OTTAWA – Interactive video firm Overlay.TV is vowing to take on-line shopping to the next level, just in time for the holiday season.
The Ottawa-based company has partnered with on-line apparel and footwear retailer Zappos.com to bring its catalogue of products to life through video, transforming the way customers interact with the on-line store.
"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," said co-founder and CEO Rob Lane, in the announcement. "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."
The clickable videos are integrated with the retailer site’s e-commerce back-end, and can reflect inventory events such as out-of-stock and discontinued items, as well as promotions and special offerings. Shopping directly from the videos, which can also be shared on blogs and social network profiles, makes the customer’s experience more like a retail store than simply shopping from a catalogue.
"Overlay.TV for Retail made a lot of sense to us," said Brian Kalma, Zappos.com’s director of user experience and web strategy, in the announcement. "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."
