A luxury fashion brand is turning to a mobile technology start-up to enable store employees to better serve its upscale clientele.
Steven Alan, a clothing designer and retailer with 24 bricks-and-mortar locations, is unveiling its first app through mobile shopping platform NewStore. Steven Alan’s retail associates will be equipped with iPhones that have the NewStore app on them. A NewStore spokeswoman declined to specify when the apps will go live, saying only “we are still developing our mobile retail platform and Steven Alan will be among the first brands to implement it.” NewStore also declined to specify how much it costs to implement their technology. Steven Alan did not return a request for comment.
The app will allow store employees to see what Steven Alan has in stock. If an item a shopper wants is not available in that store the employee will be able to use the app to order it from another store or from the company’s online order fulfillment center. Associates also will be able to complete transactions in-store using their iPhones and have those orders sent directly to any address the customer chooses. Employees will also be able to collect payment through the app so shoppers don’t have to wait in line at the register to check out.
Dawn Trenson, director of e-commerce at Steven Alan, says the company prides itself on providing a satisfying online shopping experience. But, she says, “All of that can go down the drain if someone has a bad experience in a store and tells their three friends. It’s really important that we not only partner with the brick and mortar side of the business and but also align us as one big store and make sure that we deliver that same experience, if not better.”
In addition to creating an app for Steven Alan associates, NewStore also created a Steven Alan app for consumers. Both are only available now for Apple iOS devices. Eventually there are plans to unveil an Android version of the app, but NewStore says it’s focusing on perfecting its iOS version first.
Trenson says the app will allow shoppers to pay in store using Apple Pay, a perk she says many of the retailer’s customers have been asking for.
Steven Alan does less than $10 million per year in sales online each year, though Trenson declined to provide specific sales figures. The clothing brand is one of the first major retailers to sign on with NewStore, which launched in late September.
“We’re really aiming to increase conversions and promoting engagement and unifying this online and offline world,” says Tom Schuster, senior vice president of field services at NewStore. “There’s the expectation as well as the necessity. If you take a mobile approach, the associates have an iPhone, the customers have an iPhone, they’re using apps that are intuitive, they’re easier to use and you don’t have to train people.”
Schuster says the company will announce other new retail clients in the near future. NewStore has raised $38 million in funding led by venture capital firm General Catalyst Partners. According to General Catalyst Partners’ CrunchBase profile, the firm has also invested in eyewear retailer Warby Parker (No. 247 in the Internet Retailer 2015 Top 500 Guide), healthy snack retailer NatureBox (No. 387), and online marketplace Jet.com.