Pantone Partners With TrueSpectra to Allow Customers to Shop With Color on the Web
Search-by-Color Capability Will Revolutionize Online Shopping
NEW YORK (eTail 2001) - July 31, 2001 - Pantone, Inc., the global authority
on color and provider of professional color standards for the graphics,
fashion, interior and industrial design industries, and TrueSpectra, Inc.,
the leader in high-performance dynamic imaging solutions, today announced
their joint SHOP WITH COLOR initiative to enable businesses and consumers to
search for products by color on the Web.
By integrating their complementary technologies, Pantone and TrueSpectra
enable retailers to easily implement a complete visualization solution for
e-commerce efficiently and cost-effectively. Color coordination capabilities
enable cross-selling opportunities to increase online sales never before
available.
SHOP WITH COLOR - the combination of PANTONE TheRightColor™ solutions and
TrueSpectra’s ImageTone imaging software enables:
Search by Color. Customers can now tailor their search by color preference.
By viewing items in the color they intend to purchase, shoppers can quickly
identify additional items of the same or complementary color using PANTONE
Colors.
Accurate Color Display. The customer has greater confidence purchasing
online when the color of merchandise closely mirrors that of the actual
product. The PANTONE Color Language delivers color continuity to ensure the
shopper gets exactly what he/she expects.
Cross-sell by Color. The retailer can increase online sales by generating
color-coordinated product recommendations based on the customer’s color
preferences. Providing the end user with the ability to visualize the
complete range of color options gives the retailer a cost-effective
merchandising tool to up-sell and cross-sell products. Color accuracy gives
the customer the confidence to coordinate and purchase a complete outfit
online.
The Color Consistency Problem
Apparel, home furnishings and cosmetic companies use the PANTONE Color
Language to communicate accurate color in the design and manufacturing
process. Color continuity, however, is often lost at the retail stage, where
colors are subjectively named. For example, the manufacturer communicates a
certain shade of blue as PANTONE 19-3951, but the retailer may rename it
“navy,” “midnight” or “deep royal.” In addition, colors rendered in Web
images tend to be inaccurate and are often misrepresented by monitors and
applications. The inability to view products in their actual color values
results in missed expectations, increased product returns and reduced
confidence in shopping online.
Boston-based analyst firm The Yankee Group says shoppers who buy women’s
clothing on the Web return approximately 40 percent of merchandise because
it falls short of expectations in terms of color, fit and quality - more
than double that of brick-and-mortar shopping.
Using SHOP WITH COLOR, the color of an item is identified using Pantone’s
universal color language and specially developed RGB color values, ensuring
the most accurate and consistent online color representation. With
TrueSpectra’s ImageTone solution, a single image of the product can be
rendered in as many PANTONE Colors as needed, eliminating the time intensive
process of recapturing each color variation for the image. This allows end
users to accurately visualize the full range of products available without
the retailer needing to recapture each color variation.
“The goal of PANTONE TheRightColor is to accurately communicate color across
the supply chain, from the designer all the way to the consumer, across
multiple retail platforms. Unfortunately, accurate color communication
usually stops at the manufacturer or retailer level,” explained Richard
Hebert, president of Pantone. “Our alliance with TrueSpectra will benefit
the consumer as well as the retailer with the ability to shop and sell by
color.”
“Shopping by color preference is a powerful customer service that enables
consumers to match products quickly and easily,” said Sasa Radulovic, CEO of
TrueSpectra. “By working with Pantone, customers reduce time and costs by
automating the process of managing images, while ensuring accurate color.
Retailers can leverage the advanced functionality of TrueSpectra’s ImageTone
to speed time to market and display all the various colors in their
inventory efficiently and cost-effectively - a merchandising capability that
was previously cost-prohibitive.”
About Pantone, Inc.
Pantone, Inc., developer of the globally accepted PANTONE Color Systems, is
the leading source of traditional and electronic products for the selection
and accurate communication of color. With more than 38 years of experience,
Pantone is recognized as the worldwide market leader in color communication
and color technology for the graphic design, printing, publishing, textile
and plastics industries. Pantone products are used by leading apparel and
home furnishings vendors such as Liz Claiborne, Lands’ End, Nike, Target and
Pottery Barn. More information is available at www.pantone.com and
www.therightcolor.com.
About TrueSpectra, Inc.
TrueSpectra, Inc. offers ImageTone, the only enterprise-wide dynamic imaging
infrastructure for businesses that need a scalable and extensible imaging
solution for eCommerce and supply-chain integration, as well as for internal
access and sharing. With ImageTone, businesses can reliably extend dynamic
images that are automatically tailored to the diverse needs of internal
departments and divisions, as well as to customers, partners and suppliers.
ImageTone also automates image publishing, sharing and repurposing for any
Web-enabled device. Some of the company`s customers include Macy`s,
Bloomingdale`s, Nordstrom.com, Sears Canada, Fortunoff, Excite Japan,
NextMonet and Kinko’s. Founded in 1992, TrueSpectra`s strategic partners
include Digital Island, Sun Microsystems, Oracle, Informix, Digimarc and
Blue Martini Software. For additional information, please visit
www.truespectra.com.
- # # # -
PANTONE* and other Pantone, Inc. trademarks are the property of Pantone,
Inc. * Pantone, Inc., 2001
Jay Austin
Ogan/Dallal Associates Inc.
1185 Avenue of the Americas, 20th Floor
New York, NY 10036
(212) 840-0888 (phone)
(212) 840-8849 (fax)
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