A Sampling of Products

How do we help our customers and their customers?

2011-11-09T06:40:00.000-08:00

Time – a precious commodity. Every day there seems to be less of it. I'm sure at one time or another you have been on at least one side of this issue...

The other day a customer calls in to an online store and asks for a better, more detailed physical description of a product. The impending sale is a large quantity, but it has to physically work. The customer has given a specific location where they want to install the product, but it has to fit. Perfectly. Basically, the customer needs to know the overall relief of the product. The Customer Service Rep tries their best at describing the product details to the customer, but the for whatever the reason, the information isn't being received by the customer. Frustrations are running high for both parties and the store is about to loose a simple sale because of a communication breakdown.

How do you fix this problem? In this case, the option was available from the manufacturer. They got a link to the customer of a 360 view of the product. In one link the questions were answered. The customer was happy, the store got the sale and the customer representative had a happy customer that lead to a repeat customer.

The 360 product photography technology helped answer questions about a product that words were not able to accomplish. The product was shot from all angles and it made it possible for the customer to see the product from every angle. It is a simple process to have your products shot in 360. There are a few companies both in the United States and worldwide that offer this type of photography. They also offer display systems for both Adobe Flash as well as HTML5.

From one techie to another, this is a great way to make your customers happy, repeat customers. It lets them answer the questions themselves.

Busy at the fall of the year

2011-10-28T04:40:00.000-07:00

It has been a busy month and I have not had a chance to add another note. This is going to be a short post, but I hope it helps others as much as it helped me.

I started playing with a new button in Google Analytics the other day. I can remember the button from years past, but it not works different. Some of us in the office were working on optimizing the message on our website. We needed to get the customers attention faster as we were loosing some that have interest, but are setting on the fence. To do this we positioned our information in a different order. Now keep in mind that none of the information was changed just the order, and here is where the stats drove us to our decisions.

We site in question gets about 8,000 views a month and the call to action is a simple contact. The customer can use the phone, email or a live chat option. Previously we had it driving to overall cost estimates and then contact. Although the price page had heavy traffic, the contact was not being utilized. The thought being that we wanted our sales force to be able to help the customer by phone or email and not have to rely on the customer making assumptions.

In comes Google Analytics and the "In-Page Analytics". Now in the past this was a map of clicks on your site. It was a novel idea, but it didn't work very well. IT has now matured and become a tool you can use. We started at the home page and found that the customers were overloaded and not sent down a path at the beginning. The long and short is that they were getting lost. We still had a three click rule, but that didn't help. So, add a little animation to the top of the front page and reduce the visuals on the frontpage while at the same time driving the user to the content that we want them to review. At the same time we have removed the costing estimates from the site and have moved them behind a drive to contact. This way a human that better understands the costing on the projects can help the customer find the amount for photography.

Get out of the status quo

2011-09-07T07:20:00.000-07:00

So you have been thinking that in this economic downturn that your sales have gone flat. You have lamented that you would love to see more products moving. What have you done about it?

Here are 5 easy steps that help sell your products.

1. Freshen up the copy on your site. Everyone has the same content. You have done nothing to put your store ahead of your competitor. Don't just use the supplied copy and your standard mark-up and expect a sale.

2. Think about your products from the customers point of view. How would they go about finding your product? What search words would they use? One secret from years and years of statistics and web building, do not let the dog of stats lead you! Just because your customers come to your site looking for "shaker glass beads" does not mean that they are interested in Aerosol cans that have glass beads in the shaker.

3. Stay active with your customers. Keep them happy and returning by giving them a reason to return. Think of every message you give as a potential visit to your virtual store. Your emails and messages are your "Customer Service People". They may be all your customers see of you for an extended period of time. Make it positive.

4. Rotate through your products. That is, unless you are a parts company, and then never rotate your product. Keeping your category landing pages fresh and inviting let the customer know that you change the store front from time to time. Even the small Mom-and-Pop shoe store on Main Street changes their window display from time to time. If they don't, the sun fades the product. Think of each category as a chance to invite the customer in farther.

5. Showcase, Showcase, Showcase! It is easy to highlight and showcase Hero Products online. You can have them spinning, or have detail shots of products, or even send a virtual version in an email. Think of it like sending a sampler to someones doorstep with a salesmen, but the salesmen is not pushy.

These are just some of the quick and fast things that help you move your product off the shelf.

2011-09-07T07:13:00.000-07:00

Bags, Handbags and Fashion Accessories, That was the theme of the week with the new photography for Inhabit. They have a new product offering that is available through their site and select retails. The have started manufacturing handbags with there patterns. As with many of their products, they wanted to showcase the bags online so that the customer can have a better feel for the product. After creating 50 plus 360s, we have photographed all of their new purses and handbags.

Here is just a sample of the final line available at Inhabit

Anexix is a great company

2011-01-14T14:26:00.000-08:00

The guys and gals at Anexix are a great set of people, they help all of their medical billing customers and the resell medisoft software. The are located in the little town of Beech Grove that is in the big town of Indianapolis. They use Quijibo design for some of the web research.

Free60 for Simons-Voss

2010-12-22T06:37:00.000-08:00

The guys at Simons-Voss have jumped at the chance to help PhotoSpherix with a market study on the use of product 360's to reduce returns and increase sales. This is one of the images that was created for the customer. This is included here with the inclusion code that helps our staff track the use, location and source of the link.

The code side of making this possible was a simple javascript created include that is added to the product page on their site. Two lines of code and you can increase your sales as well. All you need is 360 product photography by PhotoSpherix.

Free60 for Oregon Scientific

2010-12-22T06:17:00.000-08:00

The guys at Oregon Scientific have jumped at the chance to help PhotoSpherix with a market study on the use of product 360's to reduce returns and increase sales. This is one of the images that was created for the customer. This is included here with the inclusion code that helps our staff track the use, location and source of the link.

Sanyo vw-sf10ca9

2010-10-25T05:32:00.000-07:00

Our brief was to demonstrate the electrolyzed air purifier’s slim lines and compact features, which started with a single row 360 VR. We then animated the removal of the panels to reveal the product interior and the compact containers.

Hotspots were added to highlight key product features such as water container, main cover and airflow system and a second animation added to demonstrate how the air flow is purified in the unit and then released.

Indiana State Museum - Take a spin

2010-10-19T04:59:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, your shots don't go live.

The Indiana State Museum called the other day with an idea to shoot their museum, all of it, in 360. We went on location to see if this could be accomplished or not. The museum is in downtown Indianapolis on the canal and a park is to the north with additional museums to the East and West. It didn't look good, we could not find a good track to follow. Plan "b". "Hey guys do you have a model of the building from when it was built?" That seemed to work much better. The staff found a model hanging on the wall of the architect. We are in business. A few days later the model was delivered down to our office. Five foot by 3 foot and it still was not a small object.

We start shooting and the first thing we see is that it is a model. no matter what we do it will look like a model. That's OK, we will shoot it and let the client decide.

long story shot. It was a model and the photos ended up on the cutting room floor. Here is the sample shot of the model if anyone ever cares to see the concept shot.

5 - rows and remove the top

2010-10-19T04:41:00.000-07:00

A client approached us needing one of their products to be shown online in a more advanced way rather than a still shot. The product was a check scanner. They wanted to show not only all angles of the exterior of the product, but also the interior, add to that various detail shots of inside and out.

We ended up shooting a multi row 360 VR. Not only did it give the user a view of every angle of the check scanner in a 360 degree turn, it also gave the user the ability to tilt the angle of the product to get a birds eye view while spinning the object. After one rotation of the check scanner with it’s cover on, the cover comes off and the interior is shown.

In order to include the needed details of important working parts of the check scanner, we added hotspots throughout the 360 VR.

The Camera went down to Georgia

2010-06-02T11:16:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago, "Top Grill Patio Furniture" had us bring our equipment down to their warehouse in Lincolnton Georgia. 10 hrs and a few miles behind me. I arrived in Lincolnton. It is not the largest of towns, but it was a good ride.

The next day we started photography on their products. Remember that the name of the company s Top Grill PATIO FURNITURE. We had or 16 ft tables delivered to their warehouse a few days before we arrived, and had their staff create a temporary table top for the products. This was the most cost effective way to get their products shot. 147 Products later we were done for the week and had to break down all of the rigging. The customer was happy and we now have a "Large Objects 360 product photography" page.

Thanks again to Erin and the rest of the guys that helped out at Top Grill. In the weeks to come we will show case the changes to their site and the benefits of having full room product 360's.

Have Camera Will Travel

2010-01-11T13:00:00.000-08:00

This morning the crew at Photospherix spent the day loading up a vehicle to go to Chicago to shoot a load of freezers. That's right a load of freezers. These are not your garden variety freezers though. These are BioMedical freezers, the ones that get down to 86 below C. They are not light either. With the average weight topping the scales at over 900 lbs, it should be an interesting day on Tuesday. Wish us luck. This post will be updated on the process.

5 Musts for better online product displays

2009-11-04T04:56:00.000-08:00

1. Good photography - Showing a product online has changed through the years. In the beginning, all you had to do was have a title and the price. There was little competition in selling your one type of product. People noticed the void and started filling it. Whether you are a retailer or a manufacturer, you got into your line of work because you saw a need and you filled it. So did thousands of other people. With the space being filled more and more every day, it is now starting to get crowded. Lets face it, everyone wants a piece of the pie. The million dollar question is how do you get more pie!

The answer that I know is show your product in the best light possible. This is both a visual thing as well as a textual thing.

I am biased, if you have a physical product, then the most important thing is make that product look great online. Remember, I am a visual person, I am a photographer, and I am a web monkey. Your web users want to see your product in as good of light and the ones walking down the isles in a store. How much time and energy is put into packaging design? Then why are you just slapping a picture on the internet and hoping it sells.

The mindset that you as a manufacturer needs to remember is that the online buyer is the same as a brick and mortar buyer. They want some of the same things out of their shopping experience. This is not one of those actions where they want a surprise when they open that shipping box in a few days. They want to know what it is that they are getting. Showcase the product, make the user comfortable about their purchase. If you as a retailer do not have good product photography from the manufacture, either get great photographs or demand them from the manufacturer. Try some Interactive object shots for the product.

2. Good detail - Remember the devil is in the details. Each and every web customer is getting more and more savie every day. They are sponges that want more and more information. They want to feel that they know everything about your product. Give them more photography, more detail and more copy so that their comfort level is reached. In no way is this instruction to write a dictionary about the product. Tabs and delineated information is always a good idea. Use rollover zooms on images, 360 product views or other methods to show large amounts of visual information on the same page. You do not want a grey page when the customers sees it. Instead, you want all of the information one click a way and well ordered.

3. Easy of Operations - That ties straight into number three. Easy Operation. The last thing you want to do is have your customer confused about your site. They want to enjoy their shopping experience. Do not go head over heals on the unneeded bells and whistles, KISS. Easier said then done. If you know the information that you want to show, but you do not know the best way to show it, find a great interface designer. That is what they do every day. A good way for me to look at it is the dash of a Shelby Cobra has the same functions as a Mercedes S class, but on has a little better design.

4. User Interaction - Remember that if they do not understand the interface, they can not interact with it. You want your customers to feel like they are in your brands experience. You want the same feeling that they get when they walk into a great brick and mortar store. Mood music aka musax. I remember working at a grocery store while in high school. That was when I learned about Cold and Warm light bulbs. One day I had to get the ladder and change a few bulbs in the store. At the time I never thought about it, but the bulbs are different at different places of the store. Warm bulbs do not make good looking Milk, but cold light bulbs do not make fruit appetizing. This same level of thought needs to go into your whole store.

5. Merchandising - That brings us to the front of the store. In the case of online stores, it is not a sign post, or a tile floating around on the internet, but instead your ranking in search engines, that gets the people to your door. The content that your write about the products is how the search engines find you store. Then on every product because you never know how the customer is going to get to you, is your front door. Always keep in mind that how they got to your little corner of the internet might not be the thing they are looking for. Related products, and other suggestions are always a great way to get the customer circulating through your store. This is not just for an up sale, but to help the customer find the things they are looking for. With this, getting your customer to refer their friends goes farther then any television spot. Think of the budget, use that to get every customer to tell everyone they know about your store. Another offer to give your customers is a limited use coupon. This makes it to where they get to send a "GOOD" coupon to a few of their friends.

Zoom In and Get Close

2009-09-14T13:12:00.000-07:00

eye-fi wireless card

2009-08-22T11:23:00.000-07:00

I got around to getting a new camera the other day. I am sure that I will write about in in the not to distant future, but one thing I splerged on was an Eye-fi card for the camera. I had this idea that I would have a wireless card in the camera and I would not need to have a laptop or a machine next to the camera in the studio. I though hey a couple extra bucks I will try it. THis is a report on the process and the result.

I got the camera, I brought it home. I was disipointed that the battery on the d90 did not work with the barrery on the d100. I guess it was my fault. I had to charge the battery. During that time, I opened the eye-fi package. In the package was my new 4 gig sd card and a card reader, a small fold out book with instructions and that was it. I started up the trusty netbook, plugged in the card reader and followed the instructions. Within minutes the card was read. I had set up my wireless network in the house and told the card to ship my pictures up to my facebook page. It was easy. Not just easy for me, someone that spends all day working on a computer, but easy for my 3 yr old to do it. I mead easy.

SO for now. every time I take a picture, the camera saves the file to the netbook or my workstation at the office and then loads the image to facebook. http://www.facebook.com/photospherix

Next I need to find a way to get better control of the images with action scripts.

I wanted to add to this story a couple of locations where sitemaps are.

360 Product photography Map
360 Product rotation
360 Product images
Spinning Product Shots
Example Product Photography
The Map
360 product views
360 view server

Better Pictures for Better Online Sales

2009-07-27T11:49:00.000-07:00

In the current days of online sales, every retailer is looking for a way to stand out in their market. Search Engine Optimization is the first thing. Online store Optimization is the second. Social Networking sites should be put up on the list. BUT.. The one that always gets dropped to the bottom of the list, is strong product photography. How many sites have you noticed that just use the "poor" stock photography from the manufacturer? Today you as retailers have many options built into your online stores. You can have zoom images, Detail Shots, 360 product views and product videos on must new builds of e-commerce sites. Why not use them?

How do you get a hold of the imagery?
The first option is start requesting the imagery from the manufacturer. Don't just settle for a simple product shot. Get everything the manufacturer has. Spend the time while setting up new products, so that your site stands above the competitor. If they don't have good photography, suggest what you are looking for. Remember, they want you to sell more of their product:) It never hurts to ask if they have 360-degree spins

The second is learn how to produce the images in-house. Remember that you either have a time or money investment, but no matter what, great images are not free.

The third option is to use a company that specializes in your type of photography.
If you need video, find a good video house near you or near your products. The shipping and admin costs on larger number jobs can sometimes be larger than the photography production cost.

The last note, make sure that you can get the usage for the photographs that you have shot. You never know, you might want to use them on youTube or in an email campaign.

Aqua Systems in Indianapolis

2009-06-25T09:20:00.001-07:00

We are an Indianapolis-based, independent water treatment company that specializes in water softeners, drinking water systems, water purification, problem water solutions, large scale water solutions for business and industry and bottled water. We have convenient superstore retail locations throughout Indiana along with locations in Florida, Illinois, Montana and Nebraska. With a knowledgeable staff of water experts and multiple store locations, Aqua Systems has been helping people improve their water since 1959.

Home Building in Indianapolis

2009-02-24T04:18:00.000-08:00

A new report from CNN states that Indianapolis is the most affordable city in the United States to buy a home. Davis Building Group is finding a way to connect to this market situation. They are building homes.

Topping the list of most affordable U.S. metro areas, which ranks areas with more than 500,000 in population, was Indianapolis. This is the city's 14th consecutive quarter in first place; it boasts a full 93% of all homes sold being affordable to median family households.

from Money.Cnn.Com

For 14 consecutive quarters, Indianapolis has had the honor of being at the top of the list. While demand is still not at the place that it was in 2006, there is a need for homes, and Davis Building Group has a wide offering of homes available to be built where you want them. It looks like this may be the future model for home builders. If you have land, and you want a home built, stop by Davis Building Group for a look at their New Home Collections.

Get Smart at Feel More Human - Meaningful. Modern. Living.

2009-02-18T14:02:00.001-08:00

Get Smart at Feel More Human - Meaningful. Modern. Living.

Posted using ShareThis

3d Product Photography

2009-01-15T07:23:00.001-08:00

The guys at PhotoSpherix are doing it again. They have released a new 360 Product Vr Price Sheet. In this document you can see what type of product shots you would like, and an idea of the cost. If looks like they are driving hard to make 360 product vrs more afforadable for online merchants and manufactuers, while still holding true to their quality.

More and More, buyers in the United States and around the world are purchasing online instead of in brick and mortar stores. The overhead is less and the scope is larger. A company that has a small office and a large site can have just as many customers as a Mega Store has. Now getting the customers to follow your store instead of another is directly connected to the offerings that you have. It is the same as a brick and mortar in that regard. The nicier your store is, the more customers you will have. But you have to get the people to know about the store first. For a BnM all you have to do is pick a great location and put up the store and then show a sign. All of these things cost money. That is where the higher overhead comes in. For an online store, all you have to do is let everyone know that your store is there. Then hope they tell a friend or 100.

Ok, We have products, we found a way to get people to look at the products

The Vers 1.5 Ipod Radio

2008-12-22T15:41:00.000-08:00

The guys at feelmorehuman have done it again. They had a product that I enjoyed enough to trade them the shots for the product. The VERS 1.5 is the latest product shot by Photospherix, this time with a full 10 row product shot. This version shows the top, bottom and everything in between...

Take a look at feel more human for the vers 1.5

Just a thought

2008-12-09T05:11:00.001-08:00

The NIXON Rotolog in Bamboo

2008-11-17T04:52:00.000-08:00

Bamboo - It is the next best thing to a Earth altering PVC. No really, it grows so fast, it has a dense, hard surface, and you can make everything from watches to scaffolding from it. It grows like a weed. I was out at the families house in Florida, on the side of the house there is a grove of Bamboo, you could almost hear it growing.

I have digressed. The Nixon Rotolog uses this material in a great way. It is an inlay within the band. This is not a new idea, but it is a novel attempt to use this fast growing plant in ways that touch us westerners in a close and new way.

The watch is made of stainless steel and bamboo with a quartz movement.

Go take a look at this great contemporary mens watch at feelmorehuman.com

360 flash product photography provided by PhotoSpherix

Plantronics CS50 Wireless Office Headset System

2008-11-10T11:26:00.000-08:00

The Plantronics Wireless Headset System is a lifesaver for us here in the office. For all of the hustle and bustle we endure each and every day the headset is a real convenience. It gives us eight hours of talk time without having to be charged up again and it can roam up to 300 feet from our base unit with secure conversations.

After screwing around a little bit getting the thing connected, with our wonderful Panosonic KXGT4000, now our wireless Plantronics CS50 Wireless Headset system seems to be fully operational, we are no longer tethered to our desks.

With remote functions to raise a receiver, we are able to answer the phone anywhere in our office within 300 ft of the base station. We definitely give a thumbs up on the product, but there’s just one thing: you look like a complete idiot with the receiver in your ear. No one knows if you’re talking on the phone or to thin air. But there is a bonus: you can even answer the phone while on the potty!

360 flash product photography provided by PhotoSpherix

the 01 Felt Notebook Tote at Feelmorehuman.com

2008-11-10T05:33:00.001-08:00

There is a new line of bags by Carga available at feelmorehuman.com. These bags are made of industrial wool, that makes it a green option for men, and they are for men not women, that makes it cool to me. I thought the design was a great basic bag. The construction is of good quality.

A new Faucet witha twist.

2008-11-10T04:50:00.000-08:00

As I have said, Photography is a subject that drives me everyday.

Silverlight 2 Animation

2008-11-07T05:36:00.001-08:00

Silverlight is a phenomenally powerful animation tool, but few people know how to unlock its potential. Foundation Silverlight 2 Animation gives you the keys to all of that power.

It covers the basics of animation—that is, Silverlight's storyboards and animations, which are used to provide interactivity to Silverlight applications. You'll take an in-depth look at double, point, and color animations. You'll also learn the difference between linear, spline, and discrete keyframes, and how they affect your objects as they move.

360 product views
360 product views
360 product views
360 product views
360 product views
360 product views
360 product views
360 product views

object2vr a flash based object vr player

2008-10-22T16:49:00.000-07:00

Photography is close to my heart. I spend half my work day everyday behind a camera. Most of that time is spent taking Product Photography shots. One thing that we shot is Objects. Those are the product shots that rotate. The ones that you can spin with your mouse to see the front and back of the object. For years the largest trouble was that you had to display these objects in quicktime. Apple was the creator of this technology back in the early 90's, but the quicktime only format made it difficult for online stores and manufacturers to fully use this technology. That has now changed. With object2vr, now all the online stores need is the photographer to create the photographs.

Here are a couple samples created with object2vr

Full Size bedding

A Medium Sized Motor Cycle

A mens wrist watch

These are all samples of 360 flash object product photography

Converting your grill to Natural Gas

2008-10-21T08:17:00.000-07:00

So we wanted to get rid of the old lp tank on our gas grill. This summer we had bought a new grill for the patio. The old grill was toast. It had rusted and nothing was left. The only thing that was good about it was that it ran on Natural Gas. So with a new grill all summer we burnt brats, and tried to cook steak. It was not a perfect performance, but we did not go hungry. It's fall now and I am tired of the lp tank under the grill. Now keep in mind that the grill that I have is a "Dual Fuel" grill, but we did not want to buy the natural gas kit when we bought it at the local Home Depot. I thought that I would try the thing out for the summer first. Now I want to convert it.

I noted while I was butting the grill together that it had removable orifices. I then went to a site that talked about how to convert grills.

Now we have our patio ready for the winter. The strangest thing was all I had to do was remove the orifices from the manifold.

We are expecting

2008-10-20T10:11:00.000-07:00

My wife and I are expecting in late Jan 09. That means that we are refreshing the nursery. What better time that to go look on the net for some products for the new kids room. Now let me preface this entry with the comment that my wife and I do not know what we are having. and... my wife and I have completely different tastes in design. She is soft and fluffy and I am a little more straight lined. So that being said. Babies r us is out the window. It would be great for my wife, but a nightmare for me.

I searched and came across a site called Feel More Human. They have a good collection of products. I am sure I will write about them again in time, but for now, I am on the nursery.

We needed a new rug for the floor and bedding to replace what we used for our first child.

I started here, for modern baby furnishings and found a great contemporary changing table. With those two pieces of furniture, we had our shipping requirements covered for free shipping. Now we needed something a little softer for the baby to "live" on. I went to the "Baby Accesories" section of the site and found a viverent modern baby quilt that would do great in the room.

At this point, I am just waiting on the shipment and the baby to arrive.

To recap, Here are the items that I purchased.

A modern contemporary baby bed

Orange Contemporary Baby Quilt

Photography - HOW TO - at home or office

2008-10-20T09:41:00.000-07:00

The first entry has to be something about photography. This is a pass time of mine and a profession for many of my friends.

DIYPhotography.net is a great resource for those of us that love photography, but have a minimal budget. We might love to take pictures, but when the pictures to not make us much money, then we do not have a lot to spend. This site helps to show the user how to make many of the common tools for photography from products around the house.

If you have a minute go take a look.

Product Samplings from around the net

2008-10-20T09:37:00.000-07:00

Lets always start with, I AM NOT A WRITER, but I play one from time to time. This is just a place where I can add some copy about some products that I enjoy from around the Internet.

This will be a listing, or links to some sites and products that I enjoy, or like, or thought I would love to have. Some of the products are for the home, some are tech based and some are just sites that seem to over something above the norm.