Catalog aggregator provider Catalog Spree has launched a mobile app that enables back-to-school shoppers to browse products from multiple retailers via what the vendor calls a digital “lookbook.”
The app for iPhone and iPad devices allows access to some 350 catalogs from such retailers as Target Corp. (No. 18 in the new Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide), Macy’s Inc. (No. 12), Kohl’s Corp. (No. 26), Nordstrom Inc. (No. 28), and Forever 21 (No. 353).
Retailers pay for the service on a price-per-unique reader model, says Catalog Spree CEO Joaquin Ruiz. The rate runs 40 cents per unique reader. Retailers provide a data feed to Catalog Spree; the vendor can design the catalogs, he says.
Here is how the app works: Consumers tap on a catalog and then flip through the digital pages to browse products. Shoppers tap on specific products to learn more about them, and can share those products via social networks such as Facebook and Pinterest, or via e-mail. Shoppers also can save products to their Catalog Spree shopping lists, and make purchases by hitting a buy button, which directs them to the retailer’s e-commerce site for payment.
“As consumers use the app, it becomes more attuned to their tastes and preferences in order to deliver a personalized mobile shopping experience,” Ruiz says. “For example, if a consumer has expressed an interest in Fab, then anytime a new Fab lookbook is published it will appear in their My Spree” section on the Catalog Spree app. Fab.com is a retailer that sells design-inspired products such as art, furniture and jewelry. It is No. 150 in the Top 500.
Catalog Spree previously has worked with other e-retailers, including flash-sale merchant One Kings Lane, to produce digital catalogs.