As video on-demand inevitably continues to replace DVD's, many video creators - filmmakers, fitness specialists and stage entertainers - among countless others - look for a convenient solution to start their ecommerce journey. Without question, Vimeo On-Demand can offer them an excellent entry solution.
As their business grows, video professionals continue to look for solutions that can accelerate their success, by offering more flexibility, global reach and specialization. This blogpost aims to provide an up-close presentation, first of the benefits offered by Vimeo On-Demand and then how those benefits compare with those of Cleeng Play.
Vimeo On-Demand debuted almost two years ago as an open self-distribution service available to Vimeo PRO members. The idea behind it was simple - allow Vimeo users to sell their videos online. It was really exciting to see that the monetization trend we initiated for vimeo videos two years before Vimeo on-demand launched was picking up steam. In the spirit of healthy competition, we've been tirelessly innovating our video on-demand solution, and our efforts were finally rewarded with the crowning launch of a new Cleeng Play in December of last year
Now we’d like to present our in-depth and side-by-side comparison of the benefits offered by Vimeo+Cleeng Play versus Vimeo on-demand. First and foremost - the transactional view of both services:
More Revenue
Currently, as a Vimeo PRO user you get to keep 90% of your revenue (after transactional fees are paid to credit card companies and PayPal, of course), while 10% of it is kept by Vimeo. That's a lot.
Let’s say that you sell $5000 every month (from VOD or Subscriptions). With Vimeo-On-Demand, you’ll pay 10% of your revenue to Vimeo. In other words, you’ll pay $500, thereby keeping $4500. With Cleeng PRO, however, you’ll keep $4900, or $400 more per month.
As you can see from the chart below, as soon as you exceed $1000 in revenue per month, it’s far more economical to use Cleeng Play+Vimeo. The bottom line is that your savings can be very significant and therefore critical to the growth of your business.
More Granular Sales & Buyer's Data
Both platforms deliver a certain amount of sales data. With Vimeo, you get an attractive table that shows you a detailed breakdown of the views, impressions and sales, and also where your buyers come from, but you don't get any information about your buyer’s profile and, in particular, a list that shows each buyer’s email information.
If your goal is to simply sell, but you don't plan to run any marketing actions to specific groups of your buyers, then Vimeo will satisfy your needs. On the other hand, if you wish to tailor promotions to target buying personas (for example, by using email marketing as a tool), then Cleeng will deliver a detailed overview of each buyer’s behavior (email, country, time, lifecycle, performance per coupon campaign, free vs paid vs discounted sale - and many more). Plus, you'll see in your dashboard exactly when the payout will happen and how much you’ll receive.
Better International Sales Support
There's no limitation on either Vimeo or Cleeng to sell internationally. With Vimeo you can sell in 127 countries, with Cleeng in 170 countries. However, Vimeo’s setup restricts your sales to USD only. What that means is higher fees per transaction for your customers. In contrast, Cleeng Play respects different fiscal regulations in especially when selling in Europe, and it also allows you to create pricing to sell your product in different currencies (with rounded pricing available in GBP, EUR, USD, AUD, NZF, DKK, NOK, TRY, XOF, SEF and CAD).
As long as you plan to sell only in the U.S. market and be paid solely through PayPal, then Vimeo could be a workable option, in that respect. However, should you wish to establish and then grow your position globally, and even grow bigger audiences worldwide, manage more currencies and collect your payment directly in your bank account in your own currency, then, to put it simply, Cleeng Play will much better fit your needs.
Further comparison of all benefits:
| Benefit | Vimeo On-Demand | Cleeng + Vimeo |
| Embed everywhere | √ | √ |
| Supports HD & SD | √ | √ |
| Basic coupons (% and Price) | √ | √ |
| Add Trailer | √ | √ |
| Add Previews | √ | √ |
| Sell within a Tweet | √ | x |
| Manage Bundles | √ | √ |
| Responsive design | √ | √ |
| Supported currencies | USD, EUR | USD, EUR, GBP, TRY, CAD, AUD, NZD, ZAR,DKK, XOF, NOK |
| Manage subscriptions | X | √ |
| Manage Live Pay Per View | X | √ |
| Manage Season Pass | X | √ |
| Advance coupons (name campaigns, subscriptions) | X | √ |
| Buyer's Payment Method | Visa, MasterCard, PayPal | Visa, MasterCard, PayPal, & local payment methods: ELV, iDeal, CarteBleue, Maestro/Solo & more |
| Pay-out method | Paypal only | Paypal or Bank wire |
| Pay-out currency without fees | USD | USD, EUR, GBP |
| EEC VAT Management | X | √ |
The final take:
According to Vimeo CEO Kerry Trainor 'online is entering a second phase, where paid content is where things are going to go'. We totally agree and we're happy to see that the competition is healthy, and helps to develop the market.
If you're new to video e-commerce and can leverage your traffic just fine with Vimeo, then Vimeo On-Demand works great. You'll get the solid basics of promotional tools (a single-coupon option, Sell within a Tweet), reporting stats and payouts to your PayPal account.
If you already have more than few hundred viewers on your website, and your revenue has crossed that magic threshold of $1000 per month, then Cleeng Play is definitely the solution you'll need to further grow your sales by offering you more promotional opportunities, more international sales and e-commerce options, such as subscriptions or live pay-per-view.
Many videos creators or top brands like Epicurious, Warner, or British Basketball League to name just a few - are already selling their videos with Cleeng. Why not give it a try today?
