Internet has made business easier to start than in
traditional brick and mortar settings. Every day, new
online sellers are jumping into the market. In order to
survive in this fierce competition, online retailers have
been striving for making shopping at their sites
functional as well as entertaining by providing
shoppers with accurate information about their
products while making shopping fun.
Online product visualization technologies have come
far advanced compared to the beginning of the 21st
century. With help of wide spread high-speed Internet
connection at work and home, product virtualization
technologies (i.e., interactive product simulator), have
become widely available in online retail environments.
In order to provide shoppers with close-to-direct
product experience, online retailers have applied
interactive product simulators (i.e., virtual 3D product
imagery enhanced with object interactivity) in their
shopping sites. Using an interactive product simulator,
online shoppers can rotate the 3D virtual product from
360 degree angles, zoom in on product features, and
examine the product inside and outside. The product
simulators also allow shoppers try some basic
functions of the product as if it’s right in front of them.
Thus, shoppers can get more accurate product
information from simulated product experiences than
the information obtained from static image with
standard descriptors. In addition to the functionality,
the interactivity and customer involvement provided
by the interactive product virtualization technologies
(i.e., interactive product simulator) can enhance the
entertainment value of the online shopping experience.
Online shoppers would find such type of technology