App Friday? Black Friday Shoppers Download Retail Apps
Every American knows Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, is the biggest shopping day of the year. Almost a holiday itself, it begins in the wee small hours of the morning, with bargain hunters lining up outside malls and big box retailers before dawn to snatch up the year’s hottest gifts at sale prices.
Retailers across the country want to keep customers piling into their stores and away from the Internet, but how to do it? How about free apps? According to a Thanksgiving Day article in The New York Times, “The Shrewd Shopper Carries a Smartphone,” major retailers are trying to reach their customers’ wallets via their smartphones, with free apps designed to bring shoppers into their stores and keep them there.
On Black Friday, Macy’s is sending exclusive app-only deals to shoppers for every five minutes they remain in the store; at its flagship Herald Square store in Manhattan, the app will alert shoppers to specially priced items and guide them directly to the item. Walmart’s Black Friday app will be specific to each of its stores – as with the Macy’s app, the Walmart app will alert customers to the location of top sale items in each store. The Westfield Group, which owns almost 50 malls across the U.S., is providing shoppers with a new app that tells shoppers which stores in the mall carry a specific item and how much it costs.
This Christmas, it seems there will be as many new apps as there are snowflakes in a blizzard. Before you turn your family and their Smartphones loose at the mall, consider making 2X MDM part of your holiday plans. 2X MDM is an online service designed so you can manage, secure, monitor, find and track mobile phones, tablets or notebook computers from an easy to use online dashboard. One of its key features is app management – you can use the service to install an app remotely to any number of connected devices. Suppose your kids show up at the Herald Square Macy’s on Black Friday without having downloaded the Macy’s app to their Smartphones? You can install it on their phones from the online dashboard and send them off toward the bargains. You can also track their progress via Google maps and, should one of them lose his or her phone, you can lock the phone or wipe it clean of data, even if it’s not connected to the Internet, by SMS.
This Black Friday, why not avail yourself and your family of the best bargain out there? Sign up for a free Mobile Device Manager account today. We won’t make you wait in line.
