One year ago this month we launched our Varatys website and brand.
It has been a fabulous year filled with advancements to our virtual designer, our brand new “Use Your Own Photo” feature, the introduction of tile patterns, our attendance at Coverings, Surfaces, and the International Builders Show, and so much more!
Take a look at our year in review to see highlights of what we've accomplished:
We have a lot of exciting projects and virtual designer updates brewing for the next twelve months! Be sure to subscribe to our blog and emails to keep up to date on all of our happenings.
Check out all the great features that we offer in our Varatys Virtual Designer to assist you in closing the deal below! Click on an icon to learn more.
Every year eclectic antique loving people flock to Brimfield, MA to hunt and peck through thousands of hidden gems to find the perfect takeaway. The Brimfield Antique Show is the biggest outdoor antique market located in Brimfield, Massachusetts. It takes place three times a year; this year’s dates are May 14th-19th, July 9th-14th, and September 3rd-8th. Visitors come from all over the world to find hidden gems and hard sought after antiques.
For the past four years every May, Benjamin Moore & Co. brings together the design community to network, share ideas, and get inspired. This year Benjamin Moore collaborated with Rue La La and Robert Allen and it was an epic success. The room was filled with designers, bloggers, and even a few authors. I had the pleasure of meeting Joanne Palmisano; she is the amazing woman behind the book “Salvage Secrets”. If you haven’t caught her on the DIY station you need to check out her book!
Benjamin Moore & Co. in collaboration with Colonial Williamsburg has created a brand new color palette that is beautiful, historic, and totally modern. The Williamsburg collection is derived from 18th century colonial America.
“Williamsburg was the thriving capital of Virginia when the dream of American freedom and independence was taking shape and the colony was a rich and powerful land stretching west to the Mississippi River and north to the Great Lakes.” (Colonial Williamsburg Website) Today Colonial Williamsburg is a private, not-for-profit, educational living museum that opens its doors to all ages. Since 1932, over 100 million visitors have visited including: Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton.
“"It has been very exciting to work with Benjamin Moore developing a paint palette based on historic precedent," said Matthew Webster, Director of the Grainger Department of Historic Architectural Resources for The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. "Together we developed the colors using almost 90 years of paint research and an understanding of historic production methods creating a palette that embodies the WILLIAMSBURG 'trend meets tradition' theme. It's personally satisfying to see research become reality with a palette that is consistent with colors that would have been found in the 18th century."” (Benjamin Moore & Co. Press Release)
The new Williamsburg collection is now available in Benjamin Moore's Aura, Regal Select, Advance and Grand Entrance paints, as well as samples. Click here to check out the Williamsburg Collection from Benjamin Moore.
Take a look at our photos from our afternoon at Brimfield and if you are in the area there is still time to stop by and treasure hunt!
We are excited to announce a new attribute in the Varatys Virtual Designer: Auto Return to Previous Design Screen. Now your virtual designer users will have no fear if they close out of your virtual designer before saving all their hard work.
One of our main goals at Varatys is to make the user experience as enjoyable and intuitive as possible giving your virtual designer consumers a positive brand experience. We've all been there when you've spent dedication and time on a project and accidentally closed your document/browser/file and had to re-do all of your work. Eliminating a little bit of this sting will make your virtual designer users happier...and don't we all want happy consumers!?
If your virtual designer users close out of your virtual designer completely (whether by accident or not) and return to your virtual designer; they are immediately redirected to their last project. If this happens in a matter of minutes/hours it occurs without a prompt; but if days go by your users will be asked if they want to return to their last design.
In addition, we also have the Auto Save Selection. Your virtual designer users will get prompted by a dialog box if they want to save their work before moving onto a new photo.
Try one of our virtual designers!
Share any impressions or comments about this new attribute and let us know if you have any suggestions for new features!
We understand how important branding is in today’s competitive marketplace; that is why we have created a diverse selection of branding outlets in our virtual designer.
Branding is more than a logo; it is an expression of your business, your identity, and personality. “A brand is a kind of promise. It is a set of fundamental principles as understood by anyone who comes into contact with a company. A brand is an organization's reason for being and how that reason is expressed through its various communications media to its key audiences, including customers, shareholders, employees and analysts. A brand can also describe these same attributes for a company's products, services, and initiatives.” (The Importance of Branding Your New Business: The New York Times)
In the Varatys Virtual Designer, branding goes beyond a logo; you can customize your landing page image, promote featured products, add custom eCommerce links, give store location information, add your own products, incorporate social media accounts to gain the ever important social media buzz, and yes, even add a logo! You can add as much or as little personality and customization that you want. The more interaction you have with your consumer the more they are going to identify with your brand/company. Take a look at the breakdown of each item below:
Landing Page Image:
Grab your consumer’s attention from the start! You can customize your landing page image or video to best represent the message you want to convey.
Featured Products:
You can feature a handful of your company’s products on the landing page. By having featured products, you can direct your consumers to product lines that are seasonal, lines that you are trying to push, and/or the most popular products you offer.
eCommerce Links:
You can supply buy links on the Product Detail page. When clicked, a pop-up browser will appear to your website, allowing your users to purchase samples on your website.
Store Locations:
You can add store locations to your virtual designer.
Add Your Own Products:
Companies can import their entire product catalog so that the user has a full view of all of their product offerings. They can customize it by their own categories and subcategories.
Social Media:
If you are already participating in social media outlets, you are probably hard at work trying to gain a bigger online audience. Having the Varatys Virtual Designer embedded on your website will allow your customers to create a digital buzz for you by sharing their projects and your products from our visualizer page on Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest.
Company Logo:
We make it easy to add your company logo to your virtual designer. If you have your virtual designer set up as a pop-up; adding a logo will continue your consistent branding message while your consumers are outside of your website designing a photo with your products.
Try out one of our demos and/or schedule a personal tour of the Varatys Virtual Designer!
Do you love the idea of adding a virtual designer to your website but are looking for a completely personalized experience? You can create a custom visualization application with the Varatys Rendering Engine Suite.
In our eBook you will learn:
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What Exactly is Rendering
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What is Included in Our Package
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Features & Benefits of Our Suite
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Examples of What You Can Do
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The Creative Companies Behind the Companies
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And so much more!
Creative teams can create custom visualization applications that use our Rendering Engine Suite behind the scenes to showcase products in realistic settings. You will have the ultimate power to create your own tool by controlling the development process and creating a custom user interface.
In our free eBook we will tell you how you can apply our technology to your creative conceptions. Download it today!
The Varatys Virtual Designer had 23,000+ total user sessions that clocked an average of 10 minutes that was spent engaging in our client’s products. Over 250 Tweets, Facebook Shares, and Pinterest Pins were created spreading a social buzz! Pinterest is by far the most used social feature on the Varatys Virtual Designer. Our clients had over 1,100 projects saved and 350+ projects emailed by their users.
With the Varatys Virtual Designer, your shoppers will have access our most advanced designer tool. They can remodel their homes inside and out. With our eCommerce and Direct Linking options your shoppers can link from your website to your virtual designer and/or from inside your virtual designer to your website. They can see products listed on your website instantaneously in a room scene and/or they can purchase samples from inside your virtual designer. You’ll give them everything they need so they won’t have to look elsewhere to find inspiration and a great product.
We offer an ever growing set of tools for you and your shoppers. Our newest addition is “Use Your Own Photo”. Your shoppers can upload/prepare their own photos and apply your products. If your shoppers are on an iPad/tablet, they can take a photo while in your virtual designer and use it immediately. We give your shoppers instant gratification. What could be better than that?!
To find out more about the Varatys Virtual Designer, the analytic reports that we provide, and/or to schedule a personal tour contact our team!
We are looking for YOUR feedback to help make the Varatys Virtual Designer multilingual. Please help us target languages that would directly impact your audience by answering a few questions.
We hope that making the Varatys Virtual Designer multilingual will assist companies that might have an international presence. We are always looking to improve and update our virtual designer to the ever changing marketplace. Your needs are important to us!
We’re currently working on a new Varatys eBook set to launch later this week. In the meantime, check out some of our other free eBooks!
Tour the Varatys Virtual Designer
Take a tour of our Virtual Designer! Download our new eBook and we’ll walk you through the ins and outs of what the Varatys Virtual Designer will bring to your company.
You’ll learn about our virtual designer key features, what packages we offer, and our clients. It’s a one stop shop to learn everything you’ll need to know about the Varatys Virtual Designer.
Download Tour the Varatys Virtual Designer >>
"Use Your Own Photo" Package Upgrade
Upgrading to our new “Use Your Own Photo” Platinum package is easy, it requires no extra work and comes with an amazing set of new tools to increase your company’s product engagement.
Download Use Your Own Photo Upgrade >>
Virtual Designer User Registration Options
We are excited to announce four user registration options for the Varatys Virtual Designer!
Having the right registration option selected is essential. If you select No Membership; your users won’t be able to save vs. if you have the Login option then they can save on multiple devices. Depending on which user registration option you have affects your users directly.
Download User Registration Options >>
How to Develop Your Own Design Center
You will learn:
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With a design center on your website you can:
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Boost Consumer Engagement
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Increase Product Awareness
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Offer Educational Resources to Your Consumers
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Embed and Market a Virtual Designer
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Repurpose Great Blog Content
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Develop a Deeper Relationship with Your Consumers
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And So Much More!
Download How to Develop Your Own Design Center >>
Why Do Consumers Want to Engage with Brands
In our eBook you will learn:
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Why Do Consumers Want to Engage with Brands
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Where do customers seek valuable content
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What kind of content should I create
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Five last thoughts on content marketing
Download Why Do Consumers Want to Engage with Brands >>
Designing a Whole New Web Experience
“We’ve become a society that depends on technology to run, market, and drive our business. Gone are the days when all you needed was a storefront, a product line, and a business card. Today’s consumers are flocking to the web before they ever step foot inside a store.”
To find out more on how the face of technology is changing, download our free eBook, “Designing a whole new web experience” today!
Download Designing a Whole New Web Experience >>
Socializing Your Business
An estimated 498 million people use Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, YouTube, and LinkedIn every month. Is your company doing everything it can to reach this potential audience?
Download Socializing Your Business >>
Exciting Updates to the Varatys Virtual Designer
We are excited to announce that we have made substantial updates to our virtual designer.
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New Tile Patterns
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“One Click Away” Product Detail View
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Product Detail e-commerce Purchase Link
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New Products: Siding, Masonry, and Roofing
Download Varatys Virtual Designer Updates >>
Analyzing Analytics for Amazing Possibilities
Don’t let analytics scare you away from utilizing essential tools that help your improve your market effectiveness. This eBook highlights the basic principles of analytics. Once finished, you can use immediately to start making better business decisions.
Download Analyzing Analytics >>
Surpassing Customer Expectations
One of the most important aspects to developing your retail stores is increasing the level of customer service provided to your shoppers. Customer service is what sets apart a “one time shopper” from a “loyal customer”.
Download Surpassing Customer Expectations >>
Is Your Business Mobile or Stagnant?
There are over 327 million mobile phone users and an estimated 70 million mobile tablet users in the United States. According to the US Census the US population is over 314 million, which means that 104% of the US population is using a mobile device.
Download Is Your Business Mobile or Stagnant? >>
Implementing the Varatys Virtual Designer on your website
Our virtual designer clients are creative in their implementation of the Varatys Virtual Designer on their websites. We give you two options of how to incorporate your virtual designer.
Download Implementing the Varatys Virtual Designer on your website >>
We had a fabulous time at Coverings in Atlanta, Georgia. The tile and stone industry has some very exciting trends and innovations emerging. We were thrilled with the response that the Varatys Virtual Designer received. We can’t wait until Coverings 2014!
Check out some of our photos:
We’re all about tile and stone because we are attending the Coverings show in Atlanta, GA today and tomorrow. Coverings is the ultimate tile and stone experience; with that in mind we wanted to explore a few amazing backsplash tile and stone applications.
Why we love it:
The gray marble brings a little bit of Tuscany into your kitchen.
Why we love it:
This colorful backsplash adds a thunderbolt of energy to this kitchen.
Why we love it:
The neutral color mixed with a classic herringbone pattern is the perfect match for any modern kitchen.
Why we love it:
The exposed brick backsplash creates a warm and rustic look to any country kitchen.
Why we love it:
Rustic and warm, this stone backsplash is the perfect accent.
Why we love it:
This pebble backsplash brings a touch of nature into your home while adding an incredible texture to your kitchen.
Why we love it:
The neutral tones are the perfect backdrop to any decor.
Why we love it:
It is reminiscent of the beautiful tile work found in the Middle East. Its light blue color is the perfect backdrop to keep it modern and fresh.
Adding a backsplash is a quick and easy way to update a space. They add that extra oomph to any kitchen, bathroom, bar, etc… With the Varatys Virtual Designer your shoppers can customize a backsplash with your products. They have the ability to fully interact with your catalog on multiple levels. Your shoppers can view your product families, scroll through each item and customize a scene applying our rendering technology. We offer a wide range of features and options. You can dazzle your shoppers with social media integration, use your own photo capability, tile patterns, eCommerce links, and so much more!
For more information tour our virtual designer or contact our team to set up a personal demo.