwear Boutique launched a video survey to better understand customers’ reaction to product videos. Reviewers were asked to rate how easy the video was to find and if it facilitated their purchase decision. With an overwhelmingly positive response, approximately 90% said the videos helped them purchase a swimsuit.
Allowing an open-ended response field provided Swimwear Boutique with more than 250 responses to its newly deployed videos. Speaking to the usefulness of the videos, a customer wrote, “Awesome! This is the best tool. It’s great to see how the swimsuit fits and moves with the body!”
Another excited shopper said, “The video shopping was great! It made me go from not sure if I wanted the suit to absolutely wanting it!” Swimwear Boutique expected that shoppers would find the videos useful and that they would lead to increased sales. The enthusiasm from customers far exceeded expectations.
A less direct way to measure sentiment is to monitor how customers connect with your videos. Don’t underestimate the value of YouTube and other social sharing sites. Consumers will talk, share and interact with video across social sites.
Using the analytics tools provided by social sites or a social media management platform like Hoot Suite or Radian6 makes it easier to track your reach and sentiment across the social sphere. Other tools such as URL shorteners make clicks from social media site links more trackable, showing you how content is accessed.
Measure What Matters To Your Customers ― And Your Business
There is no shortage of metrics in online marketing, but the key is to measure and manage what matters. As you lay out your video strategy, ask yourself what areas of customer experience you plan to impact. That will let you know where to focus.
Track your site visit times, page views and VR to see how customers interact with your site. Ask them for feedback, and you will be one step ahead in crafting the best possible user experience with your video content.
Craig Wax is the CEO of Invodo, a full- service e-Commerce video solutions provider. Craig leads Invodo’s overall market strategy, product vision and investor relationships. He brings a seasoned general management perspective to guiding the company’s rapid growth. Craig is a frequent speaker at industry events such as the National Retail Federation’s Big Show, the Shop.org Summit and Innovation Workshop, and eTail.
Craig Wax on TouchPoints TV
As video has become a more prominent practice in online retail, Invodo CEO Craig Wax delved into the key considerations for implementing online video for increased conversions. Wax also discussed the importance of understanding the difference between product videos and brand awareness videos. Additionally, Wax offered tips and tricks to align video with the online shopper’s purchase path.