As an avid online shopper, I often find that some sites “invite me in” better than others.  It may be the way the site is designed, how the company is branded, or how easy the site is to navigate; but there is another element that makes a website more “approachable,” to customers – it is online video.  I’m not talking about those viral YouTube videos your kids watch.  An online video is used to give an ecommerce website added dimension and a personal touch. A great example of this is the video on FlagPro.com, the ecommerce portal for the Advertising Flag Company.

I’ve been on this site countless times before and am familiar with everything they sell.  In fact, I’ve already recommended FlagPro.com to many friends in the marketing industry because they deliver such high-quality products and everything is “made in the U.S.A.”  But until I saw the company’s owner, Randy Smith on the video, I hadn’t really thought about the people behind the operation.  While the video itself is relatively brief, I was able to get a behind the scenes look at this Chicago-area flagmaker and find out more about what makes them unique.  From the shot of the seamstress behind a sewing machine to the silk-screen process used to make promotional banners, I felt like I was on a behind –the-scenes tour of the company headquarters.

Online businesses may deliver exactly what customers want, on-demand, 24 hours a day, but they rarely have a “persona” in the eyes of the shopper.  Even larger companies like Amazon and Ebay rarely conjure up images of their corporate headquarters, employees, and warehouses.  Unlike their favorite brick-and-mortar stores, people are much more likely to picture an image of the company logo.  While this may be the goal of a major corporation, it is rarely as effective for a small business.

Not only does online video help customers see the faces behind the website, it also helps them learn about what makes the company unique.  For example, on the FlagPro.com video I learned that the Advertising Flag Company makes large-scale banners for Chicago institutions like the Chicago Cubs, the Field Museum of Natural History and the Art Institute of Chicago.  Not that I plan on ordering any ballpark flags, but just knowing that they are trusted by some of my favorite organizations gave me even more confidence in their products.

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