Shop@AOL Launches Interactive Products

Just in time for the impending online shopping saturation, America Online’s Shop@AOL launched
interactive product demonstrations that allow online shoppers to listen to the ring of a cell phone and experiment with a digital
camera.

LiveProducts is a technology from e-SIM, a provider of electronic product
simulations for e-commerce, interactive training and product development.

e-SIM’s proprietary simulation technology enables the distribution of
electronic LiveProducts, “virtual products” that look and behave like real
products, over the Internet or Intranet for web-based electronic commerce,
interactive customer support and marketing.

The technology allows Shop@AOL customers to experience fully interactive
product simulations that recreate the look and sound of the real product, or
watch animated walk-throughs of various product features.
Shoppers can even learn how to program a VCR before deciding whether to make a
purchase, AOL said.

LiveProducts also stores the complete owner’s manual for each of the products
to enable users to quickly find all the information they need.

“Our new LiveProducts feature exemplifies Shop@AOL’s focus on customer
service and providing customers with a user-friendly, best-of-breed shopping
experience,” said Patrick Gates, AOL’s (AOL) vice president of e-commerce.

LiveProducts currently highlights a number of electronic gift items, include
a Samsung TV/VCR, a Casio G-Shock watch, a GE Advantium oven, a digital
camera and a Sensory Science MP3 player.

Shop@AOL features products from more than 275 brand-name merchants.
Using its proprietary technology, e-SIM is launching its new Web service and
portal site, www.livemanuals.com, featuring product
simulations, animated walk-throughs of product features, and online user
manuals.