15 Nov 2003 | alan taylor said...

Yeah - I saw some of these last week, and was equally intrigued - the company that does the Flash interface is Rich FX, looks like they scan, map, link and host the whole catalog for a number of companies - like Pier 1, Spiegel and more.

16 Nov 2003 | drew said...

check out catalogs.google.com. i'm actually seeing an html/javascript interface on patagonia/richfx's site, but i have flash click-to-play installed, so maybe that's affecting it.

16 Nov 2003 | Chris from Scottsdale said...

I saw something similar on Target's web site a year or so ago. Basically it was the weekly circular ads online and you could click on things to go see them within the store.

16 Nov 2003 | Chris said...

IKEA did this last year. I thought it was cool.

16 Nov 2003 | Thumper said...

Flash? I don't see any Flash used. Could be wrong, but it looks like HTML/images/JavaScript to me.

Anyway, Eziba.com also does this very well.

16 Nov 2003 | Dr_God (fka Tibloto) said...

Patagonia is taking what should be a really cool feature and rendering it useless by making it so small. The text is completely unreadable, so how are you supposed to know what you're looking at? To be useful, it should be life-size. Menards suffers from the same problem.

16 Nov 2003 | Dr_God (fka Tibloto) said...

Disregard my last post. I just found the "Close-Up View" button. ;)

16 Nov 2003 | pr said...

I don't like it.

16 Nov 2003 | Scrivs said...

It could be enhanced if they removed the dropdown for page selection and simply had a list underneath the catalog like 1-2 | 3-4 | 4-5 | 6-7...that's one less click and I think you could get through the catalog faster. Very cool though.

16 Nov 2003 | Brad Hurley said...

I was very happy when Patagonia brought out this feature a few months ago because even though their Web site works fine for browsing and shopping, I've always been a big fan of their catalogue. I can't seem to stay on their mailing list anymore (especially since moving to Canada), so having the catalogue online is great for me. And in browsing it I discovered a few items I missed in the site.

Patagonia has always had one of the best catalogues in the retail business. Beautifully laid out, great photos, intelligent and creative copy. For that reason alone, having the catalogue online is a good idea. I still miss having the hard-copy version in my bathroom reading bin, but I suppose this is the next-best thing.

17 Nov 2003 | bill said...

there are a few company's specializing in the scanning of catalogs to the web. RichFX and DS Technologies(www.dailyshopper.com) are the two big ones. RichFX does Eddie Bauer and DS does Best Buy, Radio Shack, and a bunch of others.

It is a relatively cheap proposition, with prices between $30-$60/page.

17 Nov 2003 | dale said...

I find it odd that so many people like this. Outside of being kind of neat, I can't get over the fact that it seems like an easy way out on behalf of the developers to show products. I find it a little awkward to use - having to click in and click out to get product data. Why not create a link on the home page that would show all the items in this months catalog?

17 Nov 2003 | Brad Hurley said...

Check out their site: you'll see that they have two versions of their catalogue online: a "traditional" Web version (designed for the Web) and this new online facsimile of their catalogue (designed for print).

If they only had the facsimile of the print catalogue, you're right, that would be an easy way out. But they offer both. For people who are familar with their print catalogue, or for people who just haven't adjusted to the Web version of browsing a product line, the facsimile of the print catalogue is a nice alternative.

17 Nov 2003 | Brad Hurley said...

What I mean by "check out their site" is go to www.patagonia.com and you'll see how this "print catalogue" version fits into the main site.

17 Nov 2003 | Joshua Kaufman said...

Yes it is kind of neat, but it has very limited utility for me. All it does is duplicate their print catalog in a less usable form. If they wanted to link the print catalog to the Web, I think a better way would be to provide a form that allows the user to input the page and a few words of the item name.

What I'm wondering is why they decided to do it. Did the users ask for it or was it something that some designer said, "Hey! Wouldn't it be cool if we had a the print version of our catalog online?" I'm guessing it was the later.

18 Nov 2003 | Scott M. said...

Actually, bill, CrossMedia Services is bigger than both RichFX and DST and the current leader in the Online Circulars/Catalogs space.

Oh and Chris from Scottsdale, CMS is the company that does Target's online circular, ClubWedd catalog and Lullaby Club catalog.