Descriptive copy and detailed images are key elements in helping consumers choose products when shopping online. Thanks to the technologies of a web services company, retailers can display their wares to customers in a 3-D environment.

From home furnishings and appliances to posters and decor, consumers can design their own spaces with products from their favorite brands. And online retailers may find that the ability to mix and match products in a virtual environment translates into instant sales.

SceneCaster allows shoppers to work with templates or create their own rooms from scratch, then choose from millions of 3-D items and products. Once a space is created, users can situate items, select the products they like then click to order them through their favorite retailers.

“We give users access to millions of 3-D objects,” says Mark Zohar, president and CEO of SceneCaster. “That is everything from the mundane to the sublime. We give users an engaging application to do things of utility like renovate a home and select products for the space.”

SceneCaster’s users are about 70 percent female and take a keen interest in design and furnishings. Some of the scenes posted on the website include business owners creating commercial spaces, homeowners creating personal spaces and students designing their own rooms.

Drag-and-drop shopping
Users can simply drag and drop 3-D images into their spaces; scenes can be viewed from multiple camera angles, and users can check prices on eBay or Amazon.com.

There are strong branding opportunities with a 3-D space, Zohar says, because retailers and manufacturers can create catalogs and allow shoppers to see templates and features of products in an immersive way.

SceneCaster has found that users spend an average of 35 minutes per session, and that with traffic routed back to e-commerce sites, click-through rates are twice the industry average.

“There is a huge amount of brand time and one-on-one marketing that a brand can get with a user,” Zohar says. “They are converting very well.”

T.J. Gentle is president of Smart Furniture, an online furniture retailer based in Chattanooga, Tenn., that sells commercial furniture through SmartFixtures.com. By using SmartFixtures’ extensive catalog of modular products along with Google SketchUp and SceneCaster, businesses can design furniture products and shelves to maximize space and usage.

“We give them the opportunity to lay out their space and view it in 3-D,” Gentle says. “It gives us a pure online way of helping people so they can see what it will really look like. It provides us with a lot more sales opportunities.”

Retailers also can create virtual showrooms for new products. Shoppers can explore the room through a 3-D camera and click on objects they are interested in to get a better view or to find out more information.

The application takes much of the cost and time out of creating physical spaces and allows retailers to create an unlimited variety of showrooms stocked with products, Zohar says. And, by tracking all data associated with visits to these pages, SceneCaster can deliver detailed statistics about what consumers look at in the virtual environments.