It has been well documented that user-generated reviews (a social media tactic) can and will increase sales. Well now a SellPoint study conducted by Coremetrics found a significant increase in product purchases after online shoppers viewed audio/video tours of products.

The numbers from the study we really extraordinary:

• There was a 35 percent increase in the sales conversion rate among shoppers who viewed the tours vs. those who did not.
• Shoppers viewing the product tours spent more than 2.5 minutes, on average, engaged in viewing detailed product information about each product viewed.

This was a good size study as Coremetrics used the CompU.S.A website, which features SellPoint APT. study was conducted over 30 days and examined more than a million shopping sessions. Products measured included those from Canon, Panasonic and Epson.

This study is a continuation of the evolution that is underway in social retailing. Shopping by nature is a social event and in 2007 retailers have been trying to make online shopping more social and community driven. From the shopping site Kaboodle to Bloomingdale’s and Roots social retailing efforts, savvy retailers have been reinventing the way we shop online.

Previous studies had show that user-generated product reviews increase sales. Now we see that adding another social media tactic like video tours can all increase sales.

Some of you might be wondering why video tours are a social media tactic. The reason is portability. Now that the product tour is a video file it can be shared, distributed via email, message boardsa, community groups or mobile phones. No longer do user have to come to your web site to see or read about your product. Now Canon, Panasonic and Epson can go out and interact with anyone online who is interested in their product, regardless of where or how they are connected to the Internet.

That is the power of video tours. This study from Coremetrics is just the first step. Look for product video tours to explode in 2008 as more and more retailers move away from a static image and a few lines of text to describe a product.

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