Ecommerce sites adding video content,community features to retain customers

[mandy]

As people spend more and more time on the Web, e-commerce firms like BabyUniverse are creating content and community features in the hopes of maintaining customer loyalty and scoring ad revenue. The company just launched its BabyTV.com video site, which features programming from Oxygen and Alpha Mom TV. It will serve up in-house productions as well as user-generated video. The company also plans to unveil more social features on its sites...

Other larger online retailers have also incorporated video content and community features on their sites. E-commerce king Amazon.com launched "Amazon Fishbowl with Bill Maher," a 30-minute weekly Web interview show in June. And Wal-Mart mimicked MySpace through a back-to-school community site that prompted boos and hisses from the blogosphere before being scrapped...

The company also aims to strengthen bonds between site visitors by offering blogs and message boards, and hosting live events. A product manager of a crib manufacturer might give a demo during a live Web program, for example. Users may also be able to build their own public and private community networks. Such offerings will be ripe for sponsorships...

full article: http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3624330

[mandy]

A related article:

Some retailers are capitalizing on the explosive growth of online video, seeking to better showcase products and entertain and engage customers...

A 650% increase in traffic. Around 10 million page views. Selling more products in one weekend than the entirety of the best month on record. A significant increase in sales. And calls from The Today Show and The Tonight Show. All because someone thought tossing a 2” x 2” board and some golf balls in a blender was funny.

That someone clearly was right.

“I was walking past our testing room and saw sawdust all over the floor, so I asked what was going on,” remembers George Wright, hired last year as marketing manager for manufacturer and e-retailer Blendtec. “Staff said Tom was in here doing some destructive testing, seeing if he could blend a board with a new blender designed for use in the home. I decided I had to see that. So the next time they did destructive testing I was there, and I had it filmed. It was hilarious.”...

full article: http://www.internetretailer.com/article.asp?id=20943