News: Using Rich Media to Boost Sales

[immy79]

Article:
Using Rich Media to Boost Sales (http://www.ecommerce-guide.com/solutions/building/article.php/3612431)
Source: ecommerce-guide.com

Snippet:
"Online storeowners take note: broadband use is surging. And that's creating big changes in how merchants sell on the Internet.
Between March 2005 and March 2006, broadband adoption zoomed 40 percent, according to a Pew Internet Life report. Pew reports that the total broadband population jumped from 60 million to 84 million users. Other researchers forecast that 84 percent of users will connect via broadband by 2008."

Talking Points:
Have you considered introducing rich media to your online store? What tactics would be of interest? Maybe product demo videos? A virtual sales assistant? 3D product images? Where do you see rich media enhancing a shoppers experience in your store?

[chucklasker]

Thanks, Jimmy. Great article.

IMHO, the best companies to take advantage of this surge are early-adopter product companies. The higher tech the product, the better the chance the customer has broadband. Here is one of my client sites that uses Flash movies to sell, which would give relatively long download times at 56k.

http://www.iload.com

Even today, with the high broadband rollout, if this was a less-tech product line, like clothes, I'd have suggested a Flash or HTML choice on the home page to give non-broadband customers a non-broadband alternative viewing experience.

[Bruce - PhosphorMedia]

Part of the article points out two things that we still stress to our clients: For the most part, shoppers are on your site for a reason...to shop--don't add a lot of features that get in the way, instead focus on adding features that make this task easier (i.e., better categorization, search tools, etc), when warrented, only add rich media such as flash, 360 views, etc AFTER you have covered the basics: good clean design, good product descriptions, categorization and photos.