OTTAWA, November 24 /PRNewswire/ --

- World Leader in Online Customer Service to Change the Face of Online 
Shopping Through Interactive Video

E-commerce has brought us a world of products on demand, but 
traditionally, the experience has been closer to shopping from a catalogue 
than a retail store. Zappos.com, a leader in online apparel and footwear 
sales and the undisputed heavyweight champions of customer service, has 
partnered with interactive video firm Overlay.TV to bring its catalogue of 
products to life through video and to radically transform the way customers 
interact with the online store.

Following the launch of Overlay.TV for Retail earlier this summer, the 
new Zappos.com has taken the next step from image to video-based product 
descriptions. The clickable videos are fully integrated with the site's 
e-commerce back-end and dynamically reflect inventory events such as 
out-of-stock and discontinued items as well as promotions and special 
offerings. The solution enables viewers to shop directly from videos that can 
be shared across the web on blogs and social network profiles.

"The ability to see a product in action, to click on it for more 
information, to share it on Facebook, and add it to your cart without even 
leaving the page is a major change for this industry," says Rob Lane, CEO 
and Co-Founder of Overlay.TV. "Our approach is 100% about improving the 
customer experience, and giving them the tools to share that experience with 
their networks, which makes what we're doing a perfect fit for Zappos."

Zappos.com is rolling out its Overlay.TV for Retail deployment in two 
phases, initially enabling "Engagement Pages" with specific brands like Nike, 
before implementing the technology on all product pages. As part of this 
phase, users will be able to access premium content provided by Zappos.com 
and its partner brands and record video testimonials and product reviews to 
enhance the site's community recommendations.

"User reviews are extremely powerful, and putting a face to those 
reviews makes them even more valuable to the consumer," says Lane. "It's the 
difference in credibility between a recommendation given to you by a friend 
and one scrawled on the bathroom wall."

For Zappos.com, an important part of the Overlay.TV for Retail offering 
is its scalability.

"Overlay.TV for Retail made a lot of sense to us," says Brian Kalma, 
Director of User Experience & Web Strategy for Zappos.com. "It enables us to 
stay focused on content, experience an overall better service, without the 
need to invest heavily in video production and delivery, or go through huge 
efforts to modify our media every time we want to offer our customers a 
better promotion. The brand pages are also exciting, as they bring our user 
community closer and more intimate with our partners."

The interactive video-enabled store can be found on the Zappos.com site 
at http://www.zappos.com/nike.

About Overlay.TV

Overlay.TV is an interactive media company that provides a video 
commerce platform that enables brands, online retailers and content owners to 
monetize and customize their video through interactive widgets and tools that 
allow everything from hyperlinks to video-in-video mashups. Overlay.TV is a 
private company headquartered in Ottawa, Canada with sales and support 
offices in the US and UK. For more information, please visit 
http://www.overlay.tv.

About Zappos.com

Established in 1999, Zappos.com has quickly become a leader in online 
apparel and footwear sales by striving to provide shoppers with the best 
possible service and selection. Zappos.com currently stocks millions of 
products from over 1000 clothing and shoe brands. Zappos.com was recognized 
in 2009 by FORTUNE MAGAZINE as one of the "100 BEST COMPANIES TO WORK FOR", 
debuting as the highest-ranking newcomer to FORTUNE's 2009 list. More 
information about the company's customer service philosophy, unique company 
culture, and job openings can be found at http://about.zappos.com. To get a 
glimpse behind the scenes at Zappos, please visit http://blogs.zappos.com. 
More information about the "Zappos Insights" business membership program can 
be found at http://www.zapposinsights.com.

Links

Overlay.TV website: http://www.overlay.tv

Zappos.com - http://www.zappos.com

Zappos.com Nike Brand Experience Page - http://www.zappos.com/nike

White Paper: Value Beyond Video - How Interactive Video is Changing

Online Retail - http://www.overlay.tv/pdf/overlaytv_retail.pdf

Overlay.TV on Twitter - http://www.twitter.com/overlaytv

For further information: Ryan Anderson, Overlay.TV, +1-613-266-9041, 
ryan.anderson@overlay.tv