Zappos.com has partnered with interactive video firm Overlay.TV to
bring its catalog of products to life through video and to transform
the way customers interact with the online store.
The clickable videos are fully integrated with the site's e-commerce
back-end and reflect inventory events such as out-of-stock and
discontinued items as well as promotions and special offerings. The
solution enables viewers to shop directly from videos that can be
shared across the web on blogs and social network profiles.
“The ability to see a product in action, to click on it for more
information, to share it on Facebook, and add it to your cart without
even leaving the page is a major change for this industry,” says Rob
Lane, CEO and Co-Founder of Overlay.TV. “Our approach is 100% about
improving the customer experience, and giving them the tools to share
that experience with their networks, which makes what we're doing a
perfect fit for Zappos.”
Zappos.com is rolling out its Overlay.TV for Retail deployment in two
phases, initially enabling “Engagement Pages” with specific brands like
Nike, before implementing the technology on all product pages. As part
of this phase, users will be able to access premium content provided by
Zappos.com and its partner brands and record video testimonials and
product reviews to enhance the site's community recommendations.
“User reviews are extremely powerful, and putting a face to those
reviews makes them even more valuable to the consumer,” says Lane.
“It's the difference in credibility between a recommendation given to
you by a friend and one scrawled on the bathroom wall.”
For Zappos.com, an important part of the Overlay.TV for Retail offering is its scalability.
“Overlay.TV for Retail made a lot of sense to us,” says Brian Kalma,
Director of User Experience & Web Strategy for Zappos.com. “It
enables us to stay focused on content, experience an overall better
service, without the need to invest heavily in video production and
delivery, or go through huge efforts to modify our media every time we
want to offer our customers a better promotion. The brand pages are
also exciting, as they bring our user community closer and more
intimate with our partners.”
The interactive video-enabled store can be found on the Zappos.com site at http://www.zappos.com/nike.
