Leading High Street retailer Topshop has created a fully transactional, multichannel iPhone app that brings the entire Topshop product catalogue to customers and actively engages with them in-store, at home and online.
Topshop, the leading name in high street fashion retail, had already recognised the immense potential of its mobile channels, with a significant percentage of online sales coming from mobile devices. Topshop required a bespoke approach to the project and a flexibility and so teamed its in house digital expertise with those of platform company Red Ant.
Red Ant worked closely with the Topshop digital team to deliver a new channel for sales and engagement, with opportunities for significant growth in the mid-to-long term, as well as a highly polished, market-leading interface and featureset. The app also has an enhanced in-store and social engagement features, including scanning, sharing and favourites.
It was also implemented exclusively via the existing e-commerce setup, requiring minimal work from Topshop systems teams.
Working in collaboration with the team at Topshop, Red Ant used its robust technical expertise to deliver the brand’s strategy and vision – helping to identify the best and most customer-appropriate featureset and creating an exciting roadmap for future releases. Keeping Topshop’s brand identity and customer experience at heart, the result is a feature-rich, user-focused app that uses barcode and QR scanning and location awareness to bridge their on- and offline marketing activities in a brand new way. It also draws together their various digital and social media channels (blog, videos, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and one-off campaigns like London Fashion Week) into one place.
The app is also designed to offer seamless product sharing to generate customer buzz and to deliver fully transactional shopping to their app users and drives impulse purchasing by offering daily catalogue updates as a way to keep up with the 300+ new pieces Topshop introduces every week.
Within just four weeks of launch, the app has already seen more than 280,000 downloads, an average 4.5 star rating in the App Store, and an overwhelmingly positive response on social media channels.
Topshop’s Head of E-Commerce Kate Walmsley says: “We are thrilled by the enthusiastic response from our customers. Thanks to Red Ant’s technical prowess and mobile expertise we have been able to deliver a truly bespoke experience that reflects the Topshop brand and supports our mobile strategy. We look forward to delivering the exciting roadmap of new developments and features to come.”
Red Ant’s Director of Mobile Dan Hartveld adds: “We’re really excited about the opportunities that this app opens up for Topshop. A fully transactional app is now what users expect from a major retailer’s mobile presence. The Topshop iPhone app’s social integration and in-store crossover features also mean Topshop can truly integrate with consumer lifestyles and create seamless multi-channel experiences – something many fashion retailers have been unable to achieve. All this, with minimal impact on their existing infrastructure.”
