PrismaStar changes the face of the online retail shopping experience with AnswerOil

PrismaStar Software has revolutionised the online and in-store kiosk shopping experience with its pioneering and award-winning product search tool, AnswerOil. Focussing on what and why consumers buy, and tailored to an individual's specific requirements, AnswerOil intends to be to real-time online shopping as Google is to search engines, producing precise, relevant results every time.

Designed to help shoppers make better, faster decisions, AnswerOil is a truly ground-breaking innovation, distinctive from any other product search tool, because it uses a unique consumer-profiling technology resulting in highly accurate results. For more than three years, PrismaStar conducted a comprehensive research programme investigating exactly how people made buying decisions. Using the data, AnswerOil was developed as a system capable of bringing customers to a level of comfort where they would be confident to move ahead with a purchase more quickly and more reliably than with any other existing search technology.

Explaining the reasons leading to the development of the product selector, Josh Tabin, founder of PrismaStar, said: “Typically, I found searching for products online frustrating and time-consuming, culminating in too many results, irrelevant results or worse still, no results at all. And, I was not alone - this was a universal problem. AnswerOil has turned that process around making what was an intolerable and cumbersome experience into a pleasurable and productive one.” AnswerOil's first implementation was for the WLW hotel selector website (www.hotelselector.cz). “We saw a significant increase in click-through rates and sales when we introduced our online hotel selector designed by PrismaStar” said WLW Country Manager Iztok Toplak. “AnswerOil was able to keep our customers on the website and streamline the entire search and selection process, meaning they were able to retrieve what they wanted in seconds.”

PrismaStar will be making its debut appearance at the forthcoming Internet World 2008 exhibition (April 29 - May) when it will showcase AnswerOil, and Josh Tabin will present a seminar as part of the show's Web 2.0 Experience speaker programme. Entitled 'Product Search on Trial: Guiding Consumers to the Right Products', Josh will speak on Wednesday, April 30 between 10.30-11.00am, when he will demonstrate how people make decisions via successful “needs-choice iteration” and reveal innovative methods to guide consumers to the right products.