One question we get fairly frequently in new business meetings these days is: “How much time are shoppers spending engaged with The Webcam Social Shopper?” It’s not a suprising question. “Time Spent” is a key performance indicator for most brands, let alone e-commerce ones.
Well, we wanted to share that data with you too, so here it is: 8 minutes and 48 seconds. That is, the average Webcam Social Shopper (WSS) session is nearly 9 minutes long. And that’s an aggregate across our e-commerce clients. For clients that are using WSS for just brand engagement we’re seeing an even higher average, at just under 11 minutes per session.
This means that shoppers using WSS are spending significantly more time interacting with a retailer’s products/brand. How significant? Well, let’s compare our metrics to those found in two recent studies:
A Cyber Monday study by IBM showed that the average online shopping session length for retailers was 7 minutes and 30 seconds.
So, at nearly 9 minutes it becomes clear that shoppers using our augmented reality e-commerce software are more actively engaged with a product/brand than they would have been otherwise. Of course WSS not only improves a retailer’s engagement, it help’s with conversion rates too.
Easy To Integrate And Affordable For Retailers Of All Sizes, Over 140 Retailers Have Already Downloaded The Module
Contact: Press (at) Zugara (dot) com
Los Angeles – July 10, 2012 – Zugara’s award winning online merchandising software, The Webcam Social Shopper (WSS), is now available as an official module for PrestaShop’s apparel merchants worldwide. PrestaShop is one of the fastest growing ecommerce platforms in the world (with over 127,000 stores and counting), and the launch of “WSS For PrestaShop” marks the first time any ecommerce platform has offered an augmented reality (AR) module to its e-tailers.
The module provides PrestaShop’s apparel retailers with immediate integration of a piece of software that turns their shopper’s webcams into interactive mirrors, instantaneously providing a more fun, visual and social experience. To do this WSS uses a webcam’s live video feed, a motion capture interface, AR and Facebook/Twitter integration to replicate that offline moment at the rack where a young shopper holds a dress or blouse up to herself, turns to a friend (or the mirror) and asks “what do you think, is this me?” (video demo below)
“Retailers are finally realizing that the bulk of their revenue, be it online or offline, is tied directly to the experience that they provide online” said Matt Szymczyk, CEO of Zugara. “WSS was developed to give retailers an actual online shopping experience right ‘out of the box’. It’s fun and engaging; It’s proven to help sell clothes; and, it’s a word of mouth marketing platform. In sharing their looks, and asking friends what they should and shouldn’t buy, shoppers are also sharing the retailer’s content as well as their tacit approval of the site.”
“WSS for PrestaShop” also marks a substantial leap forward in affordability and ease of integration for augmented reality retail applications. Its integration wizard was developed to give “average people”, not developers, the ability to install WSS into their store(s) quickly and easily. And with a 30 day free trial, as well as a low “pay only for what your shoppers use” CPC (cost per click) pricing model, retailers both large and small can benefit from WSS.
“Last time I checked over 140 retailers had already downloaded our module,” said Matt. ”Today’s a day for Zugara that’s been three years in the making. To see this sort of immediate response from retailers is incredibly validating. And this is just the beginning, our new ecommerce platform API was developed so any platform can easily offer WSS to their retailers.”
For a better sense of how the technology works, here’s a quick “How To Use WSS” Video:
“WSS For PrestaShop” has been localized for the following languages: English, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Portuguese, Chinese, Turkish, Dutch and Russian.
WSS has a history of helping retailers improve conversions, engage shoppers and drive word of mouth marketing. (LINK #1) (LINK #2)
“WSS For PrestaShop” was developed in conjunction with French IT services company Nemesis-Technologies.
Want to know what “real shoppers” think? A young blogger recently took WSS for a “test-drive”. (LINK)
ABOUT ZUGARA
Since 2009 Zugara has been developing the Webcam Social Shopper (WSS), a piece of merchandising software that helps apparel retailers to provide a more social, visual and fun shopping experience for their online shoppers. WSS utilizes augmented reality to turn a shopper’s webcam into a real-time interactive mirror. So a young woman can actually hold a dress up in front of herself, just like she would at the rack in a store, and immediately validate if an item’s style/color is right for her. No downloads, no plug-ins, no paper markers… it just works. www.webcamsocialshopper.com
Headquartered in Los Angeles, with offices in Singapore, Zugara supplies WSS to e-commerce platforms, retailers, resellers, brands and agency partners all over the world.
ABOUT NEMESIS-TECHNOLOGIES
Nemesis Technologies is a French IT services company offering services internationally. Well known for its reactivity, its dynamism and collaborative work, Nemesis Technologies is a leader in the field of computer science. www.nemesis-tech.com
THE SHOPPER’S WSS EXPERIENCE:
1) The shopper is interested in an item, but not sure she wants to buy it yet. So she clicks on a call to action on the retailer’s product detail page.
2) An overlay is launched, her webcam is activated and the she takes a few steps away from her computer.
3) The dress she was looking at is instantly placed right in front of her. Now she can have that “at the rack moment” and better judge if the color and style are right for her.
4) Using just her motions, she can now snap photos and see additional colors of the dress.
5) Finally, sharing her photos (so she can find out what her friends think) is incredibly easy.
This will be a quick post, as we just wanted to share a creative way that one of our clients chose to integrate our augmented reality ecommerce software, The Webcam Social Shopper (WSS).
Typically, WSS is integrated into a retailer’s product detail pages, but as you can see below LazyLazy has also decided to give shoppers access to WSS at the category level as well (you can access it by clicking on the image of the webcam, to the right of the “view on model” button). A creative way to give the shopper an additional way to access WSS.
Last week, we shared a video that contained candid reactions of young women using our online augmented reality merchandising software, the Webcam Social Shopper (WSS). Today, we’re going to share another candid reaction to our product, this time in the form of a blog post.
A young Danish blogger shopping on LazyLazy gave WSS a try. If you want to read the whole post, you can read it here. If you don’t have much time, let me quickly share two key quotes with you:
“You feel really stupid, but it’s just so brilliant. One should almost just go onto the website, just to try their virtual fitting rooms. I got a full break to go with my girlfriends, we just tried various dresses with webcam. It really is the future, I definitely recommend that you try it.”
“I think it works really well because you can see if the colors match. I will definitely try it a second time.”
Of course, we’re not fans of calling solutions like ours a “fitting room”, but it’s incredibly rewarding to see our product in the marketplace improving people’s experiences.
Below are two photos from the post. On the right is the photo the blogger took with WSS, on the left is a photo of the blogger with her purchase.
Well, we have some more data for you. Back in February I told you about how Mattel and their agency, Attention, used the Webcam Social Shopper (WSS) to help fans of all ages step inside “Barbie’s Dream Closet” (more info). We now have three months of data on barbiethedreamcloset.com, and I thought you’d be interested in being brought up to speed on the results (spoiler alert: it’s doing really, really well):
As you can see, WSS usage is trending upwards, and the people using it are highly engaged.
If you’re interested in a more “raw” look at how people react while they’re actually using WSS, here’s a quick little video we shot while at Fashion Week. Don’t worry, it’s not some cheesy marketing video, just a bunch of candid reactions from people:
For those of you that weren’t able to make it the Augmented Reality Event, we wanted to share Matt’s presentation from yesterday (5/8). Titled “The Augmented Reality Retail Hype Cycle 2012″, Matt discussed the market viability and realities of several AR retail triggers within today’s marketplace (not 5 years from now), including: smart-phones, in-store kiosks (OOH), tablets, web and the digital living room.
We’d love to hear your thoughts and questions in the comments below. Also, we lost some formatting when importing the deck to Slideshare, so please excuse any irregularities…
There’s debate as to whether holograms are technically augmented reality but either way, the advances with hologram technology are simply amazing. Japanese virtual star, Hatsune Miku, has been selling out real concertsand you can view that embedded video below. But, even more impressive (and albeit a tad creepy) was the recent hologram of Tupac performing with Dr. Dre at the Coachella Music Festival. You can view that video here or also embedded below.
Much is written about HTML5 being the savior of interactive production. And one day, it may be. But the fact is that that day is not today.
To be clear, we don’t have any loyalties or ties when it comes to the technology we use – we’re not tied to any proprietary platform or the like. Our goal as an augmented reality software developer is simple: Build an amazing, easy to use experience for both our clients and their shoppers. And the fact is that today, and for the foreseeable future, that means developing in Flash. Here are two key reasons why we’re not currently on the HTML5 bandwagon:
No Official Webcam Support – Obviously, the camera is a key component for any augmented reality experience.
No Digital Rights Management Support – Do you want people to steal your content/code? We don’t.
Now, I’m confident that as the technology/market matures these issues will be worked out, but we’re talking a few years out from now, not today. And that’s where our focus lies, in creating experiences that work today (for as many people as possible).
What about your experiences? Are you developing in HTML5, or are you waiting too?
eMarketer released a report today that I thought you’d find interesting. Their main finding states that the apparel and accessories category (in the U.S.) is now “climbing faster than any other other ecommerce product segment.” In fact, while ecommerce in general is expected to remain very strong this year, up 15% from 2011 (reaching $224.2 billion), apparel will outpace the market in 2012 by gaining 20% (reaching $41 billion).
And it’s not just 2012. ”The apparel and accessories category will lead ecommerce sales growth throughout the forecast period”, which runs through 2016.
The reasons for these gains? Well, eMarketer principal analyst Jeffrey Grau notes that “Retailers continue to increase the scale of their ecommerce operations, particularly by investing in online sales platforms that display products and convert shoppers more effectively; apparel sales have benefited more than any other category. Apparel has become an online success due largely to easy and free returns, innovative visualization tools and the presence of customer reviews.”
More data proving that innovative visualization tools help drive online apparel sales? I must say, it’s great to see 3rd party data supporting our findings.
About a month ago we shared some data from an augmented reality brand engagement that we created with SocialVibe and Deutsch titled: “Anthem Blue Cross Webcam Exam”. Running on Zynga’s network the ad unit saw the following metrics:
Average time spent – 76.1 seconds
Click through to the landing page for more information after completing the interaction with the advertisement - 71.6%
Well, our second execution with SocialVibe, this time a brand engagement for Toyota’s Prius is yielding even better results in both key metrics:
Average time spent – over 80 seconds
Click through to the landing page for more information after completing the interaction with the advertisement - 77%
The Prius engagement is a game that allows people to use their motion to collect items they want to put in their Prius, and avoid items that they don’t. Simple and engaging, the data above is just further evidence that people have the equipment (i.e. webcams) and the desire necessary to interact with augmented reality (on their computers).
A player is unable to dodge a paint can and loses 1,000 points
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.
