WebCollage lets manufacturers paint product portraits for retail sites
By Staff -- Manufacturing Business Technology, 6/1/2006 12:00:00 AM MDT
While online retailing gives manufacturers another channel for selling products, many say this avenue limits their ability to influence the way goods are presented to potential customers.
That fact has created an opportunity for companies like WebCollage, which offers an application that aggregates product information from multiple manufacturers for presentation on retail Web sites. The solution also can be used by distributors or others that sell manufactured goods online in the B2B space.
"Manufacturers create content about their products, and they need to get it to their customers, but the main contact with the customers—the channel partners—can't easily access that content," WebCollage President Eli Singer says in explaining the need for the WebCollage Syndication Server.
This program pulls content that manufacturers create in HTML into a database that's linked to a retailer's or dealer's Web site. The manufacturer pays for the service, which allows it to update product information whenever it desires.
Singer says dealers or retailers enable the service by adding a single line of JavaScript to the Web pages that serve up information on products offered by manufacturers that have paid for the WebCollage service. He also says tests with one online retailer, eCost.com, showed a 6-percent boost in "add-to-cart" selections after Syndication Server was installed on its site.
Manufacturers that have subscribed to the service, according to Singer, include Olympus, Bose, Chanel, Clinique, Estée Lauder, and Sony. Sites on which these manufacturers have had the service activated include Best Buy, Circuit City, CompUSA, Nordstrom, and Sears.
"We decided we had better start doing this kind of syndication soon, or our brand would suffer in the online marketplace," says Keith Swiderski, executive director of consumer marketing for Olympus America, which tested the Syndication Server a year before applying it to all of its products.
"Approximately 50 percent to 60 percent of our customers shop online. Even those who buy from a store start by researching on the Web," Swiderski says.
Now, for example, a search for digital cameras on CompUSA.com will turn up, among many other items, an Olympus FE-140 6 megapixel model. Clicking on it will pull up more information, including a link for "more about Olympus." That link opens a page with full details on the camera. That page—which has some interactive features—was created by Olympus, but browsing customers see it as a CompUSA page.
"The links are real-time call-outs to Olympus' content," says Singer, yet they keep the browser within the retailer's online store, with an "Add to Cart" button in easy reach.
"We're still struggling to get some of our retailers to accept Web syndication," Swiderski says, "because it does mean they lose a little control over the content on their own Web sites.
"It's like any advertising," Singer continues. "The results are hard to quantify exactly."
Still, Olympus is convinced enough to spend $100,000 a year for the service.
"It shows our retailers that we're supporting them with product information," says Swiderski, who would like to be even more active in presenting online product content.
"I wish we were able to put all of our products on dealers' Web sites, or our logo on the retailer's home page—but that's not practical," he concludes.
