With a rich history spanning more than 70 years, Columbia Sportswear Co. is one of the largest outdoor apparel and footwear companies in the world with a global reputation for innovation, quality and performance. Besides Columbia, the company operates several other brands, including Mountain Hardwear , Sorel and Montrail.

Challenges:

• Identify a flexible rich media delivery solution that answers Columbia's ecommerce needs and can scale with the company’s global growth
• Streamline a labor-intensive image production and management process and easily handle Columbia's requirement for 30 different image sizes used across its ecommerce properties
• Deliver dynamic content to multiple channels and screen sizes, including the web, in-store kiosks and mobile devices

As Columbia made the decision to enhance their commerce sites in 2009, it sought a flexible yet powerful image production and management solution that would make it easy to generate 30 different image sizes for any one product photo. Columbia also wanted a solution that could grow with the demands of its expanding markets, as it continued to boost its global presence and as its multiple brands continued to thrive and augment their product lines.

For Columbia.com specifically, the site must speak to an ever-larger audience, all the while presenting a comprehensive range of outdoor products. This is because Columbia has an addressable audience that is the entire outdoor consumer base, and therefore needs a site flexible enough to present everything from back country skiing equipment to marlin fishing gear. Specifically, that flexibility has to extend to both the site experience and photography, allowing for a focus on in-depth product descriptions, technical specs, and product details.

With the arrival of each season, Columbia shoots thousands of pictures that must appear consistent across its sites. With a library of more than 40,000 images for any given season, Columbia was relying on a labor-intensive process which involved running action scripts in Photoshop to create different-sized images for different displays.

Best Practices:

• Streamlined image production and management workflow, achieved through:
• Using URL commands to dynamically size images and create many variations for use across many digital channels and media, including web, email, mobile and in-store displays
• Render product images on demand, applying color and pattern swatches to a single source image, eliminating incremental photography to capture every product variation
• Superior shopping experience, online and offline.
• Provide online shoppers with a full range of viewing options, including full-screen, zoom and alternative views. 360-degree spin view is offered for some products
• Using single image source to create derivatives, deliver consistency for all Columbia product images
• Bring interactivity to retail, plus access to Columbia’s entire product line and brands through web kiosks, interactive store windows and other digital displays.
• Scale and extend Scene7 to country-specific sites in:
• Canada
• France
• Germany
• Spain
• United kingdom
• Italy

• Launch more than 50 kiosks in branded and outlet stores, pulling in Columbia.com content

Simplified image production workflow with newfound flexibility

Using Scene7, Columbia can easily create different sized images for use across its many channels, and tailor them to a specific experience, as order confirmation emails, product pages, browse and search, add-to-cart all call for different image sizes.
In category pages, for instance, shoppers can choose to browse product thumbnails in varying sizes–small, medium or large. Color and pattern swatches bear different sizes too, depending on the experience: Smaller color swatches are used in category pages where users can search by color; on product description pages, these swatches are larger, since at this point, shoppers are further along the decision journey and desire greater detail. "A big benefit that Scene7 has delivered is it allows us to streamline the image production and management process, then enables us to present that product photography within the various sites that are built for different markets– whether that’s the outdoor consumer or a high-end footwear company," said Garrett Gonzales, Creative Manager, Ecommerce, Columbia.

Interactive viewing heightens online shopping experience

All products sold on Columbia.com show front and rear views; more complicated products, such as high-performing outerwear, offer up to more than six distinct photos, helping shoppers to fully grasp not only the product aesthetics but also the technology behind them. To examine the product details, shoppers can utilize interactive zoom, or choose a full-screen view.  

Interactive displays elevate offline shopping experience

In an innovative multichannel execution blending interactivity with brick-and-mortar, Columbia brought dynamic media to its storefront, creating interactive store windows that react to touch. By delivering a variety of experiences, from games to product displays (some hosted by Scene7) Columbia’s interactive windows bring new opportunities to engage with consumers at retail, allowing people to interact with the display even when the store is closed.  Columbia.com content is also being leveraged for web kiosks installed in more than 50 of its U.S. retail stores, giving store shoppers–and sales associates–immediate access to deeper product information, especially helpful for products built on cutting-edge technology. Additionally, the kiosks display a wider product line than what stores can stock, giving shoppers more options to choose from.

Mobile-optimized website to reach shoppers on-the-go

Columbia has also made it possible for its customers to shop for its merchandise wherever they are via its mobile-optimized site that uses Scene7 to dynamically size and serve product imagery. Using Scene7 dynamic image sizing, Columbia can serve optimized rich experiences across digital channels from a single set of images that are automatically resized to any dimension, format or resolution, significantly reducing production time and costs.

New cross-channel brand experiences made possible

The time and cost savings Columbia Sportswear is able to realize using Adobe Scene7 has enabled the company to take on what it refers to as "fringe" initiatives — incremental projects that add flair to its brands which would normally not be initiated when Columbia is resource-constrained. One such initiative was creating an innovative mobile experience for its Montrail brand leveraging the Adobe Scene7 mobile-optimized players that offer rich interactivity across devices.  Shoppers using any smartphone or tablet, including iPhones and iPads, can experience the same dynamic zooming  and panning capabilities and view alternative images on any device as they would from their PC.

Results

For an online operation with intensive imagery needs, Scene7 has simplified and automated a time-consuming image production and management process that saved Columbia significant time and resources.

Before Scene7, Columbia utilized a highly manual process via action scripts to resize its images. Using Scene7, Columbia eliminated this resizing process, eliminating what would have been 200 man hours when launching new products each season.

The web kiosks encourage store shoppers to increase their interactions with Columbia, whether looking up the brand’s entire product line, learning about the company’s products, or signing up for the Columbia loyalty program.

Columbia's retail interactive displays are engaging consumers on a whole new level, including drawing in passer-bys who might otherwise not shop at Columbia.

"These interactive displays put customers in front of the store window, getting them to spend a few extra minutes with our brand," said Gonzales.

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