Touch of Modern Inc. wants to drive more Samsung Galaxy device owners to download and use its app. And it’s doing so by rolling out a Samsung Galaxy device-specific app.

That’s an important market because Samsung owned a 29.2% share of the U.S. mobile market for the three-month period March-June 2016, according to web and mobile measurement firm comScore Inc.

And for Touch of Modern, No. 259 in the Internet Retailer 2016 Top 500 Guide, which relies on its app for 50% of its revenue, it’s a significant opportunity given that only 5% of its overall sales stem from users of its Android app (the remaining 45% of sales stem from its iOS app), says Steven Ou, co-founder and chief technology officer at Touch of Modern.

Samsung Galaxy owners can download the app from the Samsung Galaxy Apps store. While the Samsung Galaxy Apps store, which comes pre-loaded on Samsung Galaxy smartphones post July 2014, offers several hundred Galaxy-specific apps, the Touch of Modern app is the only retail app in the”Exclusive for Samsung” section of the store, Ou says. Samsung did not respond to a request for comment.

“Android is a little weak for us, so this is to help us kick-start that Android app program,” Ou says.

The Galaxy features a few Samsung-specific features, including an exclusive shopping section with about 50 products not available on Touch of Modern’s other apps or website. The retailer also will carry Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. products in the app that are not yet sold in the U.S. For example, the retailer is taking preorders for Samsung’s wireless headphones. Shoppers on the Galaxy app also receive 10% store credit back on their purchases. Samsung is  No. 658 in the Internet Retailer 2016 Global 1000

To help drive downloads, the electronics manufacturer will market the app for the retailer by sending a push notification about the app to Samsung Galaxy Apps store notifications subscribers and featuring it in its app store. Ou would not disclose other details about the arrangement with Samsung.  

Launching a Samsung-specific app makes sense for Touch of Modern, Ou says, because of the 5% of the retailer’s Android app users, 95% use Samsung devices. The retailer does not plan to convert its current Android app users on Samsung devices to the Galaxy app but will instead market the exclusive app to new Touch of Modern consumers on Samsung devices, Ou says.

The new app has about 50,000 total downloads and about 7,000 daily active users, Ou says. That’s a large number considering Touch of Modern’s Android app, which has been around for two years, has 9,000 daily active users.

Touch of Modern’s iOS app has 5 million downloads and about 90,000 daily active users, Ou says. However, Touch of Modern had not made a major update to the Android app in about a year, and it didn’t have such basic functions as product categories and price filters. 

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