A compelling online shopping experience is critical to e-Tailing success. Whether reinforcing suggestive selling or offering additional product information with videos, e-Commerce tools are helpful to both the retailer and consumer.
A recent webinar, titled: Vitamin Shoppe & Blinds.com Talk E-Commerce Tools, highlighted the importance of adding conversational elements to product pages to assist shoppers, provide unique content and increase social discussion. During the webinar, executives from The Vitamin Shoppe and Blinds.com discussed their successful experiences with online Q&As and video commerce strategies.
The Vitamin Shoppe Adds Q&As To Create Interactivity
To boost customer engagement, The Vitamin Shoppe partnered with TurnTo Networks, a provider of social commerce solutions, to implement interactive Q&As on product pages.
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“We were looking for a conversational piece,” explained Karen Hansen, Digital Product Manager for The Vitamin Shoppe. “We already have reviews, but decided to add Q&As because they are more strategic and a lot more relevant to our web site visitors.” Hansen noted that the types of social questions posted by shoppers correspond with recent research findings that indicate shoppers are interested in learning more about specific product attributes.
“One of the features I like most is how users can post a question and the answer is sent via email as well as the product page,” noted Hansen. “This allows consumers to continue the conversation without having to remember the product page they last visited.”
The Vitamin Shoppe provides an additional opportunity for shoppers to provide feedback during the checkout process. This capability enables online shoppers to share their opinions of a product and why they decided to make the purchase. “We were able to generate the most user-generated content through check-out comments,” said Hansen.
Results from the partnership between The Vitamin Shoppe and TurnTo include:
- 6.4 pieces of user-generated content per 100 items purchased;
- Increased conversion rates;
- 12.07% of orders come from shoppers who interacted with the social Q&A; and
- 44% of questions receive first response in less than 24 hours.
Blinds.com Implements Video Program To Showcase Product Information
Blinds.com was challenged by shoppers unfamiliar with specific products and the buying process. By implementing an educational video program with Liveclicker, Blinds.com customers could better understand the offerings, as well as converse online about the products and videos.
“The ability to comment on videos in addition to rating them is useful to site visitors,” said Robert Reed, Video Producer at Blinds.com. “It’s good to see ratings, but comments are helpful to users who may have questions about the videos.”
By partnering with Liveclicker, Blinds.com can upload one to 50 pieces of content in real time and share the content through social channels.
Results of the Blinds.com video program include:
- More than 250 videos integrated throughout the site;
- An average 65,000 views every month;
- 16% of revenue related to video viewing; and
- 50% of viewers watched most of the Blinds.com videos.
