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App Shop Direct Littlewoods

Littlewoods and Very owner Shop Direct 'the last big retailer’ to launch transactional apps

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By Jennifer Faull, Deputy Editor

August 19, 2014 | 2 min read

Shop Direct is to launch its first transactional apps across its range of brands in the coming months after admitting it is probably the last major online retailer not to have one.

Speaking to The Drum, Jonathan Wall, e-commerce director at Shop Direct, said that until now it had focused on honing the mobile web journey and made do with the non-transactional, catalogue apps for the Isme, Very.co.uk, and Littlewoods brands.

“When we first started on the mobile journey three years ago there was so much fighting – should it be a Windows app, Blackberry app, Android, iOS – that we just took the decision then to focus on the mobile web. We continued that as we just saw massive migration to mobile web and our customers at the time just weren’t asking for an app,” Wall explained.

“The only reason we’re doing it now is not because we think the customer is going to get a better shopping experience; it’s because our customers have told us they feel more secure shopping within an app.”

Wall declined to offer any further detail or confirm which Shop Direct brands would have apps launch this year, but did reveal that the designs are in the process of being tested at its in-house UX Lab and should be ready within the next four to six weeks.

The apps comes after Shop Direct revealed it has reached the 'tipping point' in the number of mobile shoppers it sees across its brands, versus desktop.

Shop Direct is among the brands on board to help The Drum discover The Joy of CX on 16 October.

App Shop Direct Littlewoods

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