Schedule a Mall Shopping Date!

A new feature we're adding with this release of virtualEshopping.com is the ability to shedule a mall shopping date with your friends. You click the "invite more friends" link in the friends section of your profile page and select the last tab on the right. You schedule your mall shopping date and select the people (who must be registered users) who you want to include in your group.



Our system sends everyone on your list an email and asks them to RSVP. You'll get notices of who is going to attend and who cannot and a reminder email will be sent 24 hours prior to the mall date. You can check the status of who's coming by clicking the "Mall Dates" link next to your persona pic in the upper left of the profile page.

Give it a try and let us know what you think! Comment below or email us at support@virtualeshopping.com.

- virtualEmark

Billboards and Kiosks

Other features you'll see in the virtualEshopping mall include billboards and kiosks.

Billboards are large windows that can contain any of the elements found in the windows of storefronts: fixed images, slideshows (with up to 10 images), audio, video, and coupons. Similar also to the storefront windows, when you click on one of the billboards, you are transported to the webpage of the featured item or to the homepage of the advertiser.

Here are a couple of screenshots of billboards in the mall:

Kiosks are essentially small billboards with the exact same functionality. They are scattered throughout the mall.

Here's a screenshot of a kiosk:

Clicking on billboards and kiosks in the mall are a great way to find new advertisers you've never heard of or connect with those advertisers you love!

Let us know what you think! Comment below or contact us at support@virtualEshopping.com.

- virtualEmark

Collecting Coupons

One of the many cool features in virtualEshopping.com is the presence of coupons. Advertisers can post them in a storefront window or in the window of a mall cart, billboard or kiosk.

In the Gamefly mall cart below, notice the logo hovering above the salesbot's head. Such an image indicates that she is holding a coupon for you. If you hover on the image, you'll see an barcode icon, which appears on hover on any window or salesbot that has a coupon.

When you click on the coupon image, the following window pops up with details of the coupon offer. If you click the add button at the bottom of the window, your coupon is added to your queue.

Select the coupon offers you want to save and click the print button at the bottom to print out your coupon offers. Use any redemption code provided to redeem your coupon on the advertiser's website. It's that simple. Pretty cool, huh?

Let us know what you think. Comment below or contact us at support@virtualeshopping.com.

- virtualEmark

Mall Carts Display Small Items

Mall carts are another feature in the 3D mall. Some refer to them as "kiosks" but we have reserved that term for another feature in our mall.

A mall cart in the virtualEshopping 3D mall is an advertising opportunity for makers of small items like jewelry, cell phones, sunglasses, etc., to feature selected items from their catelog. Each mall cart contains 20 interactive windowsthat can display fixed images, slideshows with up to 10 slides, video or audio clips and coupons.

Salesbots and sales personas (see yesterday's post for storefronts for a full description of these features) can also be seen in a mall cart if an advertiser creates them.

There are four different mall cart designs and several different orientations for the windows.

Here are a few from the mall:

Like with a storefront, when you click on any of the images, you are transported to the webpage of the item on the advertiser's 2D website.

Please let us know if you have questions. Contact us at support@virtualeshopping.com.

- virtualEmark

Let's Look at a Storefront

Let's look at the different elements in the mall. First, let's review a basic storefront. Like in a "physical" mall, we have two basic types of storefronts. Anchor stores are the large ones at the end of a wing. The smaller storefronts in the other parts of the mall are referred to as perimeter stores.

Macy's anchor store

Ebags perimeter store

When you click on the doors of the storefront, the homepage of the advertiser opens in a new browser window.

When you click on an item in the window, you are transported to the 2D webpage of that item on the advertiser's website. So at the outset of the development of our site, we are a 3D mall that directs shoppers to the 2D websites of our advertisers. Yes, plan to add 3D stores behind the storefronts and have the technology to do so. We're approaching advertisers now to find interest.Each of the windows of a storefront can contain a fixed image, a slideshow with up to 10 slides, video, audio and coupons. If there is a video, audio or coupon in a storefront window, an icon of a video camera, music tunes, or a bar code indicates the existence of each when you hover on the window containing one of them.

Each storefront can also have a salesbot or a live sales persona out in front. A salesbot is an virtual salesperson who is not live in real time that can contain a recorded audio message or a coupon. A live sales persona is backed up by a live person, who can chat with customers in front of the store.

So a storefront in our virtual mall is a way to introduce or remind shoppers in our mall about the store. Standard retailers are primarily featured in the mall currently but we welcome any web retailer or service provider to join the mall. New participating advertisers pay per click for traffic driven to their 2D websites. We'll go into this further in another post as well as regarding opportunities for advertisers to create 3D stores to go behind their mall storefronts.

As always, we value your feedback and suggestions. Please contact us at support@virtualeshopping.com.

- virtualEmark

Let's Meet in the Mall!

Let's not go too far into the social networking features without showing you the heart and soul of our site - the 3D mall itself. This is where we're breaking new ground. To the best of our knowledge, we created the first, operational virtual, 3D shopping mall. I'll share the origins of the idea in a later post but for now, suffice it to say that we began development in December of 2005 and initially launched in July of 2008.

To visit the mall, one must first load the free software on your PC (sorry, Mac's not supported. borrow your parent's PC ;) Instructions for loading the mall software are at the Installation Guide Button next to the Load Mall Button on the main homepage. There's also a load mall button on the profile page in the upper right corner.

Once you load the free software, a launch button is installed in the lower right of your computer screen. It will appear each time you start your computer. This is how you enter the mall each time. Click anywhere in the center of the button to launch the mall.

You'll first encounter an entry screen. If you have registered on the website and have an account, you can enter your login/pw and enter as a registered users. If not, you can either go to the web pages and register or enter as a guest. Guests cannot create personas or collect coupons but can do anything else in the mall.

We have limited the number of malls to a main mall at present, but we'll add more - specialty malls (men, women, teens) and city malls - over time.

Click the main mall and wait a minute for it to load (or do something else. you'll hear mall noise when you have entered.)

You enter the mall in the main atrium.

You move around in the mall using your arrow keys: left, right, forwards and backwards. We'll look around in our next post but feel free to explore on your own.

As always, if you have questions, please contact us at support@virtualeshopping.com. We're open to your ideas, so please share them generously!

- virtualEmark

My Dates To Remember

Another neat social networking feature we're adding is "My Dates To Remember." On your profile page, you can list up to six special dates to share with friends and family so they won't forget your birthday and anniversary - again!



The add dates tool lets you customize your occasions and pick a date from the calendar.

When a friend clicks the more button on the profile page, it takes them to a dedicated page with all your special dates and even shows them a list of things in your "I Want It/I Got It" section so they can see what and what not to buy you if they wish to get you a gift for the occasion. It's like having your own gift registry - and not restricted by store!

Have fun and let us know if you have suggestions!

- virtualEmark