Last week, the lovely guys at Debenhams invited me to meet with them and preview their new Nokia and Android fully transactional shopping apps. This was hugely exciting for me, as some of you may know I work in e-commerce so I’m a little bit of a tech geek. The iPhone app which was launched last year was hugely successful, with 360,000 downloads and sales of over £1m in 5 months, proving that m-commerce isn’t just an emerging idea or fad. Both apps are available to download now, which makes Debenhams the first high-street store to offer apps for all smartphone platforms. Despite the popularity of iPhones, Android is actually the most popular mobile platform in Europe now so it’s great that Debenhams are making their app available to all.
Smartphones have revolutionised many aspects of our lives, not least fashion. With magazine, styling and blogging apps as well as shopping apps, we’re spoilt for choice. But I think very few shopping apps actually add value to the overall shopping experience in comparison to using a mobile-friendly site. Some apps aren’t even transactional which is rather frustrating and pointless. What impressed me most about the app is all of the extra features which they’ve tied into one comprehensive little package. As well as a store finder, wish list, gift finder and video area, the app also has a barcode scanner which is super useful for enriching the in-store shopping experience by allowing customers to access reviews, check prices, create gift lists in store as well as looking at full product ranges. It also has a QR reader which is used for scanning those funny square barcodes which are being featured in their print advertising.
For me, the app had everything you could possibly need or want to shop with. By far, the best thing about it is that it offers a truly seamless online and offline shopping experience which is what most retailers get wrong. This app has definitely raised the bar.
The apps are available to download now through the app store.
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