Zovi launches 'live' feature but can it drive sales?

Zovi.com, a private label e-tailer dealing in apparel and accessories for men and women, has just unveiled a new feature called 'live'. Through 'live' (you will find it on the homepage itself), visitors can see in real time the activities happening on the site. This means they will be able to track what other items are being viewed or bought or added to wish list by other buyers and also their cities.

When you click the 'live' button, another page opens where you will find a map of India. On the right hand side, you will also find the live streaming of all activities. These include delivery and shipment notifications by Zovi to different cities.

"The idea is to give the buyers a perspective on trends in their localities. Also, people from tier II and tier III cities visit our site; so the delivery and shipment notifications will immediately notify them that we do ship to their cities as well," said Monappa N, head – marketing, at Zovi.com.

As for convenience, the feature could have been on the products page so that a buyer would immediately know how many people are viewing or buying it at that point in time. On being asked, Monappa said that such integration would be on the product roadmap.

A while ago, fashion and lifestyle flash sales site 99labels.com added a somewhat similar feature where you get all kind of information next to the product – right from how many pieces are left or if it is sold out or if the last piece is in the shopping cart of a buyer. Understandably, this feature tries to drive impulse buying as people are likely to grab the last piece faster than they would at any other time.

If the same is expected from Zovi's new feature, it must be well-integrated with the products page. It's interesting to track the current trends and what other buyers are viewing. But going to another page to view all those details may not impact a customer as much or may not drive sales in a similar manner.

"The current move is to increase customers' confidence in Zovi. If more sales are generated through our new feature, that would be a bonus," added Monappa.