Clavardon, from the French for "to chat," is the latest from Canadian-based
company Sosign. The product, launched in late 2007, is a tool for co-browsing
of e-commerce web sites, which means it's essentially another way to do social
shopping. However, unlike some other social shopping services, Clavardon is a tool
that adds a layer to any existing web site to provide the co-browsing
functionality. The solution offers some unique features that provide real-time
interaction between its users. Shoppers can co-browse with each other or with the
web site's sales manager in the virtual store.
In this way, Clavardon is more like a live support solution, but one that offers more functionality than most. The tool offers the ability for users to co-browse and chat with each other, but it also offers things like co-scrolling, where user's can control each other's interaction on a page, co-highlighting, where one user could highlight a section of the page for the others to see, and joint form filling, where different users can input information into the same form.
This type of interaction could be useful for those who want to shop together, but it seems like it may be even more useful to promote interaction between site owners and visitors. In this way, the service is not only beneficial to general consumers who want to shop with their friends, but it could also be utilized in a business environment.
It's easy to imagine site owners using the tool to provide instructional tours or training to their new customers on how to use their web site. For example, an office supply company could demonstrate how to use search, shopping lists, and checkout to all the office managers in a particular company at the same time. The visitors could respond with feedback and questions as the instruction was provided, leading to a better comprehension of what a particular company's web site had to offer.
The tool is a solely commercial product that is marketed to e-commerce site owners at a base price of $199 per month. This allows for an unlimited number of users and up to 500 sessions per month. A 15-day free trial version is available here or you can get a taste of what Clavardon is like by trying the online demo.
Since the tool is so good for providing live support, the "shop with friends" aspect seems to be more of a secondary feature. Although possible, there are plenty of other social shopping services that provide more features in that area.
However, live support and chat features are incredibly useful in today's fast-paced world where we don't have time to wait for an email back from support. A tool like Clavardon improves upon the live support offerings that are already available to allow for a more personalized and social experience. That alone makes the product notable and worth a look.
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'Clavardon' is actually derived from 'clavardons', which is an imperative form meaning 'let's chat'.
Just sayin' :)
Posted by: Robin Wauters | February 5, 2008 3:43 PM"This allows for an unlimited number of users and up to 500 sessions per month."
What's the difference between number of users and number of sessions? Sorry but I don't get it and their website didn't make me any wiser. Wouldn't one user become one session, or what kind of sessions are they talking about?
Posted by: Martin | February 6, 2008 5:51 AMLiveLOOK is a next-generation CoBrowsing technology that works with any browser and on all web pages (http://www.livelook.net ). LiveLOOK was able to overcome technology limitations that older CoBrowsing technologies (i.e. Liveperson, Kana, eGain, etc.) suffered from. Those older technologies worked on IE only, required that Agent and Consumer were on the same version of IE, and didn't work on complex webpages (didn't work with pop-ups, ActiveX, Flash, etc.). LiveLOOK CoBrowse works for Consumers on any computer and on all webpages. LiveLOOK works on all browsers (IE, Firefox, Safari, Opera, etc.), all platforms (PC, Mac, Linux) and on all webpages (any pop ups, any complxity).
Agents can see Consumer's screens instantly, help them select products, and assist all the way to checkout. Visual connection between Agent and Consumer results in a more personal online shopping experience for Consumers and allows merchants to increase conversion rates.
Posted by: Anna | March 3, 2008 11:52 AM