Success Story: How JustBats.com Use OTT Video to Engage Users

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JustBats.com began as a small brick and mortar sporting goods store based out of Kansas City, Missouri. After placing their first internet order in 1997, the company officially launched online in 2000. Since then, the business has grown into one of the largest online U.S. retailers of baseball and softball bats.

Today, JustBats.com is a company that lives and breathes baseball in multiple senses. In their own words, “[a] bat is just a small part of baseball, but the values we’ve learned from baseball are largely responsible for the company we’ve become.” Those values include the customer guarantee of delivering the perfect bat on time, every time. In addition, the company prides itself on offering free shipping both ways, 24-hour customer service, same-day shipping. And to meet that high standard, online video has become key to JustBats.com’s business success.

From Concept to Success Story with Online Video

Dedicated to providing customers with a World-Class experience, JustBats.com uses a range of video types. These range from promotional and product videos to how-to-guides, all of which allow the company to deliver unparalleled customer service, improve lead generation and support ongoing technical innovation goals.

YouTube worked as a content delivery network for a while, but we have outgrown it. Now that we have better control over content, customers get to experience all that content in the best possible way. It has helped us from an SEO standpoint, as well as having more detailed information available at our fingertips.

Mike Kearns, Director of eCommerce, JustBats.com

To meet the needs of their broad customer base, JustBats.com ultimately chose the Dacast video hosting platform. In particular, the business sought content control, mobile access, accessible API design, and customer service. In addition, Dacast’s analytics features tipped the scales when it came to choosing the right OVP.

Control

One of JustBats.com’s key requirements, when it came to choosing an online video hosting service, was the need to have control over video content. Dacast’s white label embed code feature was the perfect match, allowing the team to set up their own video domain.

Mobile

“The Dacast video player works with many environments, especially the growing mobile space,” says Mike Kearns, Director of eCommerce for JustBats.com.

“Most mobile sites do not display mobile video, and when they do, it’s a YouTube link and opens in the YouTube app. That leads to a poor customer experience since some phones do not handle the back button well. With Dacast, we now have embedded videos which play in-line on our mobile product pages. That subtle user-experience improvement is a competitive advantage.

Design

JustBats.com has also benefited from Dacast’s API, given its incredibly easy to use design. “The admin interface is unlike any I’ve ever seen. It’s a comprehensive list with lots of detail around every field. Changing a value is now straightforward and easy to follow due to this design,” Kearns explains.

Customer Service

The company has also been impressed with Dacast’s customer service and support team, which Kearns is quick to praise. “Customer service is responsive and has been very good about answering our questions,” he confirms.

Analytics

The Dacast video player fires many analytical events for Google Analytics. As a direct result, the team at JustBats.com can make more informed, data-driven decisions about video watching behaviors. According to Kearns, “our video team loves the detailed reporting and data provided, which allow them to make better decisions and draw clearer conclusions on the performance of our videos. The abundance of data allows us to validate our overall video message, as well as make better and more efficient production decisions.

Thanks to Dacast’s range of security, management, and analytical features, JustBats.com has been able to implement a highly effective video strategy. Created for savvy businesses who recognize the value of online video, Dacast’s intuitive interface is easy to use and incredibly powerful.

“YouTube worked as a content delivery network for a while, but we have outgrown it,” Kearns concludes. “Now that we have better control over the content, customers get to experience all that content in the best possible way. It has helped us from an SEO standpoint as well as having more detailed information available at our fingertips.”

Of course, JustBats.com isn’t the only business that can benefit from our video hosting platform. After reading about this online video success story, is your business ready to take advantage of our professional streaming solutions? If you’re not sure but would like to learn more, you can sign up below for our 14-day free trial (no credit card required). Whatever your business, we’re eager to help you with your online video needs today!

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