Clavardon, from the French for “to chat,” is the latest from Canadian-based
company
. 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,
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.
