It happens to all of us: You see a product online, you think it’s perfect, so you buy it! But when it arrives you realize it’s not exactly what you were looking for. It’s not always easy to shop online since you can’t hold a product or item in your hand. Especially when you can only see a picture of the product you want at a certain angle. Or worst-case scenario, no picture at all (cue horror movie scream!).
But companies are finding new ways of helping consumers shop online more confidently. One of those new ways? 360 images that give consumers the ability to view a product from every angle. Can you say game changer? And because it’s 2019 and tech is totally turning the tables, let’s take it one step further. Some websites are even giving consumers the ability to take a product and drop it in a real-life setting (like what Nike did with the new Air Jordan 11).
In this week’s episode of Brain Lava, ODEA President, Patty Rioux, and ODEA Technical Coordinator, JJ Lattea, are talking 360 stats and how it’s changing our world (and our online shopping). Curious if it’s worth the investment? Take a listen and find out!
Prefer to read? Keep scrolling for a transcript of this episode!
Hey podcast world, welcome to episode 22 of Brain Lava, team ODEA’s podcast for all things marketing and technology. I’m Patty Rioux president of ODEA and I have special guest JJ Lattea, tech coordinator here at ODEA with me because we’re going to talk all things 360 images.
Interesting for us that we have a couple clients now who have done some 360 image projects those are of course the multidimensional photography that you’re starting to see quite frankly on almost every ecommerce platform. Amazon starting to support it. Not in every vertical unfortunately, but they’re getting there. There are some ways to do some workarounds and that can get your 360 up as video until maybe the opportunity to get 360, straight in your vertical is there. Who else are we seeing using it? Home Depot and Lowes are big ones that are starting to use it for appliances so you can actually see inside the fridge that you are potentially buying or seeing underneath the sink or different sides of whatever appliance that you are looking for. Wayfair is another big home accessory store. We just went through a kitchen remodel in my house and certainly going on Wayfair being able to actually see a lighting fixture or a stool from every angle as a consumer was helpful for me. I’m a believer and I think it’s just going to keep happening more and more.
Same thing with clothing now, being able to see how long the sleeves are on the T-shirt. I think Nike’s a great example, that last version of Air Jordan was and Nike actually did an AR app. I was able to put the Air Jordan on my desk and spin it around, look at the bottom look at the top it was actually extremely cool. Seeing that kick into all areas of retail, not just online but also that AR augmented reality interspace between computer generation and the real reality. I think that’s going to continue to be interesting for brands and just continue to blow our minds as to where it’s going to go.
The question you’re asking most likely, is does it work? If I’m going to invest, because it is an investment, although continuing to see those costs coming down to create. You’re probably asking is it worthwhile? We’ve seen a couple case studies in that home improvement/industrial product area that would say it is. We saw one study one case study that found they had 35% less returns. on products that were ordered that had the 360 spin. A component I hadn’t really thought about was the return side and that if I’m a more knowledgeable consumer I’m going to return less often.
Just to chime in that the 360 does help buyers see how thin/thick whatever nut/bolt that they are looking at. And so that’s just another way of them making sure that that’s the part or the object or appliance or whatever that 360 is, making sure that that’s what they need or want.
Then put 360 in the augmented reality apps in the IKEA apps ability to look at a couch in my actual living room. And make it 360 to see how is that actually going to fit. Is that the refrigerator I want is that the lighting fixture I want in my kitchen? That then just makes that user experience without compare. I’m less likely to order something, think I like it, get it, and return it because; oh, that lights too big or it doesn’t match or that color is off or I thought it would fit.
On the opposite side of returns is conversions. The other case study we saw was that large industrial website saw 47% increase in conversions on the objects on its website that did have 360 spin. It can reduce costs on the return side. And it can increase revenue on the conversion side.
It just gives me a level of comfort in buying online that I think is going to make it that I’m more comfortable buying things online that I hadn’t been before. Maybe I really need to (see it in person) especially if you’re like me and spatially challenged and need to see it in the room. I can measure all day long you can tell me that our island was going to be seven foot by three foot. I can’t spatially get that of course we did the masking tape thing on the floor, but it’s not the same either as having been able to drop it in there. Luckily, we worked with awesome architects, thank you Lisa and Ron two-point perspectives, but I wouldn’t know that’s just not my thing and so trying to envision even what a lamp would look like or what the stove or an entertainment center.
I think items for the home are going to continue to expand in this. I think apparel and certainly shoes. Cute boots, just saying are going to continue to get interesting. What’s really interesting to me though is the nuts and bolts and those types of things are so interesting to me to use 360 for.
This generation not only wants information but also the confirmation of having the correct size before they buy. The generation today doesn’t really like sending stuff back. I don’t want to go to UPS, box whatever I bought up into a box, pay for shipping, and then get it sent back. Just because it was the wrong size, the wrong part, the wrong whatever. This just helps those brands that do use the 360 and AR to be the people or the brands that this generation is going to like even more down the road and will give their business to even more.
It’s just overcoming objections, it’s overcoming hesitancy of “oh, I don’t know if I like it”, “ I don’t know if it’ll be the right size”, “I don’t know if I’ll what’s it look like from the back”. It’s overcoming all those objections and it is making products that I would not have thought about buying online before.
Now something that I’m getting more comfortable doing and making it that once I get it, I’m not going to be as worried about the hassle of a return. I now feel pretty confident that what I ordered I am going to be happy with.
So let us know if you’re doing 360 photography, we’d love to see it!
One more point before we go, that more and more websites are now making sure that they can accommodate 360. We just did a WordPress site with a plug-in, Sirv. That support and allows WordPress to utilize 360 images and it really just links in, because it’s a plug-in. Then once you link it, you decide what products go on what page, and then it just automatically does that. Sirv for me, because I’m the one that uploaded all the images for the client, Sirv was really easy to use and was even faster than Dropbox when you are uploading photos. It took 10 seconds maybe to upload 24 photos I think it was, which were high resolution photos. It just only took 5 to 10 seconds for 24 photos and then it automatically created a 360 based on the naming convention we had. Sirv you can also download the 360, as a movie or a gif so that’s just another addition that Sirv provides for you. Then you can use it in your social media or use it on your YouTube or amazon if your product doesn’t support 360 yet.
That’s our workaround, so if you’ve got products up on Amazon and you would like them to be in 360 but you’re not one of the verticals that they support. Go ahead and turn your 360 into a video. Video is supported on all verticals within Amazon. It can’t make it go faster or see the bottom but if you do the full spin top bottom left right you can at least get the information even if you can’t yet get the control so that’s our work around right now for Amazon. Even if you do the 360 right now and pay for that investment, then once it does go live, then you are already ahead of the game.
Great resource here in Chicago for that 360 photography shout out to our friends at Snap36. We think this is a trend that is going to without a doubt continue and we’re excited for it. Thanks for listening appreciate it, let us know what you’re doing with 360 let us know if you want connected into Snap36! We are happy to make an intro for you of course. As always, you can find us at [email protected] and our website www.teamodea.com and this is Patty special guest JJ thanks for listening.