New research from Scene 7 saying that over 90% of online merchants to add rich media and social networking functions in 2009. (As a rich media supplier, we could have guessed a big number).

Other priorities from the report are:
* The top four rich media features are lifestyle imagery, alternative views, audio/animation, and zoom.
* For zoom, Europe was significantly lower in deployment rate (21%) versus North America (36%).
* The highest ranking planned rich media features were 360-degree spin, online catalogues, podcasts, product comparisons and videos.
* The greatest adoption of planned versus already deployed rich media features are in the areas of product comparisons, podcasts, 360-degree spin, mix and match, and 3D visualisation.
* Ca. 20% have deployed blogs, RSS feeds, user ratings/rankings/comments and syndicated content.
* User ratings/rankings/comments, URL sharing, user generated content, and blogs were ranked as the most effective, while syndicated content ranked lower in effectiveness.
* Over 30% claimed user ratings and blogs as their highest planned features.
* Increased clicks/usage and conversion rates remain the top metrics. Both qualitative feedback and increased revenues metrics have risen in importance over the year, along with tracking increases in average order size.
* 92% of all respondents will be conducting customer experience projects within the coming year.
* Compared to last year, where over 53% were planning new projects within six months, this year, perhaps due to economic climate, these projects have shifted to the latter half of 2009.