Ice.com wants shoppers to see the bigger jewelry picture with video casting

Ice.com isn’t going to spend millions of dollars launching a home TV shopping channel, but it will spend between $25,000 and $50,000 on perhaps the next best thing: videocasting.

As a way to increase sales and attract more online jewelry buyers to Ice.com, the company in January will launch a new videocasting program that will emphasize products and jewelry-related information, says CEO Shmuel Gniwisch. Ice.com, No. 178 in the Internet Retailer Top 400 Guide to Retail Web Sites, is always looking for new forms of marketing. For instance, the company operates its own blog with product mentions and jewelry advice. The blog can identify potential buyers and help to close more than 300 sales per month.

But Ice.com’s latest marketing initiative is meant to give online jewelry buyers, who often make a purchase based on an emotional decision, another way to see and evaluate the merchandise. The company is building a set and investing in the technology to conduct videocasts beginning in early 2006, Gniwisch says. The plan is to have customer service reps and other employees – those who know the most about the company’s nearly 3,000 SKUs – star in videocasts that may run from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on business days and will then be archived for shoppers who want to view the videocast at a later date.

The videocasts will talk about various aspects of buying and caring for jewelry, the site’s top 10 items of the week and other topics. “We are reaching out to the fence sitters who may look at jewelry on a web site, but have been afraid to make a purchase,” Gniwisch says. “Buying jewelry is emotional and many people still want to touch and feel the product. A videocast is another way we can showcase the merchandise.”

To promote the new marketing program, Ice.com will mention the upcoming videocasts in its banner ads and search engine and e-mail marketing campaigns. The company will also embed the videocasts with coding that will help track sales conversions and customer behavior.

With more marketing initiatives, Ice.com expects its 2005 web sales to be up by about 50%, Gniwisch says.