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.
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!
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:
-
With a design center on your website you can:
-
Boost Consumer Engagement
-
Increase Product Awareness
-
Offer Educational Resources to Your Consumers
-
Embed and Market a Virtual Designer
-
Repurpose Great Blog Content
-
Develop a Deeper Relationship with Your Consumers
-
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:
-
Why Do Consumers Want to Engage with Brands
-
Where do customers seek valuable content
-
What kind of content should I create
-
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.
-
New Tile Patterns
-
“One Click Away” Product Detail View
-
Product Detail e-commerce Purchase Link
-
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 days away from showing off our virtual designer at the Coverings show in Atlanta!
With the Varatys Virtual Designer, your shoppers can upload a photo of their home, prepare it, and immediately start applying your products for an instant home makeover. It also has a wide variety of tile patterns; perfect for our tile clients!
Shoppers can apply tile patterns to room scenes using floor tile, wall tile, and even mosaic tile. Adding a tile pattern gives a room interest and character, making it unique to the shopper. We’ve made it so easy that it just takes two simple steps!
Applying patterns is done in two simple steps:
1) First, shoppers can choose their desired tile in the “Select a Product” tab
2) Second, they click on the “Product Options” tab to scroll through and choose a pattern and grout color. (The tile sizes are listed in the tile pattern thumbnail.)
Tile patterns are just one of many tools we offer in the Varatys Virtual Designer to help assist you in closing the deal. Check out all the great features that we offer below! Click on an icon to learn more.
Embedding the Varatys Virtual Designer brings an added level of engagement to your website. It helps bridge the gap between their design dreams and your product. You can take your company’s product line from “that might be nice” to “that is going to look amazing in my kitchen”.
Let us know if you are going to be at Coverings! Contact our team to schedule a personal tour of the Varatys Virtual Designer.
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.
-
No Membership: This is the only option available in our silver package.
-
Simple: This option uses a browser cookie to allow a user to save photos.
-
Login: This option uses the Varatys user database.
-
Share Key: This option is designed to be used with an external user database. This is ideal for clients who have their own user registration/log in process.
In our eBook you will learn more about each option and how to convert registration in your Varatys Virtual Designer. Download our eBook to learn more!
Develop your own design center!
Home décor style blogs are all the rage these days. From Apartment Therapy to Style Me Pretty Living; consumers are looking for home inspiration across the web. They are pinning their favorite images, developing new inspiring home ideas, and seeking resources to help them make their home décor style dreams come true.
Embrace the trend and bring a design center to your website! Your website can become a one-stop-shop for all your consumer’s needs.
With a design center on your website you can:
-
Boost Consumer Engagement
-
Increase Product Awareness
-
Offer Educational Resources to Your Consumers
-
Embed and Market a Virtual Designer
-
Repurpose Great Blog Content
-
Develop a Deeper Relationship with Your Consumers
-
And So Much More!
Download our eBook to find out how you can create your own design center in five steps!
