FUN WITH PHOTOS Perceptual Robotics Inc., Evanston, IL, which created the iCam Internet camera, has a new wrinkle it calls Look and Buy. The system is geared toward companies that want to put live photos of remote locations on their Web sites. The idea is to give people a sense of being in the store. Each mouse click brings a new shot, some with a different angle or zoom.
The flagship user of the system is Houston superstore Gallery Furniture (www.galleryfurniture.com). The only problem is that in terms of enticing people to buy, providing fuzzy photos of leather chairs in a 35,000-square-foot showroom doesn’t seem to offer much. But as e-commerce expert Donna Hoffman recently told Reuters, “It’s not clear whether it’s going to make somebody buy something today,” but “it begins to give you a glimpse of the future.”
Yup. Right now it’s mostly atmospherics.
Perceptual Robotics has cameras around the globe, from Buenos Aires to Jerusalem. To check them out, go to the company’s Web site (www.perceptualrobotics.com).
NEVER RUN OUT My Basics.com (www.mybasics.com) sells over 7,000 brands of health and beauty basics, from toothpaste to cosmetics to vitamins. Its unique proposition is that, in addition to allowing consumers to buy things the typical one-order-at-a-time way, they can sign up to have refills sent periodically (monthly, bimonthly, whatever). So they never have to worry about those frequently depleted items like soap and diapers. MyBasics.com sends out an e-mail one week before the scheduled shipment for the consumer to confirm or revise it. At MyBasics.com, shipping is free for first-time buyers and for orders of $50 or more. The site’s tag line is “Never Run Out.”
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