Service adds 360-degree images to e-commerce sites
Intuitively, every small business selling products on the Web knows that including great images is crucial for boosting e-commerce sales. But very few have the on-staff expertise to optimize digital photography, and it can be cost-prohibitive to hire an outside resource.
Enter RotaryView, a service that turns photos into 360-degree images that can be embedded into Web sites. (The video below provides an example).
The company has been developing this technology for more than 15 years but only recently began offering its services in a pricing model intended for small and midsize businesses (SMBs). There's even a mobile application for both Android and Apple iOS that lets them create 360-degree images in under 40 seconds.
"With RotaryView, you don't need professional equipment; we make it affordable and simple," said Gev Rotem, CEO and co-founder of the company, which hails from Israel. "We've even built up a community of 360-degree images populated by photographers, retailers, resellers and big-name brands – all around the idea of sharing 360-degree photography to help everyone sell more products."
Aside from working with companies to turn their unique products into relevant images, RotaryView launched in August a free online marketplace and database containing thousands of images. The company encourages well-known consumer companies to add their products, so that their online retailers can share them on their sites.
RotaryView's prosumer offering enables individuals to create their own images. Its paid plans start at $9 per month, including the ability to display an unlimited number of RotaryViews on your site without the company's ads vying for visibility.
Eyewear-Direct, an online site where you can purchase prescription eyeglasses, uses the platform to manage and update its images – it has been a customer for about 18 months.
The retailer's previous strategy was-time consuming (it could take up to 14 days for processing) and expensive ($10 to $15 per processed photo), said Eyewear-Direct CEO Oren Dar.
"RotaryView lets us be far more efficient," he said.
The retailer updates its catalog seasonally. For each product, its takes 24 individual images from different angles. Then, it uploads the images to the RotaryView service, where it takes about five minutes to create to create the RotaryView movie.
Right now, Eyewear-Direct has more than 1,000 items in its inventory that it is managing with service.