AOL to revamp inStore, replicate concept

By Juan Carlos Perez

America Online Inc. (AOL) plans to roll out significant enhancements to its inStore retail comparison shopping Web site in April, as the company simultaneously develops similar Web sites that will replicate the inStore concept for other industries such as travel and autos, an AOL executive said.

The inStore enhancements, which AOL refers to collectively as inStore 2.0, will include an improvement to the AOL Wallet service, expanded personalization capabilities and an extended integration with the AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) instant messaging service, said David Lebow, AOL's executive vice president and general manager of AOL Media Networks. AOL is also working hard at building loyalty features into inStore, but those may not be included in the April upgrade, Lebow said. "This new package of enhancements will carry us through to the holiday season," Lebow said.

AOL wants to make it easier for inStore visitors to use the AOL Wallet to do transactions with the vendors whose products can be found on inStore, Lebow said. The AOL Wallet is a service that lets subscribers store frequently used credit card numbers and shipping addresses so that they don't have to enter that information again when they make a purchase online. Another enhancement being contemplated for the AOL Wallet is the masking of actual credit card numbers with virtual ID numbers for additional security, an AOL spokesman said.

Meanwhile, inStore will have new capabilities to remember what shoppers did on their previous visits and, based on that knowledge, make personalized suggestions and offer different options to different shoppers, Lebow said. This would be an extension to the level of personalization already offered through inStore's existing "My Favorite Stores" feature, which lets shoppers create lists of their preferred stores; these lists are displayed for shoppers on the inStore home page and in other sections. "What we want is for the Favorite Stores function to be intuitive so that it remembers what you did last time and takes you back to certain places," Lebow said.

Finally, the new loyalty features will be provided in partnership with companies that specialize in loyalty programs to give shoppers incentives, such as credits at certain stores and cash rewards, Lebow said. "We're examining different options now and are working deeply on this right now," he said. If these loyalty features aren't rolled out in April, they will be added to inStore at some point before the holiday season, he said.

InStore, which was launched in September of last year in partnership with BizRate.com, has been such a success for AOL both in terms of revenue and visitors that the company is taking its concept of a search-driven comparison-shopping Web site and replicating it, Lebow said.

AOL has already announced a partnership with travel search engine Kayak Software Corp. to develop an inStore-like site for travel products that is expected to launch this year. Moreover, similar sites focusing on the auto industry and on personal ads are in the planning stages now, Lebow said. "InStore is very retail oriented, but we'll use its model across categories: search functionality at the center with premium advertising," he said.

At inStore and its forthcoming cousins, AOL generates revenue in a variety of ways, including conventional banner ads, fees for placing stores and products in premium locations on the site and fees for click-throughs to the online partner stores, Lebow said.

Posted February 23, 2005 04:54 PM |