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So Emery, explain to our audience, what has HSN.com being doing for their own e-commerce
strategy?
At HSN.com we do a few different things with video. #1, and a majority of the content on
our site now, is at the product page level; and that's dynamic content that comes directly
from our on-air programming. We're a 24 hour a day television network that's constantly
going through sales presentations and those are sort of technically identified and fed
on the proper SKUs. There's about 13,000 of those on our site live right now. Separately,
my team has a budget to create, to create video content specifically for dot com use
and for online use, I guess in general. So what we've found for the most part is that
we try to put those resources toward projects and campaigns and things that are going to
be getting a lot of network support overall; and using that video to guide the shopping
experience. Specifically, build experiences on the site that will entice people that are
just watching on television, to come over to HSN.com to see something that's a little
different, and help inform their shopping experience. And then, I guess, the last part
that we've made some investments in are in our branding pieces; again, same sort of idea.
People get to know our personalities at a pretty decent level by watching television;
but we like to sit them down, sort of, in a very intimate environment, sort of backstage,
and ask them some questions that really bring out their personality and inspiration behind
the brand. Just in a, you know, in a calm sort of not "dollars per minute" setting.
And, that sort of allows the customers to connect to them even more on dot com. So we
use that footage kind of throughout the browse path, just to be able to give people a little
more insight into who these people are and sort of what drives them.
What I also found interesting in your presentation is you have a propriety technology, a 360
technology with video. Can you explain that for our audience?
Yeah... we sorted in the fashion category, we said, how can we use... first it was green
screen... how can we use green screen to sort of build... a user controlled experience within
the fashion category? Ultimately, we didn't end up using green screen, but sort of the
fundamental idea was that we had live models who were sort of seated off stage; and you
had the ability, as the user, to control which outfits you wanted to see them in. So when
you clicked on a given model who was sort of... you know, ostensibly seated off stage,
she would sort of fidget and then get out of her chair, and then walk on stage. At then
at that point you would be able to see the outfit up close, and you would have the ability,
as the user, to sort of control her movements, spin her around, zoom in on products, and
ultimately shop the entire look ahead to show outfits, and all the items that went into
that outfit. So I think what it did is it sort of brought a whole new dimension to the
ensemble, or the outfit shopping experience, on the site. It gave the user sort of some
control and ability over what that experience felt like. And again, it was just another
thing that complimented what was going on, on-air. Our fall fashion is a huge event for
on-air, but it was something that people could do on dot-com, and it was different and it
was complimentary to the on-air presentation.
I like being able to say with video you can "spin her around," it's a fun thing. Well,
you know, a company of your size, I'm sure also, with these breakthroughs in technology,
as well as how many people you can reach, comes with it some very big challenges with
online video for e-commerce. Can you share one of those challenges and how you're trying
to overcome that?
I think one of the challenges is that I talked about the dynamically fed product videos...
we have a way to sort of tag those so they're, you know, pulled automatically without human
intervention. That's obviously a huge advantage for us. At the same time, we don't have a
way to sort of automatically cut that content down into smaller segments. We know that,
in general, our users like to consume video in the 1 to 2 minute range. And sometimes,
those product videos wind up being, you know, up to 12 minutes long; and there's a lot of
filler content in that 12 minutes that's not really specific to the product. So I think
that we have an opportunity there to really cut those down and make them more for us than
they currently do. On the flip side, you know, we have a way to have over 10,000 videos on
our product pages without a lot of human touch and without putting a lot of resources toward
it. So, we have to kind of take the good with the bad. Because the fact is, everyday there's
24 hours worth of content being created on our air. There's all sorts of content within
that content that's helpful to us, and helps us drive sales on air: From before and after
photos, to item demonstrations, to tips from personalities and experts. And if you can
sort of pluck that from that massive amount of content and really use it, you know, at
the product level, and sort of in a very targeted way, then your maximizing that content completely.
And speaking of tips, can you give one tip for our audience at ReelSEO that they can
learn from your experiences with online video for e-commerce purposes, no matter what their
size may be?
I would say, as soon as you can determine from a video perspective what can be truly
impactful in a big way, identify those things quickly and make sure you invest in those.
Don't get caught up in how much video you can produce, from a volume perspective. Don't
get caught up in how interesting the whole notion of viral is. Find out what works for
you, and I think every business is different. And certainly, start investing there, and
make that a big investment. And, test your way into other strategies that will help you
make wise use of your budget going forward. Because, I don't think any of us have more
money than we know what to do with. So its really about being smart and efficient in
finding what works and continuing that, and venturing out into new things.