Scene7

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Adobe Scene7
Websitescene7.com

Scene7 is an American on-demand

rich media software company that provides document hosting and interactive publishing services such as online catalogs, targeted email
, video, and image management. Retailers use the company's services to showcase products on their websites and to allow customers to interact with the products. Scene7's technology allows users to manipulate product images by zooming in and rotating products, simulating the inspection of merchandise in retail stores.

The company, founded as a division of

Adobe Systems
acquired Scene7 in 2007 for an undisclosed sum.

Company

A subsidiary of

Adobe Flex; this relationship existed before Adobe purchased the company.[4] Scene7 does not maintain any servers to host its services; instead, it uses a "pay as you grow" program that only requires it to pay for the resources that it uses.[5]

Harrods flagship store in London, England. Scene7 allows visitors to Harrods' website to interact with product images.

Scene7's clients include the companies Sears, Lands' End, Harrods, Macy's, Office Depot, Levi Strauss & Co., La-Z-Boy, and QVC.[4] In 2001, Scene7 agreed to develop home design and landscaping software for Individual Software for $50 million.[6] High-end casual clothing retailer Anthropologie has used Scene7's services to create and deploy online catalogs for its e-commerce website since November 9, 2004. The retailer implemented Scene7's Dynamic Imaging service to let customers zoom in on products, similar to how merchandise is inspected in retail stores.[7] The Harrods department store signed an agreement with Scene7 on June 24, 2005, to use Scene7's imaging and catalog system on the store's website. This required Harrods to convert all its printed material to a digital format for Internet use.[8]

On October 20, 2005, web agency Logan Tod announced that it had partnered with Scene7 to offer new features on its e-commerce websites. These include Scene7's Dynamic Imaging service, which allows visitors to zoom in on products to see details; this feature, Logan Tod claimed, helps to drive purchase decisions.

Milwaukee, Wisconsin, implemented Scene7's technology on November 3, 2008, allowing visitors to dynamically change the colors of product images on the company's website.[11]

History

GoodHome.com (1995−2000)

Mattel's headquarters in El Segundo, California. The company owned Scene7 for a year before spinning it off as GoodHome.com.

The company began as a development team that created software called Picture This Home in the mid-1990s for

Hearst Interactive Media.[12]

Mack noted that before Broderbund spun off GoodHome.com as a separate company, there was a "big culture clash" between the established company and the

Amazon.com".[14]

In September 1999, GoodHome.com merged with

Roger Horchow was assigned as its chairman.[15] The company used the slogan "A beautiful home. It was never this easy,"[19] and focused on selling furniture and other home items,[12] spending $20 million on advertisements in its first year.[18] Mack decided that the company should target women,[19] since "women make 80 percent of decorating decisions."[18] The company built a home furnishings portal to compete with the websites Living.com and Furniture.com, which both went bankrupt in 2000.[12] In April 2000, GoodHome.com's monthly sales topped $1 million; the company's goal was to be profitable within two to three years.[20]

One of the website's biggest attractions was its virtual decorating service that let customers see how certain features such as the paint, upholstery fabric, rugs, and pillows would look before a purchase. When considering why this service was so popular, Mack noted that consumers usually feel more confident in a purchase when there are few unknowns. At the time, selling products over the Internet was not a popular concept outside the United States, but Mack was confident in expanding GoodHome.com's portfolio to include foreign companies: "We're already getting so many requests from companies about expanding our website abroad... I see this happening quickly within the next few years."[16]

GoodHome.com encountered difficulties in running its business in 2000, when several other companies that offered similar services launched. The increasing demand for online catalog services, considered a phenomenon, was dubbed the "hottest thing since sliced bread" by an analyst from technology research firm Forrester Research, which estimated that roughly $500 million was invested in home furnishing websites from 1999 to 2000.[21] It became difficult for consumers to decide which service provided better quality; a business owner commented, "You can't tell the difference in quality between something that's $3,000 and something that's $10,000."[21] GoodHome.com, which had offered free shipping, phased out the feature on July 15, 2000, in favor of "heavily subsidized rates".[21] To compete with new companies, GoodHome.com also introduced new features such as a "floor planning" feature to allow website visitors build an electronic version of their rooms, then drag in furnishings to see how they fit.[21]

Hearst Corporation, based in New York City, provided two rounds of funding for Scene7: $30 million in 1999, and $15 million in 2001.

Reorganization (2001−2007)

After spending several years operating at a loss, GoodHome.com reorganized as Scene7, which formally launched on January 23, 2001, with $15 million raised from investors that included Hearst Interactive Media. The new company focused on helping companies prepare interactive advertisements for consumers.

Cooley Godward and Perkins Coie.[12] After the latest round of financing, Mack planned for Scene7 to have 15 clients and a burn rate, or negative cash flow, of less than $700,000 a month, stating, "What we learned was to stick to your strategy, and don't get nervous when the competition is adopting a strategy to spend their way to victory."[23] At the time, the company's revenues were well below its peak of $1 million a month, but Mack intended to increase revenues past that point in a few months.[23]

Scene7 moved from San Rafael to Hamilton Landing in Novato, California in September 2002 to accommodate more employees.

The Carlyle Group, joined Scene7's board of directors, which was composed of James Caccavo of Moore Capital, Andrew Wright of RealNetworks, and Mack.[27]

Since the early 2000s, the company's growth has been fueled by an increase in

brick and mortar businesses increased offline sales by an average of 27%. Mack also pointed out that having more product information disseminated helps play a role in increasing sales: "We have the ability to provide consistent information... One of the advantages of selling furniture online is the hyperscript; you always have the original specifications on a product."[16]

Subsidiary of Adobe (2007)

Adobe Systems, based in San Jose, California
, acquired Scene7 to help boost its overall services strategy.

Scene7 was acquired by Adobe Systems on May 31, 2007, for an undisclosed sum. At that time, Scene7 had 80 employees, most of whom were transferred from Scene7's former headquarters in

hosted service to help boost Adobe's overall services strategy,[1] especially its software as a service efforts,[4] and because Scene7 was a great fit due to its heavy usage of Adobe products.[1]

Adobe plans to integrate Scene7's products into Adobe LiveCycle, the company's suite of server software products, at an unspecified time.[1] The Scene7 brand will continue to be used, but it will "eventually be replaced with the Adobe brand".[4] Denmark-based YaWah, a dynamic imaging software company, was acquired by Adobe on September 26, 2008, to help expand Scene7 globally.[29]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Taft, Darryl K. (2007-10-03). "Adobe Readies New Servers, Services, Tools". eWeek. Retrieved 2008-11-14.
  2. ^ "Case Studies, Testimonials & Links". Mind 2 Image. Archived from the original on 2011-10-06. Retrieved 2011-07-27.
  3. ^ a b Tedeschi, Bob (2004-06-15). "Fast access brings virtual catalogs back". The New York Times.
  4. ^ a b c d e "Scene7 acquisition" (PDF). Adobe Systems. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-03-05. Retrieved 2008-10-27.
  5. ^ "Adobe Scene7 implements Isilon IQ clustered storage". Telecomworldwire. 2008-08-04. Retrieved 2008-11-05.
  6. ^ "Individual Software Inc. Signs Agreement With Scene7 to Develop Leading Software for Home Design and Landscaping". Canadian Corporate News. 2001-11-07. Archived from the original on 2015-02-21. Retrieved 2008-11-13.
  7. ^ "At Anthropologie.com, one staff person does the work of three". Internet Retailer. 2004-11-09. Retrieved 2008-12-03.
  8. ^ "Harrods signs up Scene7". Printing World. 2005-06-30. p. 10.
  9. ^ "In Brief: Logan Tod and Scene7 team up for new tool". New Media Age. 2005-10-20. p. 4.
  10. ^ "Better images boost conversions by 22% at Fathead.com". Internet Retailer. 2008-07-01. Retrieved 2008-12-03.
  11. ^ "National Business Furniture Adds Scene7 Dynamic Imaging to NBF.com Allowing Customers to Change Colors of Office Furniture". PR Web. 2008-11-03. Retrieved 2008-11-13.
  12. ^ a b c d e f Carlsen, Clifford (2001-07-12). "Scene7 ends winding journey with $11.3M round". Daily Deal.
  13. ^ Szadkowski, Joe (1998-03-19). "'Picture This' program is chance to do it right". The Washington Times. p. E2.
  14. ^ a b c Spirrison, Brad (1999-10-18). "Fortune 500 Companies Revise Internet Strategies". Web Finance.
  15. ^ a b Henry, Shannon (1999-09-30). "Lodging in a New Hotel Niche". The Washington Post. p. E01.
  16. ^ a b c "Virtual gold rush". Cabinet Maker. January 7, 2000. p. 16.
  17. ^ Stepanek, Marcia (1999-11-01). "How Fast Is Net Fast?". BusinessWeek. p. EB52.
  18. ^ a b c Fromm, Emily (1999-09-06). "Goodhome Shops $ 20 Mil. Task". Adweek.
  19. ^ a b Cuneo, Alice Z. (1999-10-18). "Goodhome Taps Citron for $25 Mil Brand Acct". Advertising Age. p. 58.
  20. ^ Ginsburg, Janet (2000-04-03). "Selling Sofas Online is no Snap". BusinessWeek. p. 96.
  21. ^ a b c d Iovine, Julie V. (2000-06-15). "Will Chairs Fly on the Web, or Just Fold?". The New York Times. p. F10.
  22. ^ Hankin, Adrienne (2001-01-23). "Scene7 (TM), Inc., Formally Launches, Showcasing Full Suite of Interactive Imaging Technologies". PR Newswire. Retrieved 4 November 2008.
  23. ^ a b "Top Deal: VCs like GoodHome.com's new scene". Red Herring. 2001-07-17. Archived from the original on 2009-03-05. Retrieved 2008-12-21.
  24. ^ a b "Scene7 buys out largest rival firm". Marin Independent Journal. 2003-08-15.
  25. ^ Collins, James (2003-06-20). "Former CMGI Unit Engage Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection". The Boston Globe. p. C1.
  26. ^ Ward, Gareth (2003-07-03). "The workflow turned off". Printing World. p. 6.
  27. ^ "QVC leads a $7.5 million financing for rich media provider Scene7". Internet Retailer. 2004-06-15. Retrieved 2008-12-03.
  28. ^ "Scene7 Company Overview". BusinessWeek. Archived from the original on March 6, 2009. Retrieved 2008-11-13.
  29. ^ "YaWah boost to Adobe's Scene7". Printweek. 2008-09-26. p. 14.
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