Online interactive product demos double conversion rates at SharpUSA.com
When product beauty as well as dozens of technical specs all figure into the sales proposition, it can be challenging for online marketers to figure out how to unfold that information in a sequence that engages site visitors enough to stay for exposure to it all. Consumer electronics manufacturer Sharp’s SharpUSA.com has found a solution in presenting its high-end Aquos LCD televisions online: Let consumers choose their own path, and use rich media to tell the story.
Sharp launched the Aquos series in 2001, using technology from Exemplum, then called Nueweb, to power an interactive product demonstration online. Sharp has determined that visitors who engage the interactive demos spend an average of 4 minutes longer on the site than those who don’t, a 30% increase in site stickiness, SharpUSA director of Internet strategies and services Doug Topken tells Internet Retailer.
“We initially hired Exemplum to do a very simple demonstration where people could spin, flip, and explore the product,” says Topken. Since the line seeks to differentiate itself on its design and aesthetics as well as on engineering and technical performance, in Sharp’s estimation, a static online display would not do the product justice. “The objective was to let people see it in all its beauty rather than just a static image, and we met that objective,” Topken says.
Since then, Sharp has worked with Exemplum to further enrich the online visitor`s experience with the use of rich media. The Aquos series interactive product demonstration has added elements such as a product comparison feature that lets the user click and drag a model number from beneath a product image to place it in a grid that instantly generates data on nearly 40 product features that can be compared, point by point, across the grid on up to three products at a time. Another feature lets the user call up more than a dozen product beauty shots that incorproate the product in various room settings and environments. In addition, the site now asks visitors to indicate whether they have a broadband or dial-up connection to optimize demo viewing for either.
Tracking of the enhanced product demonstration over the past 18 months shows that visitors who engage the online demo convert at twice the rate of those who don’t, Topken says. SharpUSA defines conversion as customers who engage the dealer locator feature because Sharp does not sell direct online. By including links to interactive product demos in its e-mail campaigns, Sharp increases overall campaign click-through rate to nearly double the average rate, Topken adds.
“We’ve increased both the number of products we are doing interactive demos for, and also their complexity and depth,” Topken says. “We have determined qualitatively that when visitors spend more time with one of these rich media experiences, they are more likely to use the dealer locator.”
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