Online retailer Zappos.com has launched Zappos Now, a digital catalog and lifestyle magazine app that includes editorial content on current fashion trends and the ability to shop directly within the app, the company said Dec. 16.
“We see incredible performance and conversion in our Zappos.com shopping app, and this app is very complementary to that,” said Will Young, director of Zappos.com. “With this app, we wanted to create more of an experience, rather than just drilling down into 60,000 products with search.”
The inaugural issue features a report on color trends and an interview with Zappos.com stylist Brooke Hyden, as well as a holiday gift guide. Users can purchase all of the products featured in the editorial pages, make notes about them and create shopping lists of items to buy later.
“We wanted to leverage the beautiful experience that an iPad offers by providing a curated experience, and to push an editorial experience around our product,” said Carrie Whitehead, user interface product lead at Zappos Now. “The idea is to have an immersive experience on the iPad that has a voice and story to it that can be shared.”
Zappos Now, which is currently available on iTunes, also includes social sharing features that enable users to share articles and products to their social media pages from within the app.
To promote the new app, Zappos is running ads on Google and Facebook, and is featuring the app on the Zappos.com homepage. To encourage in-app shopping, Zappos Now customers will get free next business day shipping without any minimum purchase requirements.
Young said that there are plans for additional social sharing features, push notifications and email signup in future issues of the magazine.
