Augmented reality is one of the biggest buzzwords right now and people are looking for ways to bring this technology to every industry. As much as I love e-commerce, there is still a (purposeful) disconnect from the brick and mortar shopping experience, especially with apparel. I feel that when technology can bridge this gap, e-commerce sales can only grow as shoppers continue to turn online. Augmented reality is one of the technologies that, when used effectively, could do a lot to bridge this disconnect.
One of the coolest demos that I saw at this year’s shop.org was the augmented reality dressing room tool that was developed by Zugara in partnership with Richrelevance. This tool allows shoppers to “virtually” try on clothes, put together outfits, and share these items with their friends on Facebook. This is all made possible through the use of Flash, a web cam, and hand gestures from the shopper. Really awesome stuff.
This week, Zugara and Richrelevance have announced that this technology has been brought to online boutique Tobi.com. Through the application, called Fashionista, shoppers can now shop the catalog using their web cam and interact with their friends. It’s really great to see this technology go live.
How are shoppers going to react? Tough to say. This is still emerging technology but with a very long life cycle ahead of it. Augmented reality may just be entering the e-commerce arena, but expect many more of these applications in the future. For now, the Fashionista application is a great first step in implementing augmented reality in e-commerce. I can’t wait to see this app grow.
I’ve embedded a video, below, showing the Zugara demo at the Richrelevance booth from shop.org. Above is a screenshot showing the application being used on Tobi.com.
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I was curious to see how retailers are handling and delivering mobile content. I decided to visit a variety of e-commerce stores, on my iPod Touch, and captured the results. Consider this a beginning of the year snapshot of the mobile online retail web – I look forward to capturing these sites again in 12 months and seeing what changes.
A few observations:
6 of the 50 retailers redirect iPhone users to a mobile-optimized website: Amazon, Best Buy, Foot Locker, Target, Victoria’s Secret, and Walmart. Ralph Lauren should be on this list, since they offer a mobile-optimized website, but the server doesn’t redirect iPhone visitors.
Way too many retailers have Flash movies with no non-Flash support. Typically these are promotion pieces and don’t interfere with the navigation. However, the Nike shop redirects the iPhone user to a page that tells them they should download Flash with no way to view the site otherwise. I also have to note Ralph Lauren’s Rugby store and Express, both sites are just about completely unusable without Flash.
Kudos to retailers like Gap and J.Crew who have javascript animations for their homepage promotions. The iPhone user still has a pleasant visual experience.
If you are interested or involved with the design, development, or user experience of e-commerce stores, please visit ecommr. ecommr is a website showcasing the best (and sometimes worst) in e-commerce design, with a clear focus on the individual elements that make up online stores.
Really recommend this blog post written by Jim Barraud: Email Newsletter Makeover. He takes a real email newsletter he’s received and shows the technical issues with it that prevent most people from getting all of the content and then shows how easy it is to make it more accessible. Very good use of a real world example and some very simple tips that all retailers should be aware of, especially as the use of email newsletter blasts ramps up as we progress through the holiday season.
For full disclosure, Jim is an associate of mine at Media-Hive.
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The twitterverse is abuzz with the fact that Amazon.com is down. Reports of the outage seem to have come in around 1:25 PM EDT. Users trying to reach the site are greeted with a “Http/1.1 Service Unavailable” error.
Pretty significant outage for this major e-commerce retailer. My rough estimate is that the site outage costs Amazon 1.7 million dollars in revenue for every hour they are down. Pretty crazy.
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Came across this press release from Wet Seal announcing the launch of their online fashion community. Simple concept – users browse website and put together outfits that they can share with friends. Site makes it easy to view, rate, and (most importantly) buy other outfits that people have created.
They have a screencast on their site showing how it all works. (Caution: intended audience is teenage girls, so female narrator says “sweet!” after the competion of a few steps.)
The site seems slow this afternoon, but I was able to check out the functionality earlier and I like how it is put together. This is a pure win for the retailer – increases time on the site, increases awareness of different fashion offerings, and will ultimately drive sales. Would love to see more retailers incorporate this kind of technology.
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Just took a ride to the Freehold Mall, which is the closest Apple retail location. Long line outside the store, snaking it’s way down the center court and avoiding other stores. Probably 75 people in the line when I was there. A second line, with an additional 15-20 people, is located outside of the AT&T store, located just around the bend from the Apple store.
The buzz around this product is building and I’m really interested to see one of thees myself. It’s hard, as a techie, to not get sucked in to the hype around this. From a retail perspective, it’s really incredible to see people who are willing to camp out and spend time to get the product. These are loyal customers, and sometimes, it doesn’t seem like too many retailers or brands have customers that loyal anymore.
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I don’t often use my own site to solicit anything of a commercial nature. But looking at my server logs, it is obvious that I get a lot of traffic from some pretty major retailers. So I’d like to put this out there:
I’m working with a client on a relaunch of a sports-focused community-based website. It’s pretty specific to one geographic area, but it currently has some pretty solid traffic behind it and a very loyal community behind it. With this relaunch, I am actively looking for retailers who may want to create a co-branded marketing strategy and reach out to this highly targeted demographic. I think it’s a great opportunity for a retailer, especially a sports or outdoor orientated retailer.
I’d really like to create a dialogue with retailers or businesses who may be interested in this type of opportunity. In addition to this client, I’ve got other clients that I consult and work with on an ongoing basis and I am interested in helping retailers connect with their market.
For more information, contact me via e-mail at [ts AT robotictom.com] or use my contact form.
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This morning, Dell announced new styles of their Inspiron series of laptops that will be available in a range of colors. Available in 8 colors (pink, yellow, white, red, black, blue and espresso), the laptops will start out at $749. While this isn’t a typical retail-related post, it is interesting because Dell chose to make this announcement with the backdrop of Macy’s Herald Square.
In addition to the new laptop colors, they’ve unveiled the ultra-thin XPS M1330 laptop and have extended the Inspiron line (traditionally a laptop line for Dell) into desktop PCs and monitors. The new Inspiron desktop line will feature “clean arctic white and silver design”.
One of the secrets to Apple’s success over recent years has been in providing consumers with well designed and exciting devices. Dell has lost market share, in the PC laptop field, to HP and they are trying to reclaim it by employing a tactic similar to what has been successful for Apple. By using Macy’s, as part of the unveiling, they are trying to reach out to a fashion-forward customer (who wants a pink laptop).
More information on the Inspiron notebooks is available on the Dell website.
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In one of the odder pairings of retail giants in recent memory, Dell computers has announced that they are going to be unveiling new consumer products tomorrow morning at Macy’s Herald Square location:
In a unique event at Macy’s Herald Square in New York, Dell executives will unveil several new and exciting products that deliver a hi-def entertainment experience, true mobility with broadband connectivity anywhere, and style and self expression.
Interesting combination of retailers. Speculation from CNBC is that this could be the announcement of a new line of image conscious laptops that has long been speculated by Engadget (see CNBC’s Margaret Brennan’s blog for more information and Engadget for photos of in-development Dell laptops).
I’m looking forward to see how Macy’s is playing in to this. Will they merely serve as the backdrop for the announcement or is there something more coming out that will surprise a lot of people?
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Just a few more days until Apple unveils the iPhone, in what is the most highly anticipated technology launch this year. I love the giant iPhones that Apple has in their retail windows:
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