21 November 2011

Retailers deck their iPad apps for Christmas

As the holiday season approaches, stores are looking to deck more than just their halls.

With more and more people buying their gifts online, retailers are commissioning redesigned tablet apps in time for the holidays in the hopes of giving shoppers a similar experience to going into the actual shop.

Many stores offer a unique ambience. When a shopper walks into Anthropologie, for example, they are met with the feeling they've entered someone's artsy and bohemian home.

At least, that's what the store's designers are hoping people will think. Their e-commerce site, however, is less imaginative - offering simple pictures of things to buy and clothes worn by wooden mannequins.

"There's always been a little disappointment with the online experience, because the Web site needs to be practical and doesn't engage the customers as well as the store experience and the catalogue," said Chris Love, director of portfolio management at Anthropologie. "We're thinking about the iPad as a new channel that needs to be treated differently."

According to Forrester Research, just 8 per cent of online shoppers own tablet devices, and retailers have previously spent just a paltry $14,000 (£8975) on tablet apps. However, 60 per cent of those tablet owners use them to shop and many of them have said they prefer shopping on tablets to smartphones and computers.

This shift in shopping preference is making many shops rethink the tablet apps they offer - seeking to make them more exciting by taking advantage of its touch screen to flip through and zoom, adding videos and moving images, as well as social network connections.

The effort certainly seems to be paying off. In Anthropolgie's case, before the revamped app's introduction, 6 per cent of sales came from shoppers visiting the Web site on iPads. However, Love said he expects the new app to account for 20 per cent of sales in a year.

There are now several companies who are creating exciting catalogue apps, which include Revel Touch, who designed Anthropologie's app, as well as Google, TheFind and Catalog Spree.

"The last major innovation in the retail space was in the late 1870s with the introduction of the catalogue," said Joaqu&8055;n Ruiz, chief executive of Catalog Spree. "You can bring the objects to life on an iPad and you can't do that on paper - and you don't have to chop down a tree."