At the Internet Retail Conference and Expo (IRCE), I had the opportunity to present on the topic of video and how retailers are using it to create richer experiences. At first, I wasn’t too excited about the topic. I’m not a video person. If you give me the option of watching a video or reading the transcript – or, in the case of a product demo, reading the product description and technical specs – I’ll go for the reading option every time, simply because I can skim it faster than a video can feed me the information I want.

So I took on the topic as something of a personal challenge. What is it about video in retail that is compelling, and is there anything out there powerful enough to convert me, a non-video user, into someone ready and willing to press play?

I learned a couple of things, both from my own research and from sitting in on the rest of the presenters at the video day (pre-conference) at IRCE. Probably not enough to convert me from my skimming ways, but I am obviously not “most shoppers ” – because video works. It converts more shoppers, and it converts them with larger basket sizes … when you do it right. Here’s what I learned.

Video is Not for Amateurs

While you should not expect to need a sound stage a la MGM or Warner Brothers, you should invest in some real tools of the trade. The speaker before me, Mark Roskowske from ShowMeCables.com, showed a great video (of course!) of how sound and image quality changes depending on the equipment you use. Lighting plays an important role, but probably nothing adds or detracts from a video more than sound.

But I think even more important than that, is a professional speaker/actor. Video online comes with a certain amount of casualness implied – I think people associate more closely with YouTube than with, say, Netflix, when it comes to quality expectations. And there is a temptation for a company to “let its hair down ” when it comes to presenting a face to the customer. But that only works if the person in question just missed their calling as an actor.

For example, go to the Barbie Dream House product detail page on Amazon, click on video, and then click on “amazonvideo5″ (you’ll see the video’s name if you hover your cursor over each video). While on the one hand, I can appreciate the thought process that went into what eventually led to Odette’s 3 minutes and 21 seconds of fame in this video (She’s the product’s designer! Who better to show it off? And it puts a real face on our company!), the poor woman looks terrified. And it’s painful to watch.

Video Can Make Something Super-dull become Wildly Engaging

Product videos have a job to do: show off the product. But while there is a very successful and proven way to go about doing that, too much of the same thing turns out to get boring after awhile. I like Zappos’ shoe demos because it shows me what the shoe looks like on a real person’s feet. It’s not my feet, but it’s better than nothing. But I can only take about four or five of those before I get bored, mostly because the videos are so formulaic and predictable.

But take what Volvo did with their dynamic steering – a feature available on their commercial semi-trucks. Sure, they could’ve done a straight-up product demo. But they dug deep, they dug up Jean Claude Van Damme, and in the end created a 1:17 video that has been viewed over 73 million times on YouTube. An epic split, indeed.

Video Can Be Serious but Really Should Be Entertaining

Corollary: Unless you really are trying to change the world, don’t take yourself too seriously – and even then, give entertainment a serious second thought before saying no.

The entire world’s experience with video has been centered on entertainment. From movies to TV to endless hours of cat videos on YouTube. And while, for retail, video has a job to do (help sell stuff, or at least help customers figure out answers to questions that take some pressure off the call center), most consumers are expecting that job to be entertainment.

And honestly, it’s the entertaining videos that stick with us. That get shared. To me, Old Spice’s interactive campaign is the pinnacle of achievement in using online video – and I was shocked, just absolutely shocked how many people in the room during video day at IRCE had not heard of this. To really understand what can happen when a brand relaxes, has fun – and thinks about how to use the internet in conjunction with video – you get a case study like this.

And if you think you can’t take something serious and make it entertaining, I leave you with the City of Melbourne’s Metro public service announcement. My kids may never stand on a train platform in Melbourne, but they have certainly sung this song (and watched the video over and over, and played the game).

IRCE Big Picture

Which leaves me with my overall impression of IRCE in general. I heard a lot of mutterings that (with the exception of Joyus) the keynotes were boring and a lot of same-old same-old. And that, while there were still more jeans in the crowd than suits, the business of eCommerce seems to have gotten boring and stuffy.

eCommerce must mature – time marches on, the industry has no choice. But if I took anything away from my foray into video, it is this: mature doesn’t have to mean boring. And now more than ever, retail needs to be thinking about how to be more than relevant. We need to be entertaining.