That’s So “You”

 
 
 
 
 
Multi-channel and pure-play e-tailers constantly struggle to make the online shopping experience more personal. Most companies use solutions to address returning visitors by name, and deliver personalized merchandise recommendations based on prior purchases or click-stream analysis.

As Web 2.0 continues to change the face of e-commerce, however, new solutions are finding a niche. These include flash technology that displays and zooms in on merchandise as if a shopper was holding it, as well as videos of product demonstrations and customer reviews that help shoppers make educated purchase decisions.

Retailers that manage to successfully engage just the top 10 percent of their shopping base are primed to give profitability a significant boost. Amazon.com continues to prove this thesis time and again, thanks to its cutting-edge personalization efforts.

RichRelevance CEO David Selinger is putting the research and development experience he gained at Amazon to work with the Fashionista augmented reality virtual fitting room, an application that allows shoppers to “try on” clothing and share their favorite looks with family and friends in real time.

Virtual fitting room applications aren’t particularly new, but Fashionista differentiates itself by combining augmented reality and motion capture with real-time merchandise recommendations. Interactive video technology from Los Angeles-based multimedia provider Zugara is integrated into RichRelevance’s enRICH personalization platform – a combination that allows shoppers to use “mirror images” when virtually trying on clothes. “Unlike other apps that use avatars, Fashionista leverages web cams that are standard components in many laptops so the images are of you,” Selinger says.

Mirroring the in-store experience
After downloading the Flash-based application from hosting retailers, shoppers are prompted to print out a “clothes marker” that will aid with virtual fittings. Shoppers simply face the laptop screen in front of the Web cam, display the marker at a specific height and distance (supplied by the app) to ensure merchandise is mirrored accurately online, and they are off and running.

Fashionista then delivers personalized merchandise suggestions based on shoppers’ tastes. On-screen icons that are manipulated simply by a shopper raising her arm indicate preferences and help shoppers make purchase decisions. For example, the “Thumbs Up” icon adds items to the shopping cart; “Thumbs Down” replaces the current item on the screen with a new item recommended by the enRICH platform. Each session’s data feeds and images are pulled into a database and used for future product recommendations.

RichRelevance is in the process of marrying the fitting room experience with the power of social networking, which “will help make the shopping experience that much more sticky,” Selinger says.

It will soon add a camera icon to the mix, with which shoppers can take a photo of their virtual experience and upload it to their friends’ Facebook profile pages. “It makes the leap from just sharing a picture of merchandise to sharing a picture of me in that item,” Selinger says. “It is a step that keeps online shopping social and personal.”