Tools to Enrich the Online Shopping Experience
May 27, 2009 By Joe Boland, Assistant Editor, Target Marketing
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Video. The widespread popularity of YouTube and the like has made online video viewing commonplace and expected with consumers on Web sites, and retailers are increasingly following this trend, notes Deneen. It’s not just using the technology, however, he stresses. Branding and product videos need to be produced and displayed to help shoppers engage and understand the product and the brand.
Deneen offers Eileen Fisher and Cloudveil as two sites that use video effectively to enhance the shopper’s online experience. For instance, Eileen Fisher, a women’s clothing retailer, enforces its brand with a video on its homepage and shows off its “linen jersey.” It also provides a “view our videos” tab at the top right of the homepage, taking the customer to more videos to view certain products and get a feel for the brand.
Mountain apparel retailer Cloudveil takes video a step further, giving shoppers the choice to “watch the video review” for a large number of its products, denoting which have video reviews with an icon of a movie camera next to the product image. The videos show real people using the products in their lives, providing testimonials and descriptions. Again, this builds trust with shoppers and allows them to see the practical uses of the products.
Product imaging. More and more, consumers expect to find exactly what they’re looking for online, so online retailers can no longer just provide one shot of a product. Instead, Deneen says, they must show products with different colors, zoom and alternative views so shoppers have an easier time deciding what to buy. According to Deneen, clothing retailers Anthropologie and Lands’ End are two good cutting-edge examples.
Anthropologie offers "swatch" boxes below each product with the different colors it offers, and with a simple click, a shopper can see the Fine Line Blouse in white, then beige and then brown. And once customers get to a product page, a zoom feature shows up on the right when you scroll over the product image.
Lands’ End also uses a similar color options feature as Anthropologie, and it allows shoppers to zoom in and out on products, as well as move the view around by clicking and dragging images. These technologies allow the shopper to get a full view of the products and, thus, make their experience all that more enjoyable.
Deneen offers Eileen Fisher and Cloudveil as two sites that use video effectively to enhance the shopper’s online experience. For instance, Eileen Fisher, a women’s clothing retailer, enforces its brand with a video on its homepage and shows off its “linen jersey.” It also provides a “view our videos” tab at the top right of the homepage, taking the customer to more videos to view certain products and get a feel for the brand.
Mountain apparel retailer Cloudveil takes video a step further, giving shoppers the choice to “watch the video review” for a large number of its products, denoting which have video reviews with an icon of a movie camera next to the product image. The videos show real people using the products in their lives, providing testimonials and descriptions. Again, this builds trust with shoppers and allows them to see the practical uses of the products.
Product imaging. More and more, consumers expect to find exactly what they’re looking for online, so online retailers can no longer just provide one shot of a product. Instead, Deneen says, they must show products with different colors, zoom and alternative views so shoppers have an easier time deciding what to buy. According to Deneen, clothing retailers Anthropologie and Lands’ End are two good cutting-edge examples.
Anthropologie offers "swatch" boxes below each product with the different colors it offers, and with a simple click, a shopper can see the Fine Line Blouse in white, then beige and then brown. And once customers get to a product page, a zoom feature shows up on the right when you scroll over the product image.
Lands’ End also uses a similar color options feature as Anthropologie, and it allows shoppers to zoom in and out on products, as well as move the view around by clicking and dragging images. These technologies allow the shopper to get a full view of the products and, thus, make their experience all that more enjoyable.
With shoppers already responding to the convenience of online browsing and buying, e-tailers can offer the best of both worlds by infusing their sites with tools that bring the benefits of the retail store to virtual life.
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