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Catalogs are the means of displaying the product or service available on the site or by the company. They provide product information: pictures, descriptions, prices. They can do it all at once or build from a category:
to a
labeled picture
to a short
description
to a full discussion
of features and benefits.
How many items are required for a catalog? Only one. Your company does not need to sell hundreds of items just to have a catalog.
They can be static web pages delivered from a directory or they can be dynamic web pages assembled from a database. Those from a database often end in .asp (Microsoft's Active Server Pages), .cfm (Cold Fusion), and .cgi (a non-proprietary database). Dynamic pages can be customized and personalized to varying degrees depending on how much information the site has about the customer.
In addition to a catalog, which in a print version is a collection of "pages", other metaphors for this type of feature could be racks, shelves, display cases, or floor items for those things on special or that the company wants the customer to see first.
An important consideration is the flow map of a customer's progress toward checkout.
People are leery about buying things they have not seen, especially from people they do not know. One of the reasons many people do not order on-line is because they are not sure what they will actually receive in the mail, especially from a company that does not carry a strong reputation.
In the case of arts and crafts, made-too-order, and other one-of-a-kind products, the pictures as well as a short description are important as the consumer is looking to buy a product which is unique or has not yet been produced. They need a more complete idea of what they are getting.
The drawbacks for some companies are that each piece is unique. By providing pictures of products already made, the consumers have a pre-set image of what they will receive. If the product they receive is not identical, the consumers' expectations may not be met.
Online and Print Catalogs Work Together
by Derek Top
NewMedia, March 16, 2000
Online catalogs now account for a major piece of the e-commerce pie, but their print counterparts aren't going away anytime soon. In fact, a new study finds that online sales and print catalogs actually complement each other through cross-promotion.
The NewMedia site uses frames, so you'll have to search for the full article. This new study costs $4,195, but Insight Research has posted a summary, excerpt, and table of contents.
Picking
Portals
by Kathleen Burke
ClickZ, May 12, 1999
So why the big investment? Nearly half say to better serve customers. Think one-to-one marketing. Think easier searches where the user doesn't have to sift through reams of irrelevant information in hopes of finding something remotely related to his or her needs.
Web
Catalog Authoring Software
by Allyson Behr
Webdeveloper.com, 2000
good quote?
Catalogs
Expect to More Than Double Online Sales in '99
by the InternetNews.com Staff
InternetNews, October 25, 1999
85 percent of consumer catalogs respond to customer e-mail within one day or less.
A tool kit for making a catalog your customers can run on their computers and use to order products from you.
Web Reference's 3-D Animation Workshop
These companies make a living on uniqueness and individuality, or the potential of. These sites sell products which may not yet exist. Customers are getting something they do not have yet, have never had, and therefore have no standard or history to base their purchasing decisions on. That is why catalogs are so important. I know I would not purchase a state ornament from a company and not know what it is I will be getting in the mail, or only have a rough idea. Most people nowadays cite the lack of pre-purchase viewing as the main reason they do not order on-line. Therefore, a company should address this issue proactively, providing the best available picture and description to make people less nervous about ordering something they have held or seen in person.
Custom Albums - Large pictures which get larger upon clicking and show clear detail. Also, there is a link to accessories with every product picture showing the individual trim and lace, etc so customers can pick what they want to create individualized albums. There is also a brief description by every picture.
Human Touch - To begin with, on the home page, there is different pictures of products, all hot. Also, you can enter the gallery and choose to view products by category through the navigation bar at the top or by 16 descriptive categories on the gallery page. When you do get to a picture of the product, the pictures are large enough to view the detail nicely. There is a brief description by each picture as well. Also, the product navigation bar, which I feel serves like a catalog map, appears at the top of every page so you always have access to it, instead of going back to the main catalog page to view different products.
Glass Rabbit - The home page has the direct link to the catalog. When in the catalog, pictures are displayed nicely by category and when you click on the individual products, you are provided with a larger view as well as the different individual types in each category. Also, each category has a description of the product with measurement, price, and colors.
Art of the States - I did not like this site at all, I felt like it was cheap, not professional looking and it was filled with typos. As far as the catalog, the pictures being displayed were too small, with detail very hard to see. These products are hand painted pictures on things like ornaments and pictures and detail is the essence of the product. For example, in the ornaments section, you can barely read the words on the ornament. Also, they have all 50 states available, but you can't view all 50 states from the product page, rather you have enter a different link through the home page to view all the states. I did not realize that the first time I looked at this site.
Creative Crystal - This one was bad. I entered the site and thought it was very badly arranged. In the upper left there was a link to the on-line store, which led to an order form only. There were no pictures, only brief descriptions and prices. There was a link to Spring Specials which had some pictures, but not the entire store. I was able to access some pictures by searching the help page, but that is too deep to have to dig. The pictures should be with the price listing so people know exactly what it is they are ordering and thus receiving later.
Product displays that allow the customer to view the height, width and depth of a product and often to manipulate it. Either the object is in the center and can be rotated or the viewer is in the center.
It makes site more sticky and gives the consumer a better perception or feel of the product they are in the market for.
Dominic: Giving the consumer a better look at the product they want to buy hopefully minimizes customer returns and increases customer satisfaction.
The product might not appear as well as in person or the customer may have had difficulty navigating the site so they may get turned off from the site and product. Some had to have special downloads or plug-ins and the customer may not know what they are and may be time-consuming to learn.
If not done with the best technology, the customer may see a distorted product or a less appealing view.
about Viewpoint:
Computer Arts:
"007 Saving The World Again"
CGW: "3D on
the Web"
Game Developer: "To
Build Or Not To Build"
current Viewpoint press releases:
Modeling Services
Fuel Innovative Car Commercials
Film Set
Scanning and Modeling from Viewpoint and Panavision
Siggraph
- Over 30,000 people attended last summer in Los Angeles.
Mining
for e-gold
by Barb Gomolski
InfoWorld, November 12, 2001
Lands End's My Virtual Model, which allows customers to create an online, 3-D model of their body to see how clothing fits before making a purchase. Shoppers who use the model are 19 percent more likely to make a new purchase than those who don't, and their orders are 16 percent higher, the company reports. E-business allows a company to customize communication and special offers, and then capture information about the customer's interests and preferences.
the tools to make them or the services that license them
Royal Philips Electronics' links to 3D web sites
Viewpoint's Model Bank, a collection of nearly 5,000 3D models with photo-realistic texture maps.
3D Shopping's 3D Image Store - their client list
Virtual rotation images and virtual motion images created using actual products or models through video and digital photography along with proprietary programming techniques that, together, produce a fluid full motion or rotational view of products to be displayed on the Internet.
Radialsoft's CADCAM (computer-aided design, computer aided-manufacturing) software and demo.
3D computer data (models and texture maps) for use in commercial 3D modeling, rendering, and animation software packages (3D applications). The name "Zygote" signifies the first stage of life, just as computer modeling is the first stage of a 3D computer animation. The name also conveys Zygote's main expertise and targeted market niche: building organic types of models.
MGI's technology, now a standard for Web imaging, dramatically enhances the power of an e-commerce offering by making the related images truly interactive. MGI's latest innovation - ZOOM Server technology, which enables Web users with any type of Internet connection to zoom into and out of Web site images to reveal extraordinary levels of detail, has been identified by some industry analysts as a key driver of e-commerce.
MGI's ZoomZone - Keep clicking until you can't get any closer. Check out Zoom Sites link on bottom left.
Mediawire Communications, Inc - HTML Authoring, web site design, web site hosting, custom internet programming, online catalogs, online brochures, 3D Modeling, etc.
Viewpoint's Model Bank, a collection of nearly 5,000 3D models with photo-realistic texture maps.
3D Shopping's client list
Neiman Marcus - Click on Manolo Blahnik on the right. RichFX download needed.
CarsDirect - click 360-degree view on the left. Lets you see almost every vehicle model from a 360 degree angle and in different colors.
Charles Tyrwhitt - go to a product and then click the 3D option. May take a second try. Lets you see a tie and shirt from every angle and a range of distances.
The University of Illinois at Chicago's Cave Virtual Reality Theater
Global Response's 360 Degree Picture Gallery
Flash site: Coca-Cola
Nine West
Autonation
Eddie Bauer
wrebbit
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