Survey shows web marketers investing in new online capabilities

Scene7, part of Adobe Systems has released the results of a business survey it conducted to identify and analyse what online businesses plan to do in the next year to enhance their customer experience. Findings showed that more than 50 percent plan to deploy new features and rich Internet enhancements - including enhanced imagery, personalization and user-generated content - to their sites within the next six months and 93 percent say they will deploy these within the year. According to the survey, the greatest growth areas for planned features are mobile commerce, URL/widget sharing, personalised messaging and user ratings.

"With online commerce growth rates predicted to decline, companies that continue investing to differentiate themselves and deliver compelling user experiences can gain market share over their competition," said Doug Mack, vice president of consumer and hosted solutions at Adobe. "Rich and innovative applications enable businesses to further engage customers with more personal and compelling online experiences, which can ultimately increase conversions and revenues."

Scene7's quantitative survey received 347 respondents from retailers, manufacturers, agencies and high-tech companies worldwide that sell a wide variety of products and services online. While increased clicks/usage, and conversions were reported as the leading metrics for evaluating new functionality, qualitative feedback and increased revenue are important indicators of effectiveness.

Respondents indicated that one of the most highly-effective features to online businesses is 360-degree spin, which the survey found to be not yet widely deployed. Subsequently, nearly 30 percent of respondents plan to add 360-degree spin functionality to their sites in 2008.

Other top-ranking features and functionalities identified by respondents include: alternate views, user ratings, videos, blogs, product tours, online catalogs, personalized messaging, quick looks and personalised stores. One-third of the respondents said they incorporated zoom and alternate view functionality in their sites and ranked these features more effective than others tested by a 10 to 30 percent margin. Twenty-five percent of the respondents said they have deployed the following features and functionalities, which they ranked as equally effective: microsites, videos, online catalogs, personalized stores, blogs, color swatching, quick looks, RSS and product tours.