How iPads Can Enhance the In-Store Furniture Shopping Experience

The iPad is revolutionizing the shopping experience at home as well as inside the store.

Retailers are starting to experiment with the iPad and other touch screen computer devices as ways to enhance the shopping experience.

Mashable.com had an excellent article that highlighted innovative ways the iPad is being used in retail. It included a few great ideas for furniture retailers.

We did a little more research into what retailers in other verticals are doing with the iPad. Here are a few ways that you can use the iPad in your retail store.

Interactive Videos

The iPad was made for video. You might want to have some iPads at your store that help highlight various items such as outdoor living furniture or fire pits and hearths. You could create iPad kiosks near popular furniture items that provide video information about the product.

Product Information

Obviously, the iPad is an excellent way to show various materials and color options not seen on the showroom floor. The shoe company Puma allows customers to design sneakers on iPads at their stores. Furniture retailers could do something similar such as exploring all the different color options of a sofa.

Store Information

The Cosmopolitan hotel in Las Vegas has iPads at the registration counters to explore the hotel’s amenities. Furniture retailers might use iPads as a convenient way to list store information such as frequently ask questions as well as maps and layouts of the store.

Decorating Tips

With it’s high resolution screen and touch capabilities, the iPad can be an excellent tool to help people decorate their home. You can include interactive decorating videos as well as apps that might help them compare colors and fabrics.

iPad Kiosks

Having a self-service iPad kiosk is a great way for customers to find out more about your products and services. Think of innovative information that you would like to feature on an iPad. The clothing retailer Guess has iPad kiosks that allow customers to browse their website. You might want to do something similar.

Customer Support

Some retailers are experimenting with key sales staff using iPads. This makes it easy for salespeople to have all of the information they need in the palm of their hands. Having an iPad could make it easy to check inventory as well as other important information with a swipe of the finger.

How to Get Started

If you’re thinking about using an iPad in your retail store, you might want to talk with an app developer that can create a custom app for your store. There are many app developers out there that can create customizable apps at a reasonable price.

You also always have the option of building something within your website and having iPads feature that website in your store. With either option, you’ll want to do plenty of research to see what will be most beneficial to your furniture store.

These are just a few ways that iPads can enhance the shopping experience at your furniture retail store. The key is to be creative and brainstorm innovative ways to engage customers with this device at your store.





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