Adobe Scene7 Blog – MackTalk

In our recently conducted viewer study, entitled "What Shoppers Want", we were able to identify best practices for online visual merchandising that validate current eCommerce trends.

In a nutshell? Shoppers want an easy, quick way to browse--with as few clicks and as little scrolling as possible when searching for the right product. But when making a purchase (to really add to cart), all shoppers want to be provided as much visual information in as large a viewing format as possible--including interactive zoom that enables shoppers to dynamically pan and zoom to deeper levels of details. Offering fly-over, click-driven browsing combined with full-screen interactive zoom is the ideal best practice.

One Scene7 customer who does a particularly good job at following these best practices is Halfords, a leading retailer of car parts, car enhancements and bicycles operating out of the United Kingdom.

Halfords delivers detailed product descriptions complete with alternate images (front, back and sides of product). Users can click on any of the images and then by just moving their mouse curser over the main image, another image automatically "flies out" with a single level of zoom to reveal a closer look at the product -- without clicking. To take an even deeper look, users can click on the "View Larger" button to view a separate product window that delivers even greater zoom levels of detail, where users can interactively examine more and more details on any area of the image.

For more about this study, download the report.

Posted by Scene7 at 11:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As online retailers face more and more competition and challenges converting visitors on their sites, it is becoming increasingly important for e-tailers to optimize their online visual merchandising to engage customers and entice them to buy. So to truly understand what shoppers want, we conducted a quantitative, consumer-facing study to identify and analyze eCommerce shopping features that are most useful for shoppers making an online purchase.

Three hundred people, both male and female, across three different age groups (18-29, 30-49, 50-64) were surveyed. These individuals were categorized as "medium to heavy online shoppers", residing in North America, that had both researched and purchased a product online in the last 12 months and spent at least $500 shopping online throughout the year. To best simulate a true online shopping experience and identify the shopping features that consumers find most critical for making a purchase decision, specific interactive shopping scenarios for men and women (identically formatted but with gender-specific imagery to which participants could best relate) were created, and participants were asked 15 key questions regarding shopping viewing preferences.

The results offer businesses valuable insights for designing the ideal viewer or visual merchandising experiences to improve conversions. Interestingly, many recommendations we have been making to our customers over the past several years were validated by the findings of this consumer research. Across the board in each age bracket and across both genders, shoppers want an easy, quick way to browse--validating the "web design 101 rule" of eliminating as many clicks and scrolling as possible. In addition, all shoppers want to be provided as much visual information in as large a viewing format as possible--including interactive zoom that allows shoppers to dynamically pan and zoom to deeper levels of details--leading to another well known rule, "bigger is better." As the study found, the two concepts go hand in hand; even in a full-screen view, shoppers still expected browsing to be quick and easy but also offer multiple levels of detail. And finally, the results pointed to the importance of offering as many images as possible (all colors and all views) with rich details--ideally featuring all sides of a product, creating a full 360-degree spin. Combining robust imagery with customer reviews/comments has shown to be the ultimate, preferred experience.

This research is both validating and insightful. Download the complete report, "Adobe Scene7 Viewer Study: What Shoppers Want" and learn how you can turn browsers into buyers. Download survey results here and let us know what you think.

Posted by Scene7 at 12:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you want to move merchandise, just showing customers a picture of a product isn't enough. Gone are the days where heavy copy and small imagery moves the needle. Now, displaying a combination of dynamically served product images including alternative views or full 360-degree spin (leveraging interactive zoom and pan) and product video tells the whole story. After all, dynamic zoom and pan enables users to interactively examine a product in detail, 360-degree spin creates an in-store experience, emulating the process of picking up and examining the merchandise, and video completes the story, replacing the in-store clerk, and demonstrating in perfect clarity the product features and benefits--on demand (no waiting for the clerk to finish up with another patron first!). And the ability of video to educate, inform, and show off products in all their glory has proven again and again to complement the product images and details.

The perfect execution leverages an "integrated viewer or player" that serves any type of rich dynamic content (high resolution sets of images including colors, lifestyle and alternative angles for zooming and panning, sets of videos or both). A user must be able to clearly understand which type of content he/she is viewing, as well as have the ability to easily toggle back and forth between each dynamic content type. That is why in the latest Adobe Scene7 release, mixed media viewers have been added as they enable even "non-technical" users to upload, build, publish and serve integrated combinations of videos, images (color and multiple views), SWFs, spin sets and audio.

Titanium Jewelry is a great example of a site that leverages product imagery alongside product video for the ultimate online shopping experience. Customers can see jewelry in as much detail as they might within a retail environment, and the video brings the piece to life - showing every angle of an item of interest.

Field & Stream is another strong example of a site that integrates product photography stills with product video in a tray viewing format for easy access to expanded product detail. Shoppers can toggle between product shots (hero and lifestyle) and video for an end-to-end overview of the desired merchandise. Field & Stream worked with Circumerro Media, its interactive agency to enable the dynamic media display using Scene7.

Posted by Scene7 at 11:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

An online shopper clicking on zoom is the equivalent of an in-store shopper picking up an item to take a closer look. That's generally when a sales associate steps in to offer assistance, point out key features, and basically helps to guide the shopping experience. You can accomplish a very similar scenario on your website by adding zoom targets to your product's images and incorporating text tips as well. Here are some great examples:

TravelSmith
This site uses large thumbnail images in its viewer to recommend specific areas on the larger image where shoppers can zoom to see specific product details.

ExOfficio
In a pop-up zoom viewer, this site adds merchandising copy beneath each thumbnail target to describe a feature, giving the user more information prior to clicking on any target.

Telescope.com
This site incorporates a similar approach as the first two mentioned above, but with an embedded zoom viewer. Also, the thumbnails and text appear as an overlay directly onto the product image itself.

Zoom targets with rollover text can be especially helpful when trying to point out multiple products in a single lifestyle shot. For example:

Liberty Hardware
This site uses one single image to point out items in the collection such as the towel holder, towel ring, robe hook, and toilet paper holder. Rollover text indicates each specific SKU number. Shoppers can also interactively pan the entire image themselves by simply moving the image with their mouse and clicking on the zoom controls. This is a great way to use lifestyle room scenes that show off each fixture in a collection.

Posted by Scene7 at 3:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The answer is a resounding “yes” – and it is on the rise. From recent data, online shoppers are far more likely to purchase big-ticket home items, including major appliances like refrigerators and washer/dryer combos, directly from a website than they were 2 years ago (according to a 2008 study by PriceGrabber, a Web-based comparison-shopping service). The study found that “unease with online merchants’ customer service and the fear of making large online purchases have all decreased” since a similar survey was taken back in 2006.

According to the current survey of 1945 shoppers, 24% said they would be apt to buy major appliances online today, compared with around half that number two years ago. While the desire to “touch and feel” large home items remains an important reason for people not buying off the Web, the percentage citing that reason has dropped over the two surveys (from 70% to just over 50%). That is namely because certain retailers have become so good at merchandising online.

Thirty-three percent of online users will now conduct more research online to make sure they get exactly what they want before purchasing. (Source: Jupiter Research Economic Downturn Online Consumer Survey, Q4 2008.) A whopping 13% use the Web specifically to reduce the number of visits to the store. This research process shows an increased concern for doing more targeted shopping and making fewer impulse purchases. Of the online buyers who use more than one Web site when shopping around, 30% are in search of more product information—better images, product detail and beyond—and the vastness of the sites offering relevant product information has proved valuable rather than daunting. In fact, 58% of online users say that the breadth of information available online helps them feel more confident that they are buying the right product to meet their needs. (Source: JupiterResearch/NPD Retail Consumer Survey (04/08), n = 2,231 (US).)

Ultimately, much of our goal at Adobe Scene7 has been to support the consumer quest for information for either direct ecommerce purchase or research prior to store purchase – ranging from basic enhancements (zoom, alt views) to more advanced shopping tools such as visual configurators, where shoppers can actually visualize more on the web than they can in the store with these interactive selling tools. Swapping out basic colors is one thing, but Sub-Zero is one appliance manufacturer that has given new meaning to customization, actually enabling shoppers to view appliances in different kitchen environments, and change appliance finishes, cabinets, walls, countertops, trim and floors to reflect personal style and color palette. As this implementation caught my eye – I thought anyone who is selling bigger ticket items would be interested in checking this best practice out.

Posted by Scene7 at 9:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

When customers explore your product at retail, they touch it, turn it, and examine it closely from every angle. Why not provide the same experience to online shoppers? With 360-degree spin, you can do that and more. Multiple, detailed images can be integrated into a viewer to provide a seamless spinning view of your product. Shoppers can zoom to view high-resolution images for ultimate detail. And, best of all, you can use “hot spots” to point out special features or guide shoppers to product details related to specific angles – as if a sales representative were right there with them viewing the product!

DSW.com is a great example of a site using 360-degree spin effectively. They display nearly every shoe using this dynamic technology, offering automatic as well as manual spin so that shoppers can experience the full range of interactivity. In addition to viewing shoes on the product page in an embedded view, shoppers can launch a full screen and a larger view to see the product in even greater detail – including the top, sole, and all sides of the shoe.

Another great example is UnderArmour.com because spin is integrated with the rest of the dynamic viewing – including alternative views, colors, and hot spots for technical specifications – in an embedded full page product view.

Click here if you are interested in learning more about Adobe Scene7 and applying 360-degree spin on your site.

Posted by Scene7 at 4:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you are not in a position to get a video strategy live for 2009 – what should you do? Well, there are still plenty of basics to get in place that will improve conversions. At the risk of repeating my myself, the age old adage – a picture is worth a thousand words – holds true here again. But since online shoppers want to see a product from multiple angles, or perhaps see the item in context so they can visualize how it would fit into their lifestyle, the more pictures the better. And, every image should be zoomable so people can get a closer look at the details. But how do you provide all this functionality within a cohesive, integrated interface?

Here are a few options:

Shane Co.
Shane Co.'s alternative views are displayed both on the product page and in a large popup zoom viewer. This makes it very easy to see the different images and easily zoom in on all of the views.

JD Sports
JD Sports provides great alternative views on the product page. The images become the focal point of the page with embedded full screen zoom.

SHOEBACCA.com
This site also does a nice job on the embedded only alternative views using a slider for the zoom feature. And, all alternative views are shown on clickable thumbnails rather than being triggered by a text link.

Telescope.com
Telescope.com shows it all. Not only do shoppers get alternative views, recommended zoom views, or hotspots as we like to refer to them, all views are available through an embedded viewer or through a larger modal layer view.

I mentioned this when talking about zoom, and it applies to alternative views as well… you can never provide your customers too much visual detail.

Click here if you want to learn more about Adobe Scene7 and applying alternative views to your site.

Posted by Scene7 at 10:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)