Web Retailers Plan To Upgrade Visuals

Most e-commerce sites intend to boost rich media efforts this year, with a particular focus on high-quality visuals. That's among the main findings of a report released Wednesday by Internet technology firm Scene7.

For the study, Scene7 surveyed 65 online and multi-channel retailers in October, asking them their plans for rich media applications. Almost seven in 10--68%--said they currently deploy or intend to deploy a feature allowing consumers to see different views of a product. Sixty-three percent also said they offer, or soon will offer, the ability to zoom in on a product.

Merchants surveyed also rated zoom, visual product configuration, color swatching, and online monogramming as "effective" or "very effective" in generating purchases. Seventy-eight percent of respondents deemed zoom effective or very effective, while 76% said the same about visual product configuration, 75% for color swatching and 73% for online monogramming.

More than half of the merchants surveyed said they were planning to implement new rich media features on their Web site within six months, and 14% said they would add the new features within three months. Eight percent said it would take more than a year to do so.

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