“What you’re looking at within the Ski Pavilion at EliteMarket.com is not really 3D. It’s a 2D Flash environment with implanted movement,” said Andrew McErlain, EliteMarket.com’s CEO. “The difference between ours and other 3D environments is that the first thing the user is confronted with in true 3D environments is a very significant download of software – something like 20MB – before there’s access to the site. That isn’t an issue with the virtual world we’ve created.”

Ease of use was particularly important as the whole approach of the Ski Pavilion is to provide interesting environments for the exhibition of luxury brands – both goods and services. If shoppers find it cumbersome to use a shopping site, they click and go elsewhere.

“Our perspective when we started this is that the Web is a bit boring,” McErlain remarked. “If you look at ninety-nine percent of the websites available worldwide, what are they? They’re text and pictures. It’s odd really when you think that the Web is at its core a multimedia portal. Why have ninety-nine percent of sites sticking to print and pictures? It’s almost as though they’re on the tramlines of print media. Of course the difference with the Web is that the core of it is multimedia. So Why not use it?   

The prime audiences for Elitmarket.com’s Ski Pavilion are buyers of luxury worldwide as well as those who aspire to buy luxury. The Ski Pavilion brings together top winter resorts, elite hotels, prime ski properties, high quality equipment and goods – all in one online destination. The animation at the site is nicely done with gondolas gliding down the mountain and smoke swirling out of chimneys. Click on any red circle to access the storefronts in the Ski Luxury Retail Square at the virtual resort, a fashionable shopping parade that recreates the eclectic mix of brands that visitors would expect to find in Aspen, Vail, St. Moritz or Whistler. A wide range of winter sporting equipment is positioned just a few mouse moves away from luxury cashmere, fur and leather goods. Brands include Ettinger, N.Peal, Zag Skis, Caran d’Ache and Swell Panik.

Ettinger’s location within the Ski Pavilion is its first virtual shop. Robert Ettinger, CEO of Ettinger explained that their virtual shop mirrors the interior of Ettinger’s London Showroom, combining real imagery and video with digital imagery “to create a very realistic and elegant shopping experience.” All the brands within the Ski Pavilion provide their own fulfillment services. This means that financial transactions and delivery are the responsibility of the individual shops and properties. Elitemarket.com has one staff member dedicated to ensure that all functionalities of the virtual ski resort are working 24/7 and that customers are satisfied with their experience.

“We are getting a very good traffic level on the site,” McErlain commented. “What we are doing is possible due to the evolution of the Internet. Broadband speed is getting faster and faster. We do have a fulltime development team of ten people that we financed through all the early part of this. But we’ve had no external borrowings and now we’re in a great position. We believe that this kind of virtual environment will play an increasingly important role in the Web going forward.”