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Don Harrison
Home Depot
(770) 384-5821
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Sheila Dahlgren
Scene7, Inc.
(415) 446-5302
sdahlgren@scene7.com |

Priscilla Lawrence
Scene7, Inc.
(858) 755-6430
plawrence@scene7.com |
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June 04, 2002
The Home Depot Launches the First of Its
Kind Online Kitchen & Bath Design Center
Customers Create their Dream Kitchen or Bathroom Online & Purchase Products In-store
Atlanta The Home Depot, the world's largest home improvement
retailer, and Scene7, a leading imaging software company, today announced
the Home Depot Online Kitchen & Bath Design Center.
This state-of-the-art design tool, which can be found at www.homedepot.com/designcenter,
enables customers to experiment with 9,500 branded products in millions
of combinations, allowing them to dream, design and visualize their
new kitchen or bathroom online, create a shopping list and purchase
products in-store.
"Our kitchen & bath design center
helps customers through one of the most challenging and time consuming
phases of remodeling: visualizing how specific products look together
before purchasing," said Chuck Elias, Vice President of eBusiness
for Home Depot. "When a customer comes into the store with ideas already
identified and actual products they prefer our experts
are able to help them plan more efficiently and effectively."
According to Jupiter Media Metrix, one of the leading providers of
Internet and new technology analysis and measurement, home improvement
retailers have the highest potential of any retailer to benefit from
in-store sales based on online research. The research states that
online tools help customers find products and help the stores to operate
more effectively by having the customer come in pre-educated about
products.
Home Depot's Online Kitchen & Bath Design Center enables customers
to select from more than 75 kitchens and bathrooms in different styles,
ranging from country to eclectic. Within each room, the customer can
point-and-click to customize thousands of cabinets, countertops, flooring,
wallpaper, fixtures, paint, appliances and other options. The customer
can then print a summary with visuals of each product and take it
to a Home Depot store to work with a kitchen and bath sales associate.
"Home Depot's Kitchen & Bath Design Center will revolutionize
the customer experience of remodeling their homes," said Douglas Mack,
CEO of Scene7, which is based in San Rafel, Calif. "Never before have
people been able to visualize and experiment with ready-to-purchase
home improvement items at home in such an easy and personalized environment."
The design center represents an entirely new way for vendors to market
their products. These vendors include Kohler, Kraftmaid, American
Standard, DuPont Corian, Armstrong and more. Customers can change
out and view products together in a way that could never be done before.
Scene7's proprietary Infinite Imaging technology lets customers
instantly change out elements of an image including color,
material, pattern, trim, texture and surface. This one-of-a-kind technology
enables customers to mix and match an almost endless number of options
and see them instantly in an actual room environment. Every option
is presented in absolute photo-realism, highlighting colors, reflections,
textures, lighting and shadows. About
Home Depot
Founded in 1978, The Home Depot is the world's largest home
improvement specialty retailer and the second largest retailer in
the United States, with fiscal 2001 sales of $53.6 billion. The company
employs approximately 290,000 associates and has 1,400 stores in 49
states, Puerto Rico, seven Canadian provinces, and Mexico. For the
second year in a row, the company was named sixth Most Admired Company
in America by Fortune magazine, which also ranked it as America's
Most Admired Specialty Retailer for nine consecutive years. Its stock
is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE:HD) and is included
in the Dow Jones Industrial Average and Standard & Poor's 500 Index.
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About Scene7 Scene7™ (www.scene7.com)
provides the leading dynamic imaging platform available in the market today. The company's Infinite Imaging™ Platform enables companies to cost-effectively manage, generate and publish dynamic images, helping customers increase sales and reduce costs associated with digital imaging. Scene7 clients can easily computer generate any digital image they need — in absolute photo quality — for uses including web sites, catalogs, partner extranets and marketing collateral. Scene7 has entered relationships with global brands, technology and service providers including IBM, Microsoft, The Home Depot, Levi Strauss & Co., La-Z-Boy, Victoria's Secret, American Standard, Saab, Scripps Networks/HGTV, and Ambrosi. Scene7 is based in Novato, California. |
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