eStara News Shows Click-to-Call’s Increasing Relevance

Last week was a busy one for eStara. The click-to-call technology company announced that it will be acquired by Art Technology Group. In addition, eStara unveiled a new local partnership with Cox Newspapers and an initiative to increase consumer engagement for Autobytel.

ATG, which provides e-commerce platforms and services, signed a definitive agreement to acquire eStara in a deal expected to close in the fourth quarter. Through the purchase, ATG will gain the platform, expertise and client base of eStara, which will provide it with valuable leverage to win market share in the growing click-to-call arena. The deal is further confirmation that even in a world dominated by Internet connectivity, consumers continue to demand live experiences.

There’s no shortage of data suggesting that consumers regularly abandon their online shopping efforts when faced with the often daunting task of filling out forms and sending them into the proverbial “black hole.” EStara and other providers have shown that adding click-to-call functionality to online shopping experiences can increase telephone sales.

EStara’s click to “engage” solutions help consumers overcome their online shopping inhibitions and aid companies in converting shoppers into customers. This, however, requires that the receiving company has the know-how and capacity to convert the Web-generated phone inquiries into transactions. This is certainly the case with companies such as Starwood Hotels and Continental Airlines, which have time-sensitive inventories to sell and have proved their ability to leverage click-to-call functionality. Making the phone ring is something these advertisers understand.

This is less often the case in local markets where eStara has long offered click-to-call solutions to online Yellow Pages publishers. Local business owners appear less adept in leveraging the potential of this and other telephony-based customer acquisition solutions. This may be changing as TKG research indicates newer businesses are more likely to integrate online advertising solutions into their overall advertising and marketing mix. In many ways 2007 has the potential to be a breakout year for call tracking and pay-per-call solutions.

Therefore, it was no surprise this week when eStara gained another local partnership, this time with Cox Newspapers. The publisher announced plans to embed eStara’s click-to-call platform across its major daily newspaper sites. The click-to-call feature will be integrated with both classified and display advertising. As newspapers continue to revamp their businesses to remain competitive with portals and search engines, offering advertisers a solution for tracking calls and consummating transactions has become a necessity.

EStara is also behind a new engagement initiative being launched by Autobytel. The vertical search player this week announced the deployment of its Rapid Response program aimed at tightening the link between auto buyers and auto dealers. When auto shoppers at any of Autobytel’s online sites request a price quote, a dealer is notified in seconds to contact the shopper while she is still on the site.

Other systems by comparison require shoppers to fill out a form to be e-mailed to dealers without any such sense of immediacy. By reducing the lag time between price quote and live contact, we believe based on past research and analysis that Autobytel will be able to improve conversion rates up to 50 percent. This speaks directly to the importance of connecting consumers when they are in the middle of the purchase cycle.

The Bottom Line: It is with a mixed sense of irony that the ultimate Internet commerce engine might actually end up being the telephone. By putting buyers in touch with sellers at the right time in the sales process, eStara’s platforms and technologies are aimed at maximizing the opportunity to close the loop on shopping and conversions. In the local space, where small businesses sometimes do not even answer the telephone, the challenge for eStara and others will be to train local partners how to take advantage of a live call generated online. LMJ