Marks & Spencer Boosts Basket Size 25% with Online Video

By Caterina Pontoriero
While shopping from home is convenient, online shopping lacks the interaction that in-store shopping provides. In order to bridge the gap between online shopping and live interaction, United Kingdom-based department store Marks & Spencer turned to online video.

In February 2009, Marks & Spencer launched a trial period to raise customer engagement online and increase e-commerce sales. The retailer provided a deep range of informative video content that educated and entertained its customers.

The trial was successful, with the retailer seeing a boost in sales as a result. Today Marks & Spencer has a collection of over 500 films divided into 12 channels on M&S TV. The films are managed by a team made up of staff from Marks & Spencer and video agency Adjust Your Set.

“With the increasing popularity of digital and social media channels, the way people consume and share information is changing,” says Amanda Newman, head of marketing for M&S Money, a financial division of Marks & Spencer. “As such, we’ve developed our marketing strategy to include an increasing variety of communications platforms, ensuring our customers are able to engage with Marks & Spencer in as many ways as possible.”

Cross-Channel Integration
Marks & Spencer selected Adjust Your Set to produce professional video content for its website. The retailer set up a separate page on its website called M&S TV on which all the content was uploaded.

The retailer then worked to integrate onto certain product pages as well as its Facebook and YouTube pages. Videos on each of these pages lead to different user interactions: Facebook provides for conversation whereas M&S TV and videos on landing pages drive sales conversion and site traffic.

Each video features integrated clickable links that bring the consumer directly to the purchase page for the particular product being featured in that specific video. Additionally, shoppers can rate videos, share them with friends through multiple channels and post comments about products featured on the Marks & Spencer Facebook wall.

Profitable Investment
In one year, three million minutes of video content were viewed on M&S TV. Marks & Spencer found that consumers who watched videos showed 25 percent uplift in basket size.

Videos posted on M&S TV have proven to be more effective in supporting online sales than videos posted on Marks & Spencers’ Facebook or YouTube pages. Consumers who watch the videos visit the retailer’s website up to twice as often and stay twice as long on the site as those who do not watch them.
Customers today have access to a multitude of information about products over various and quickly multiplying channels. For Marks & Spencer, video has increased engagement and in turn increased sales. The retailers who take advantage of channels like online video to engage with their consumers will see enormous benefits.