Daily News
Sears Transforms the Online Shopping Experience with IBM & My Virtual Model
18 Sep 2008
PRESS RELEASE
September 2008
IBM, Sears and My Virtual Model, Inc. have unveiled a first-of-its-kind 3D visual search and e-commerce capability for Sears.com that will significantly improve and enhance a consumer’s online shopping experience. Sears is the first retailer to apply both a visual search and virtual model to an entire catalogue online.
Watch a brief Flash demonstration of the new Sears.com
The updated Sears site, powered by IBM WebSphere Commerce and My Virtual Model, will allow consumers to recreate their in-store shopping experience online by enabling them to search for merchandise using images versus words, and to virtually “try on” selected items using a personalized model of themselves to ensure that the style, color, pattern and fit are right before purchasing.
The Sears site will enable shoppers to search on a specific style, such as long-sleeve tunic shirts or cropped cargo pants and find products from the company’s expansive catalogue of clothing, shoes and accessories using 3D images versus words. Shoppers can create countless combinations using a virtual model they can build and personalize to match their measurements - height, weight, body shape and a headshot photo to ensure that the style, color, pattern and fit are right. The 3D angle allows users to view garments on themselves from the front, side and back, and shoppers can also email images of their looks to friends and family to help them make final purchasing decisions.
“Sears is transforming the online shopping experience by offering consumers cutting edge visual search and virtual model capabilities,” said Rob Mills, vice president, Sears Online Business Unit. “By allowing shoppers to visually search for and view items in 3D, to see how they’ll actually look on themselves in various combinations, and virtually share their finds with friends and family, Sears is providing shoppers with a superior social and e-commerce experience that we believe will increase satisfaction and loyalty.”
“The rapid changes to the Internet have radically affected modern society impacting the way we interact and do business,” said Sandy Carter, vice president, SOA and WebSphere, IBM. “Today’s customers are not only ready for 3D online shopping, they are demanding it. The combination of IBM WebSphere Commerce with Visual Search 3D graphics and consumer driven search parameters such as clothing type, color, material, and price range, deliver a shopping experience unlike anything previously available.”
“This solution is clean, elegant, and fun and will change the way the customers shop and the way that retailers present their ever-increasing collections to customers,” said Louise Guay, president and founder of MVM. “Consumers who use visual search can define their search and style using detailed 3D images of the actual garments, creating personalized clothing ensembles and dragging-and-dressing pieces directly onto their virtual model to see how they actually mix and match.”
IBM leads the industry in helping clients to transform their business processes. A key reason for this leadership is a unique portfolio of industry-specific solutions that draw upon IBM’s extensive services, software and hardware capabilities. IBM clients are able to rapidly deploy these pre-configured solutions into their existing IT infrastructures because they are based on open standards. These solutions, such as Visual Search, expand upon the IBM Retail Integration Framework, which enables a services-oriented approach to implementing retail solutions via pre-tested patterns and scenarios, supported by a rich set of retail-specific, SOA-based assets.
This Sears deployment represents the first collaboration between IBM WebSphere Commerce and MVM. The two companies have since planned a deepening of their relationship around WebSphere Commerce and the MVM virtual model and visual search products.
Sears.com plans to go live with Visual Search in late October.
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Read IBM ARTICLES on TAXI Design Network
IBM Completes the Recommended Cash Offer to the Shareholders in Telelogic
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Made in IBM Labs: IBM Announces Cloud Computing Hub in Dublin
............................................................................
September 2008
IBM, Sears and My Virtual Model, Inc. have unveiled a first-of-its-kind 3D visual search and e-commerce capability for Sears.com that will significantly improve and enhance a consumer’s online shopping experience. Sears is the first retailer to apply both a visual search and virtual model to an entire catalogue online.
Watch a brief Flash demonstration of the new Sears.com
The updated Sears site, powered by IBM WebSphere Commerce and My Virtual Model, will allow consumers to recreate their in-store shopping experience online by enabling them to search for merchandise using images versus words, and to virtually “try on” selected items using a personalized model of themselves to ensure that the style, color, pattern and fit are right before purchasing.
The Sears site will enable shoppers to search on a specific style, such as long-sleeve tunic shirts or cropped cargo pants and find products from the company’s expansive catalogue of clothing, shoes and accessories using 3D images versus words. Shoppers can create countless combinations using a virtual model they can build and personalize to match their measurements - height, weight, body shape and a headshot photo to ensure that the style, color, pattern and fit are right. The 3D angle allows users to view garments on themselves from the front, side and back, and shoppers can also email images of their looks to friends and family to help them make final purchasing decisions.
“Sears is transforming the online shopping experience by offering consumers cutting edge visual search and virtual model capabilities,” said Rob Mills, vice president, Sears Online Business Unit. “By allowing shoppers to visually search for and view items in 3D, to see how they’ll actually look on themselves in various combinations, and virtually share their finds with friends and family, Sears is providing shoppers with a superior social and e-commerce experience that we believe will increase satisfaction and loyalty.”
“The rapid changes to the Internet have radically affected modern society impacting the way we interact and do business,” said Sandy Carter, vice president, SOA and WebSphere, IBM. “Today’s customers are not only ready for 3D online shopping, they are demanding it. The combination of IBM WebSphere Commerce with Visual Search 3D graphics and consumer driven search parameters such as clothing type, color, material, and price range, deliver a shopping experience unlike anything previously available.”
“This solution is clean, elegant, and fun and will change the way the customers shop and the way that retailers present their ever-increasing collections to customers,” said Louise Guay, president and founder of MVM. “Consumers who use visual search can define their search and style using detailed 3D images of the actual garments, creating personalized clothing ensembles and dragging-and-dressing pieces directly onto their virtual model to see how they actually mix and match.”
IBM leads the industry in helping clients to transform their business processes. A key reason for this leadership is a unique portfolio of industry-specific solutions that draw upon IBM’s extensive services, software and hardware capabilities. IBM clients are able to rapidly deploy these pre-configured solutions into their existing IT infrastructures because they are based on open standards. These solutions, such as Visual Search, expand upon the IBM Retail Integration Framework, which enables a services-oriented approach to implementing retail solutions via pre-tested patterns and scenarios, supported by a rich set of retail-specific, SOA-based assets.
This Sears deployment represents the first collaboration between IBM WebSphere Commerce and MVM. The two companies have since planned a deepening of their relationship around WebSphere Commerce and the MVM virtual model and visual search products.
Sears.com plans to go live with Visual Search in late October.
............................................................................
Read IBM ARTICLES on TAXI Design Network
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Sony's Vaio design contest winners bring on the Splash
18 Sep 2008
PRESS RELEASE
September 2008
Sony has revealed the winners of its Vaio My Contest Graphic Splash PC Design Contest, and the resulting creations, titled Sound Waves, Kaleidoscope, and Colorful, are far from monochromatic.
"Colorful", as its name suggests, features a swirl of, well, color - vibrant green, yellow, orange, red, pink, and blue. Artist "starfantazy," who submitted the design, said she loves how colors seem to flow together: "I think they represent life and all that is so diverse in it."
"Crea8anim8" was similarly inspired by color in creating the muted, jungle-evoking "Kaleidoscopes." The way those instruments "catch the light and the way the turning motion creates the interweaving of colors always mesmerizes me," she said.
For "Sound Waves," meanwhile," Crimsonjassic, aka Transfuse," looked to waves, koi, and the description of the Vaio FW series at the center of the competition as "reminiscent of a rolling wave." His laptop shell features a graceful mermaid--wearing headphones.
For the contest, Sony solicited cover designs for its wide-screen, entertainment-friendly FW line and used a process called dye sublimation to infuse colors and patterns into the notebooks' exterior.
Three judges, including MTV reality staple and budding designer Lauren Conrad, artist Maya Hayuk, and fashion designer Kelly Nishimoto, chose the top 10 finalists, with the American public voting on the top three winners. Finalists get a free Vaio FW Graphic Splash computer with their design on the front. The winners got a trip to New York to attend the press event announcing the victors, plus a little pocket money.
Probably most exciting for the winning artists, their limited-edition designs will be available for preorder online at the Sony Style store.
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Read SONY ARTICLES on TAXI Design Network
Sony Launches License Program "Designed For Walkman"
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Sony Delivers Integrated Communication Solution with Networked Security
............................................................................
September 2008
Sony has revealed the winners of its Vaio My Contest Graphic Splash PC Design Contest, and the resulting creations, titled Sound Waves, Kaleidoscope, and Colorful, are far from monochromatic.
"Colorful", as its name suggests, features a swirl of, well, color - vibrant green, yellow, orange, red, pink, and blue. Artist "starfantazy," who submitted the design, said she loves how colors seem to flow together: "I think they represent life and all that is so diverse in it."
"Crea8anim8" was similarly inspired by color in creating the muted, jungle-evoking "Kaleidoscopes." The way those instruments "catch the light and the way the turning motion creates the interweaving of colors always mesmerizes me," she said.
For "Sound Waves," meanwhile," Crimsonjassic, aka Transfuse," looked to waves, koi, and the description of the Vaio FW series at the center of the competition as "reminiscent of a rolling wave." His laptop shell features a graceful mermaid--wearing headphones.
For the contest, Sony solicited cover designs for its wide-screen, entertainment-friendly FW line and used a process called dye sublimation to infuse colors and patterns into the notebooks' exterior.
Three judges, including MTV reality staple and budding designer Lauren Conrad, artist Maya Hayuk, and fashion designer Kelly Nishimoto, chose the top 10 finalists, with the American public voting on the top three winners. Finalists get a free Vaio FW Graphic Splash computer with their design on the front. The winners got a trip to New York to attend the press event announcing the victors, plus a little pocket money.
Probably most exciting for the winning artists, their limited-edition designs will be available for preorder online at the Sony Style store.
............................................................................
Read SONY ARTICLES on TAXI Design Network
............................................................................
blog comments powered by Disqus