You’ve seen them on just about every big ecommerce site. Many banners have gone from static to rotating. The rotation offers an unlimited resource for promoting various items without taking up a ton of space on the page — and if done correctly, they look nice too.
In my last article I talked about some of the things that should be considered when developing an effective promotional banner. I want to follow that up with a short post here on how you can promote more in less space using flash for banner development.
Flash banners come in all shapes and sizes. As of this writing two example sites using them are Target and BestBuy. Screenshots of the home page for each are below as a reference point. The red outlined area in each indicates the area the dynamic flash banner is composed of.
Example of Target Flash Promotional Banner
Example of BestBuy Flash Promotional Banner
In today’s internet age, you do not need a whole lot of flash design experience to get these types of banners up and running on your site. You will need a little technical know how (or get someone that can do it for you) but there really isn’t much to it if you have the right tools.
The truth is, you can do this yourself with a number of free and/or affordable commercial options.
Below I’ve listed a number of links that will start you down the right path toward adding a professional looking flash rotating banner to your ecommerce site.
Rotate a Banner With These XML Banner Rotators
As you’ll see, there are a number of options available to you. Keep in mind that the functionality of the banner should fit your needs. Don’t just choose a banner because it “looks cool.” Looking cool won’t get you sales. Make sure it is functionally correct and provides the opportunity to run your promotions in a way that benefits your bottom line.
Got anymore you think should be added to the list? Leave a comment below and let me know.
Richard says
Flash? XML? Personally, I think jQuery, is the best option for scrolling banners! lots of free version, very easy to implement and very SEO friendly, compare to flash.
Eric says
Yes Richard, there are a number of super jQuery rotating banner scripts. I’ll get some links together on those and post as well to this original article. If you have any links to them please feel free to share.
Thanks!
Richard says
I’m sure there’s still some use for xml and flash, however it’s just much easier to implement jQuery, my favourite that i’ve used in a couple of sites is easy slider http://cssglobe.com/post/4004/easy-slider-15-the-easiest-jquery-plugin-for-sliding