Processing .....please wait.. 
The article has been forwarded.... 
News >> Technology >>
Shopping Apps for Coming up Shopping Season
By siliconindia
|
Monday, 14 November 2011, 23:44 IST
Tablets
As tablets have grown to be a browsing device, the iPad, and other devices are also becoming a way to shop. And retailers are catching on to this trend. According to a National Retail Federation study, 20 percent of retailers have invested in tablet device apps this holiday season.
Google debuted Catalogs in August, an app for tablet devices that includes 200 catalogs from major brands including Anthropologie, Bare Escentuals, Bergdorf Goodman, Crate and Barrel, L.L. Bean, Land's End, Macy's, Neiman Marcus, and others.
The app is more than just a browsing experience. When consumers find an item they do like to purchase, they can tap to find it in a store nearby or tap "Buy on Website" to visit the merchant online.
The tablet is the ultimate leanback experience and plays a big role in holiday shopping as a replacement for the mail order catalogs you used to browse through.
PayPal calls it "couch commerce" and believes that tablet commerce will have a record year. PayPal recently reported that consumers who own both a tablet and a Smartphone are significantly more likely 63 percent to indicate increased overall spending on mobile purchases, versus owners of Smartphone's only 29 percent.
Owners of both a tablet and a Smartphone buy nearly twice as often as those who only have smartphones and more than 40% of dual owners made more than 20 mobile purchases over the past year, compared to only 12 percent of Smartphone only owners.
Forrester just released a report predicting a 15 percent increase in online shopping sales this year to nearly $60 billion, partly due to the increase in consumer-use of tablet computers for shopping.
