June 20, 2020
Rich media can dramatically improve ecommerce outcomes. Spinning 360 degree images solve a variety of pain points and drive sales for most product suppliers, running the gamut from manufacturing equipment and electrical parts to frozen foods and athletic clothing. 360 degree photography has proven its value time again, enabling a major footwear brand to streamline in-house content production and revolutionizing how power tools are sold online.
During the uncertain times of the Covid-19 outbreak ahead, the ecommerce landscape will grow even more competitive as customers transition to increased shopping online. Adding 360 degree product photography requires small investment, and you can expect to see all kinds of benefits, including higher conversions, fewer product returns, and quicker turnaround times.
Read on to learn how eight 1WorldSync customers leveraged 360 degree imagery to improve their customer experience, boost conversion rates, and reduce production costs
PUMA is a household name, and speed is a major part of its brand image. When it came to product content production, however, PUMA felt they were moving too slowly. The footwear and athletic brand previously relied on outsourced professional photography, which involved high costs and lengthy turnaround times. PUMA needed a product photography partner who could speed up the time to market, reduce content expenses, and increase sales.
1WorldSync teamed up with PUMA to bring its fully automated and efficient photography systems to the footwear giant’s in-house studio. PUMA was quickly able to produce a high volume of images for each product SKU and develop photo collateral for their internal sales teams. “Increasing our throughput and moving from two-week to same-day turnaround times means our sales team can do their jobs more effectively,” said Michael Cicerone, PUMA’s manager of wholesale operations .
Now, PUMA can move fast to leverage its high-quality product assets in new and existing ecommerce channels. Interactive images make PUMA’s digital brand presence and customer experience consistent across platforms.
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Increasing our throughput and moving from two-week to same-day turnaround times means our sales team can do their jobs more effectively.
Michael Cicerone, PUMA’s Manager of Wholesale Operations
Before Allied Electronics started working with 1WorldSync, it primarily sourced product imagery from suppliers. Allied’s team felt the images lacked quality and consistency, and they didn’t have the bandwidth to produce better content in-house.
Poor quality images bring down customer trust, too. Many of Allied’s customers are Maintenance and Repair Operators (MRO). An MRO needs to look at a product from every angle to determine whether it’s a suitable replacement for a broken machine.
The electrical parts brand needed trustworthy, high-quality product visuals. Allied knew 360 degree images were the right solution. “From the customer perspective, we want to gain their trust and confidence,” said Stacey Ostermann, Director of Digital Product Content. “On top of being flat-out sexy, 360° imagery gives an engineer the ability to see the product details which is critically important. It’s definitely proving to be a differentiating factor in somebody buying from us over somebody else.”
1WorldSync and Allied worked together to produce an initial 10,000 rotating images for its website. Allied has since purchased 1WorldSync’s equipment to build its own in-house studio and now has over 32,000 products spinning on its website. This digital transformation has made Allied an innovative first mover in its space.
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From the customer perspective, we want to gain their trust and confidence. On top of being flat-out sexy, 360° imagery gives an engineer the ability to see the product details which is critically important. It’s definitely proving to be a differentiating factor in somebody buying from us over somebody else.
Stacey Ostermann, Allied’s Director of Digital Product Content
Ajinomoto Foods North America is a fast-growing international frozen foods company that has recently gone through several mergers and acquisitions. The company needed a centralized location to host all of the data required for synchronization with trading partners. It wanted to do that through a cost-effective visual platform.
Ajinomoto worked with 1WorldSync, a product content solution provider, to produce 360 degree spin imagery and metadata. This partnership facilitated sharing files with online and distributor product catalogs as well as manufacturer websites.
Beyond the organizational ease and cost savings that 360 degree imagery provided Ajinomoto, having rich media to deploy in multiple channels online helped the company build brand loyalty and differentiate its customer experience.
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Klein Tools noticed that its customers were starting to shop for manufacturing products online, often while they were standing on construction job sites with a smartphone in hand. In order to beef up its ecommerce offerings and enhance the online and mobile customer experience, the company turned to interactive 360 degree photography.
Though Klein Tools doesn’t have its own ecommerce site, the supplier has been able to create an interactive online product catalog to share with retailers like The Home Depot and Grainger that are optimized for the mobile customer experience. 1WorldSync helped Klein Tools photograph all new products quickly and efficiently for immediate deployment on retailers’ sites, bolstering its sales across retailers.
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In the automotive supplies industry, labels are important.
Before Gold Eagle added 360 product photography, customers weren’t able to inspect the labels of car protectant sprays online. They were hesitating before buying because they weren’t sure if they’d found the right product. When Gold Eagle started receiving reviews from shoppers asking for this information, the company knew it needed to find a solution that would give customers the confidence to convert.
To test the impact of 360 product photography, Gold Eagle partnered with 1WorldSync to produce spinning images for Amazon listings. Salisia Weber, Gold Eagle’s Ecommerce Manager, noticed that no other automotive suppliers had 360 imagery on Amazon, and knew that this move would make its products stand out from the competition on Amazon.
“Having our products spinning on Amazon provides a 360-degree view for customers that enhances the overall experience,” Weber said.” We want customers to feel like they are in a store where they can pick up the bottles and read the front and back labels.
Now, Gold Eagle has 360 degree images for its products on several major retailer sites in addition to Amazon, including Home Depot, Lowe’s, and Walmart. This was easy to do thanks to 1WorldSync’s careful file naming and adherence to retailer-specific photography requirements.
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Having our products spinning on Amazon provides a 360-degree view for customers that enhances the overall experience. We want customers to feel like they are in a store where they can pick up the bottles and read the front and back labels.
Salisia Weber, Gold Eagle’s Ecommerce Manager
Before TPI Corporation partnered with 1WorldSync, its customers had trouble finding the right products to meet their needs. Even though TPI Corp provided specs and static images for its products, which range from ventilation units to industrial lighting and ovens, that product information wasn’t sufficient in building customer confidence. Product returns were all too common.
TPI Corp was handling its photography in-house, but it was struggling to produce high-resolution imagery and multi-angle shots. The ability to rotate an image and zoom in on any angle is key for customers who evaluate a TPI product because they need to understand how the parts will fit in during installation.
1WorldSync helped TPI Corp create digital assets that give customers a comprehensive view of its products, which dramatically drove up conversion rates on Grainger.com.
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Reelcraft is an industrial B2B company that wanted to transform its ecommerce strategy to meet increasing customer demands. Prior to working with 1WorldSync, Reelcraft shot its product photography in-house and produced only single-angle images. The brand knew this minimal product information wouldn’t cut it for visual-hungry customers.
After partnering with 1WorldSync to build 360 degree content for ecommerce channels, Reelcraft was certain it would be able to dial up its product content strategy.
With new digital assets, Reelcraft equipped its sales and customer service teams to guide prospective customers through the buying decision process. When a customer calls and inquires about a product, customer reps point to parts of the image online to help answer questions and solve problems. As Reelcraft’s marketing manager Jennifer Braun said, “360-degree photography gives the customer a comprehensive view of the product. The next best thing is having the physical product in your hands.”
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360-degree photography gives the customer a comprehensive view of the product. The next best thing is having the physical product in your hands.
Jennifer Braun, Reelcraft’s Marketing Manager
The packaging industry faced a push to expand inventory, and Packaging Options Direct (POD), the ecommerce division of global packaging solutions leader Tricor Braun, knew it needed to step up its offerings. One thing stood in the way of that expansion: it was hard to get high-quality visuals for a rapid increase of product listings. POD’s photography vendor at the time wasn’t efficient enough.
POD turned to 1WorldSync to help the company launch its digital content initiative, POD360. 1WorldSync helped the packaging supplier generate 360 degree content that could be used as sales collateral, as interactive product content proved to be more effective in garnering B2B customer interest than traditional sales methods.
“Some of the packaging solutions we offer have presented some unique challenges in how to show and visualize the product,” said Brian Bettcher, VP of TricorBraun’s ecommerce department. “The team at 1WorldSync took those head on and came up with some really innovative solutions.”
Right after POD’s new platform went live, the company started seeing considerable growth in website traffic and sales. The total effect was a boost in top-line revenue.
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Some of the packaging solutions we offer have presented some unique challenges in how to show and visualize the product. The team at 1WorldSync took those head on and came up with some really innovative solutions.”
Brian Bettcher, VP of TricorBraun’s ecommerce department
Professional 360 degree photography isn’t a one-size-fits-all process. To be successful, it must be tailored to a brand’s specific needs. Every industry has different products and different pain points, but they all want the same thing for their ecommerce visuals: quality, cost-efficiency and consistency.
1WorldSync’s team brings creativity and innovation to each solution. The company’s unique ability to customize services enable brands in any industry to turn lackluster images and costly processes into streamlined production that drives better business.