• by Daisy Whitney , Op-Ed Contributor, January 11, 2012

Product videos are increasingly playing a key role in driving consumer purchase decisions. Online video e-commerce company Invodo said that its online retail partners saw a 9 times increase in video views on their sites at the start of the just-completed holiday shopping season. That includes companies such as Crocs, Golfsmith and Office Depot -- all Invodo clients.

The jump is likely due to increased sharing, as well as growing usage and interest in video to help make shopping decisions. Invodo said Facebook and email each comprised about 43% of sharing of product videos via social networks on Cyber Monday. “Ratings showed that videos produced by Invodo were rated at 4.3 out of 5 stars, a higher average than videos produced by other sources, backing up Invodo’s decision to focus on and develop solutions for the specific needs of eCommerce,” the company said.

Invodo has said that its customers, like home storage and organizational products retailer StacksandStacks.com, have boosted their purchase rate by adding video. The retailer reported than customers who watch a product video are more than twice as likely to add that product to their cart.

These Invodo findings dovetail with other recent stats on the effectiveness of video marketing. Forrester has said that video on a site greatly improves the search results. “Any given video in the index stands about a 50 times better chance of appearing on the first page of results than any given text page in the index,” Forrester said. Meanwhile, comScore has reported that shoppers who watch video spend more time on a site (not surprisingly since it takes time to watch a video), but are also 64% more likely to buy compared to others. That’s a promising stat as it shows videos are converting browsers into buyers.