JosephSt.com and Next Gen Visual Directories

Visual directory? Well, the idea appears to be making the process of finding things more intutitive and dare I say entertaining.

Well, if that sounds appealing to you, you should check out JosephSt.com, a new site that uses a sort of street view in different shopping district to help retailers connect with consumers.

Here's their TC one minute pitch:



Now, if you are like me, you are saying, huh? So here's my walk through.

You click on the street sign to see all the shopping districts. I then clicked on the men's clothing area which looks like this:



Clicking on a store front gives you a pop up of that store. In men's clothing they had Hollister, Old Navy, Diesel, Men's Wearhouse, Universal Gear, and William Rast.



Of the last, I was unfamiliar and my impression of this store was that they had lovely things that one needs to be far more attractive and slender than me to pull off.

But that brings me to two things. First, I DID learn about this retailer, and would not have had I simply gone to Yahoo Shopping. And second, based upon the selection of retailers I'd say they're aiming for a far younger fella. That might find the appeal of a visual directory more compelling than I do.

Oh, I am not condemining it. Just the opposite actually. People shop in different ways and in a country where shopping is the primary goal of our citizenry wherever we travel on the planet, the opportunity for this retail format may indeed attract a large audience. It does offer a retailer a far smaller set of competitors and naturally puts them in any visitor's consideration set.

Here's a drive through tour:



So...verdict? Not for me, but maybe for you. It also has a number of social features and is integrated with Google wallets.

Its a cool idea. Not for my life, but lots of people will probably like it. For the sake of William Rast, let's hope they are slender, rich, and rather fetching!

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.