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Picture this - you log in to a popular website to make a purchase. You search through a number of products researching which ones best fit your needs. You take the time to carefully add items to your cart, each time checking your quantities and clicking on the “continue shopping” option. Your order is complete and you return to the shopping cart, enter all your shipping information and payment details only to be presented with an error at the end of the process. You’re back to square one and must now either spend time on the phone with the retailer to see if your order was processed in that split second before the site crashed, or start from scratch with your order with the hope that you don’t receive it twice.
This frustrating experience is one that consumers encounter day-in and dayout because of poorly architected sites that are not designed with the user experience as the number one mantra.
As your clients struggle with how to deliver better user experiences, many are reaching out for technology to help them create a more immersive and responsive environment. One way that your clients can achieve this is through the use of Rich Internet Applications (RIAs). Designed to combine the full “content rich” experience of a desktop application with the “broad reach” of a website, RIAs deliver the best of both worlds. Originally coined by Macromedia in a 2002 white paper, RIAs have since grown into a widely accepted technology and are now the direction of choice for many new web development projects. According to Gartner Research, nearly 60 percent of all new application development will include RIA technology by 2010.
For marketing agencies, the RIA sector is one of significant growth. ZapThink, a leading IT advisory and analysis firm, predicts that the RIA space will grow to become a $3 billion market by 2011.2 As your clients consider their options in the web development sector and consider adopting RIAs, it’s important to understand both the value they deliver and the challenges they can introduce. Yes, RIA technology is still in the early adopter stages, but the long-term business applications of this technology are huge. RIA’s ability to enrich the customer experience while supporting more complex services and transactions makes it a strong differentiator for your clients.
Already the early adopters are seeing significant financial impacts from the deployment of RIAs:
- After The Broadmoor Hotel and BlueGreen Vacation Rentals rolled out their one-screen RIA, they saw an 89 percent increase in reservations and nearly double the conversion rate of the 4.1 percent industry average.
- When Yankee Candle added RIA technology for real-time visualization of custom candles, the company saw a 25 percent increase in both product revenues and average order size.
- When TJX switched from an HTML-driven shopping cart to an RIA-based one-screen model, the company witnessed a 50 percent increase in conversion rates, increased average order size and reductions in abandonment rates.
This paper will present the concept of RIAs and explain why your clients should be embracing this technology. It will also provide examples of how RIA technology has been implemented wisely to address specific business needs and will present a foundation of what you need to know to kick start RIA projects with your clients.
Rich internet applications are web applications that have many of the features and functionality of traditional desktop applications, but are delivered over the web. These applications combine the best of both worlds – the power and rich content of the desktop with the connectivity of the internet.
RIAs offer the best mix of “reach” in application availability and “richness” in their content. Since they are web-based and cross platform, RIAs can run on any system or platform. Their efficiencies in processing at both the client- and server-level allow for the delivery of richer and more interactive content.
The important differentiator between an RIA and a more traditional website is that an RIA is a true “application” that allows you to perform a task. This task can include finding a product, customizing a service, learning new information, playing a game, or mixing information to create something new.
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