As more and more people own tablet devices, online shopping is moving towards this easy-to-carry, reader-friendly screen. According to a recent Forrester Research study, more than half of U.S. consumers who own both a tablet device and a smartphone say they prefer to shop via the tablet. And while only about 12% of all online shoppers now own tablets such as the iPad, the study shows that tablets currently generate 21% of the overall mobile traffic flowing to retailer websites.
Aside from just browsing catalogs electronically, the tablet shopping experience hasn’t been much different from surfing from your desktop computer. But new apps for retailers from companies such as Revel Touch are changing all that.
Apparel companies Anthropologie and Tea Collection are the first retailers to debut iPad apps powered by Revel Touch. These apps let shoppers do things like play with putting different outfits together, view a whole page of thumbnail images of various types of clothing, poke through Facebook and Tumblr pages, and sneak peeks at the company behind the scenes.
“Revel Touch combines the aspirational aspects of a magazine, the immersion of social content, and the efficiency of online transactions into one very distinguished and innovative ecommerce experience that is optimized for touch,” says Revel Touch co-founder (and former PayPal employee) Luciana Guarnieri.
Some of the unique features of apps developed on Revel Touch’s platform include highly interactive pages (called “play pages” by the Revel Team), says Guarnieri. A few examples of these pages include the “Build a Look” page where users can put outfits together, shop the look they just created, and share them on social platforms.
Anthropologie and a Bird’s-Eye View
One very popular feature is the “Bubble” page, named “Bird’s Eye” view on Anthropologie’s app, and “All at Once” on Tea Collection’s app, where the user can see a large amount of products at once in a fun and engaging way. “At a touch, they can zoom in into each product allowing them to quickly browse, select and shop,” Guarnieri said.
Above: an example of the Anthropologie “Bird’s Eye View” on their iPad app, powered by Revel Touch technology.
This feature is also proving popular with Anthropologie’s app users.
“My favorite part of this section has to be the Bird’s Eye View, which allows you to see all the products from a given section on one screen,” writes “Roxy” in the Effortless Anthropologie blog.
“It would be cool to have the ability to sort this screen and I wish there was a magnifying option,” says Roxy, although she adds, “I suppose you can always take advantage of Apple’s built-in magnifying bubble.” She says the “Bird’s Eye View” is “one of my favorite pages in the app. Right now you can view most of the clothing sections and one home section – here’s hoping they expand that.”
Anthropologie App Shopper Reviews
So far, user feedback in the Reviews section of the Anthropologie app in the App Store has been positive, with an average of four out of five stars from 27 different reviewers. “I love using this app to look at all the fabulous Anthro clothes…I adore being able to click on the shoes/sweater/blouse that looks cute and going directly to it,” said a shopper identifying herself as “Louisa Shields.”
“The pictures are excellent and you can zoom really close to see details, like fabric textures,” said a reviewer named “Ricol.” This user said they really liked the “Sorts Kinds” pages “where one can play with different items to build a complete outfit.”
But another reviewer had a quibble with the Anthro app, saying “Fifty percent of what I see on the web site in a regular browser is missing in the app, stock is not updated, and categories are missing. What happened to sweater, outerwear, etc.?”
Tea Collection 
The iPad app for Tea Collection, a San-Francisco based clothing company with “a vision of bringing the fusion of worldwide cultures and modern design to fashion,” sports a clean, colorful opening page, with two options in bright pink: “Shop Category” and “Shop Experience.”
Right: opening screen of the Tea Collection iPad app, powered by Revel Touch.
The Tea app makes shopping a pleasurable experience, with its easy-to-navigate menus and clean, colorful graphics. With any clothing item, you can click the “heart” icon to the lower right and make it one of your “favorites.” You can also “Filter” by size, or “Sort” by price or by date.
Customizing Your Outfit
As in the Anthropologie app, the Tea app gives you the ability to “Build Your Look,” where you can assemble a custom outfit by swiping your finger on templates of the various clothing types in a grid layout featuring tunics, tees tops, sweaters hoodies, leggings, and accessories such as shoes and boots. Then, you can click one button, “Buy the Look,” to buy the whole outfit, and the Tea app will present you with a list of the items you chose for the outfit and “add to bag” buttons.
Bringing Social Media into the Mix
Beyond just shopping, shoppers can use the Revel Touch-powered apps to share their favorite looks, and explore the companies’ social media pages from one launching point. “Retailers have been spending time developing a large number of assets (images, video, social presence) to further engage consumers with brands,” says Guarnieri. But, she notes, these assets are spread across several channels (e.g. Youtube, Flickr, Facebook, Tumblr), and “most consumers unfortunately do not come across these great brand assets unless they are specifically looking for them, because their distribution is fragmented across channels.”
She says Revel Touch allows brands to re-use these assets “and bring them into the tablet experience,” adding, “Brands have the flexibility to decide what type of assets or channels they would like to incorporate into their app.” For instance, Anthropologie has chosen to bring their Facebook and Tumblr pages into their app. You can find these pages under the “Anthropologie Elsewhere” section, right on the home page of the app on the iPad screen.
“Consumers currently can share on Facebook and Twitter, and email a product or a page in the app,” says Guarnieri. And if the retailer has Facebook comments embedded into their product pages, Revel Touch brings these comments into the product pages in the app, she says. Users can view comments from others and publish comments themselves.
Affordability for Retailers and the Outlook for Smaller Sellers
In terms of the cost of the Revel Touch app technology, Guarnieri says, “The investment from the part of the seller is in general lower than in investing on a high-end custom app developed by an agency and that has no ecommerce functionality.” She says the cost is “quite reasonable” for a medium to large brand, “especially given that Revel Touch provides a long-term solution (platform) that is both flexible and gives the retailer control over content and timing.”
But Revel Touch is also working on developing a “self-serve” solution “which would allow smaller brands to get into the tablet space and offer their customer base such (an) innovative experience,” said Guarnieri, who expects this solution to be available in the second half of 2012.
Coming Attractions: Other Platforms
What about Revel Touch apps beyond the iPad? “Yes, stay tuned,” says Guarnieri. “We expect to expand our solution to other mobile platforms in 2012.” She also says they currently have a “long pipeline of brands that we have been talking to and other contracts in place but we are not ready to make an announcement yet.”
Article source: http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abu/y212/m01/abu0302/s05