One of the great things about ecommerce is that ROI has always been seemingly straight forward and easy to measure. All the necessary data is right there, at every retailer’s fingertips. They know what they invested, and they can measure the direct effect that that investment had on their business. But it turns out that in today’s marketplace, only measuring an online investment’s affect online no longer gives an accurate look into that investment’s true ROI. That’s because what retailers do online, directly affects whether or not they are driving sales in store too.
In a recent Forbes op-ed Raj Rao (global director, eCommerce and Digital Marketing, 3M Corporate Marketing) cites a ComScore report that states that 2/3rds of shoppers begin their shopping process online, usually on the retail site itself. The report also notes that nearly half of shoppers who begin their search on retail sites make a purchase in the physical store, while 40% transact online. Think about that. More of a retailer’s site visitors will end up purchasing in store, than on the actual site itself. Obviously, measuring ROI is no longer as straight forward as it once seemed.
The data above, and his own experiences point Rao towards the following conclusion: “Marketers must rise to the challenge. The solution isn’t banner ads or page take-overs that consumers despise. Instead we need to do the hard work of true marketing and ask: What is the consumer experience at retail sites, and how can I positively impact this?”
It probably comes as no shock to you, but we here at Zugara agree with Mr. Rao. Today, online retailers are content providers. Publishers. And just like in any other content driven business, the retailers that produce the best content, the best experience, will win. So what do you think? What stores are “doing it right”?
(Warning: Shameless Self Promotion) Oh, and speaking of online shopping experiences… have you heard of our product: The Webcam Social Shopper?
Are you familiar with SocialVibe? Odds are, you’ve seen their work. They power user-initiated brand engagements on some of the web’s most visited networks. Networks like Zynga Games and Pandora. If you’d like more information on SocialVibe, Fast Company ran a great piece on them the other week.
Recently, we partnered with SocialVibe and Deutsch to create the “Anthem Blue Cross Webcam Exam” for Zynga’s network. It’s a fun, interactive Augmented Reality “Check-Up” that reminds people of the importance of seeing a Doctor regularly. It actually uses facial tracking to allow people to naturally interact with several Doctor’s tools, like that thinga-ma-bobby that they use to look at your eye (sorry for using such technical language).
Below, is a demo link for those of you that want to check it out. I’ve also embedded a few screencaps below as a mini walk-through to showcase the engagement. I’d love to get your thoughts on the execution in the comment section, and as always, you can find me on twitter here.
Since we launched the Webcam Social Shopper (WSS) on Banana Flame we’ve encountered the same question a few times: “Are people really using it?” I figured you might be interested in the answer to that question too, so I wanted to share with you the deck embedded below. It details shopper data around WSS usage, engagement, and ROI.
As you’ll see, yes, people are using augmented reality and they are deeply engaged with it when they are.
Finally, please keep an eye on this blog over the next few weeks as retailers in the UK, Denmark, Russia, Italy and the US are scheduled to launch WSS on their sites soon, and we’ll be announcing them each here when they do.
Oh, and for the record, it looks like SlideShare decided to take some creative liberties with our formatting when they converted the .ppt. I’m sorry about that…
In the past we’ve addressed some of the technical limitations that we see with the mobile augmented reality space in general. In this post, I want to get very specific and address why we don’t currently develop our ecommerce augmented reality software for the mobile market (as we get this question a fair amount). For those of you that are unfamiliar with our software, The Webcam Social Shopper, I’ve embedded an introductory video below.
Sorry, for some reason we’re having trouble embedding the video. If you don’t see it above, you can view it on YouTube here.
Okay, so back to the question at hand: Why don’t we develop for mobile? The short answer? It’s simply not strategic to do so. Let me explain our thinking:
The Addressable Market Is Just A Fraction Of The Computer Market
Our shopping application functions like a mirror, so that means people need to have their screen, and their camera facing the same direction (AKA a forward facing camera). For the computer market, that’s just the way it works… but in the mobile space, that essentially leaves us with two consumer devices: the iPhone 4 and the iPad 2.
Like all businesses, we need to be laser focused and strategic with both our financial and human resources. So let’s look at where we can have a greater impact now. Let’s look at the potential consumer reach for PCs, iPad 2s, and iPhone 4s:
Sources: In September, The Daily Beast stated that 30 Million iPads had been sold. Back in March at the iPad 2 launch event Steve Jobs noted that 15 Million iPads had already been sold.
iPhone 4: 50 to 75 Million sold (note: we don’t know how many of these are replacements for a previously purchased iPhone 4).
Sources: At the recent iPhone 4S event, Apple CEO Tim Cook noted that the iPhone 4 accounts for half of all iPhone’s sold. Back in March Steve Jobs noted that since 2007 Apple had sold 100 Million iPhones.
Okay, so let’s put the combined iPad 2 and iPhone 4 sales at the high end of that range: 90 million units. It’s an impressive number, but those sales totals are just 6% of the PCs that Intel states are “in use”… and it should be noted that Intel also states that PCs are selling at a rate of 1 million per day. And here’s another metric for you: 93% of digital traffic is consumed by PCs. That means that the entire Smartphone and tablet market (i.e. not just Apple’s two most recent product launches) accounts for only 7% of digital traffic consumption.
So, when looking at the addressable markets, it’s pretty clear that the computer has the upper hand.
It Would Be A Horrible Experience For The Shopper
For the sake of argument, let’s assume that the PC market didn’t dwarf the mobile market. Let’s assume everyone had a Smartphone and they all had forward forcing cameras. There’s still a rather large usability issue keeping us from developing for those devices. And that’s the arm length of the average person. If you noticed, in the video embedded above, the young woman is standing roughly 4 – 6 feet away from her computer. That’s because she’s visualizing if a dress’s style is right for her, so she needs to see her entire body. If you’re holding a Smartphone in your hand, you just can’t hold the phone far enough away to have that experience. And at the end of the day, if we aren’t providing an amazing experience for the shopper, than what the heck is the point?
Now I get it, mobile, especially the iPhone and the iPad get an overwhelming amount of media attention. Are they revolutionary products? Yes. I’m not debating that. Is the future bright for mobile? Of course. But that’s the future, and as a company we’re focused on how we can make the biggest impact in people’s lives today (and over the next 5 years).
Did you know that one day after download, only 20% of users come back and run an iPhone app? And after a month, that number drops to 5% (chart). For us, it’s not about producing an augmented reality app that people won’t use but will get us covered by the press. It’s about measureable impact. It’s about disrupting the way people shop online today, and providing them with a significantly better experience. On computers we can do that. On mobile devices, we can’t.
What do you think? Are we right? Wrong? As always, you can find me on twitter here.
In the past we’ve shared the data we’ve collected on our augmented reality work. But we truly love it when others in the industry share their findings as well. Below, you’ll find data from a study that the folks over at Hidden Creative conducted on Augmented Reality and the Sales Process. I’ll let their information below speak for itself, but I’d love to get your thoughts in the comments…
From Hidden’s Blog:
The Methodology
100 people were shown a display advert for a child’s toy, while another 100 people were shown the child’s toy as an interactive augmented reality experience. Each person was then asked two questions:
Would you consider buying this toy for a child?
How much would you consider paying for the toy?
The duration of engagement the audience had with each format was also monitored. Let’s look at the headline figures:
Likelihood to buy
After viewing the 2D printed display advert, out of 100 parents, 45% would consider buying the toy for a child. Out of those who viewed the augmented reality experience, 74% of the parents would consider buying the toy for a child.What we found even more intriguing was the price point at which the parents were prepared to make the purchase.
The whole team here at Zugara is very excited to finally be able to tell you about an R&D project we partnered with Orange Silicon Valley on: “Project DocPAL”, an augmented reality telemedicine system that uses natural user interfaces, Interactive Voice Recording, and other innovative technologies to help improve the quality of doctor patient consultations (please see the video below).
One of the pieces of emerging technology that Project DocPAL utilizes is our proprietary ZugSTAR software. ZugSTAR allows people in different locations to have shared Augmented Reality experiences from within their video feeds. For this project, it’s a Doctor and a patient. For our ecommerce augmented reality software, it would be two (or more) shoppers. The use cases are somewhat endless.
For several years now, we’ve talked about how augmented reality will ultimately change people’s lives, and how it can be so much more than just a marketing gimmick, or an overlay on your smartphone’s video feed. Hopefully projects like this help people see the potential that we see in the technology. It truly is so much more than a video playing on a marker. It’s the beginning of a whole new way of interacting with data… The Natural User Interface (NUI).
We’re truly honored that the amazing team over at Orange Silicon Valley chose us as their partner, and we’d love to hear your thoughts on the project below.
Video Credit: Adam Odessky, Product Manager and Software Developer, Orange Silicon Valley
Typically, we don’t use this blog as a vehicle to promote media coverage of our company or our software. This post will be an exception to the rule though because there’s a rather solid piece of qualitative data nestled in the article below. And, as you hopefully know, it’s our goal to share as much data (from our augmented reality work) as we can with you.
In a NY Times article covering some of the ways the fashion industry has embraced augmented reality, the journalist interviewed a young woman (Elizabeth Cardy, 22) who had used The Webcam Social Shopper on Banana Flame’s site. Here’s the relevant excerpt directly from the article:
“’It was fun,’ Ms. Cardy said. ‘I’d never used my Webcam like that before.’
She was able to ‘try on’ the dress, using her computer screen as a sort of electronic mirror. By gesturing, she operated the virtual controls, adjusting the garment’s position, color and size, and then photographed herself to show friends. In the end, she bought the dress: ‘Seeing it on helped me decide.’“
That last sentence is a doozy isn’t it? Here’s a young woman, a “digital native”, letting us know that Augmented Reality (i.e. The Webcam Social Shopper) directly influenced her purchase decision. The technology was “fun” for her to use and she made a purchase she otherwise wouldn’t have, because of AR. Don’t look now, but I think that might be called “ROI”…
As always, if you want to discuss, please comment below or you can find me on twitter here.
As we noted last week, we’re going to work to share as much data as we can from retailers that license our ecommerce augmented reality software, the Webcam Social Shopper (WSS).
Today we’re only sharing one stat, but it’s pretty compelling one (we think): Banana Flame has seen conversions on the “add to cart” button skyrocket from 1.16% to 5.38% since our Webcam Social Shopper was integrated. That means roughly five times as many people are now adding items to their cart thanks to WSS.
What do you think? Are stats like the one above proving that there’s real ROI in augmented reality?
I’d love to hear your thoughts below, or you can find me on twitter here.
A few weeks ago, we integrated our Ecommerce Augmented Reality Software into every product detail page on Banana Flame’s site. Now, data is obviously important to our business, but it’s our position that it’s also important to the entire Augmented Reality community. “It’s cool, but where’s the ROI? Do you have any data?” is something everyone that works with AR has heard. Unfortunately, most companies are tight-lipped about the numbers they’re seeing. Which is a shame, because as an industry it’s data that will help us to drive past being seen (by others) as a “gimmick”. It’s data that turns potential clients into “buyers”, and it’s data that gives investors the confidence to “open their checkbooks”…
So, we thought we’d do our part and share some early data from our Banana Flame execution.
Unique visitors that add an item to their cart are up 182%.
Some Engagement Metrics For WSS (On Banana Flame):
The average shopper spends 5 min 08 secs with WSS.
39% of shoppers click on the WSS “See How It Looks” button (on the product detail page).
45% of shoppers that use WSS take a photo.
17% of shoppers that take a photo download it to share via email.
does not include Facebook or Twitter sharing.
The average shopper takes 3 photos.
79% of shoppers allow flash to access their webcam.
2% of shoppers deny flash’s access to their webcam.
75% of shoppers actively use WSS’s Motion Capture Interface.
Please feel free to share this data with anyone that might be interested, and do keep an eye on this blog too. Since the launch of Banana Flame we’ve signed several new clients and we plan on using this platform to share as much data as we can.
As always, if you want to discuss, please comment below or you can find me on twitter here.
As other companies finally enter the augmented reality ecommerce space to try and compete with us, we’ve noticed a trend: they all refer to their execution as a “virtual fitting room”, and promise brands that they will allow shoppers to “try on clothes” from the comforts of their own homes. And while I completely understand how that metaphor would be an easy connection for potential clients to make, I’d like to take a moment to explain why we’ve always actively avoided using that type of messaging/language when discussing our Webcam Social Shopper (WSS).
Simply put: With the current technology shoppers are using at home (i.e. a normal computer and webcam) we can’t deliver on the promise of fit. No one can. And we feel it’s critical that we help brands to manage their shopper’s expectations from the get-go.
Let’s for the sake of this post completely ignore how important an apparel item’s tactile feel is when you try something on, and focus solely on what a shopper would expect when they’re in a dressing room trying something on. They’d expect to see where that item bunches, grabs, sags, and hangs. “Does the blouse hang too low?” “Are these jeans gonna give me a muffin top?” They’d want to see how that particular item would fit their very unique body, and rightfully so. Companies are proactively telling them they can “try something on”, and a shoppers only frame of reference is what happens in the real world. So all developers are doing by setting those expectations is setting shoppers (and online retailers) up to be disappointed by the experience rather than excited.
But “so what” if you can’t see how it fits? The value proposition doesn’t have to be about fit to greatly advance the current online shopping experience (especially for young women, who have grown up digital but are still shopping with their grandmother’s internet). WSS is about validating color and style, and seeing if an item is “right for you”, just like you would at the rack in a store. It’s about asking a friend “what do you think?” and getting that all important feedback before a purchase is made. Or maybe a shopper just wants to find a top to match a particular skirt they already own at home, that we can help with. But fit? Nope. Sorry, I truly wish it could be done. At the end of the day WSS (and its imitators) is just another tool to help shoppers validate their purchase (and hopefully have some fun doing it), just like “zooming” in on an item.
Now, I’d love to get your thoughts. Are we being too literal? Getting caught in the weeds, or do you agree with us that messaging makes a difference?
We Are Organized Chaos (WAOC) is Zugara’s (www.zugara.com) interactive marketing and advertising blog where we’ll be featuring some great projects and discussing upcoming trends in the digital world. Work — good and bad — will be critiqued. Hope you’ll enjoy reading our insights and thoughts on interactive.
