mallMerlin – a magical new retail app?
CBL & Associates Properties has picked its partner for mobile applications in its shopping centers: mallMerlin.
The app isn’t available until later this year, so we can’t give you a hands-on review yet. But it’s got a few interesting features that might whet your mobile appetite. Of course, mallMerlin will have all the usual suspects on board: in-mall navigation, customized deal delivery, and contact information. You’d be hard-pressed to find a retail app that lacks those basics these days, so we hope you’re keeping them in mind when shopping for your own mobile solution.
Now here’s where it gets interesting. mallMerlin will also give retailers the opportunity to display images of their storefront (vital when trying to navigate a new mall, especially when dealing with spotty GPS), to feature products with high-def images, descriptions and pricing, and to offer high-def video. It also lets retailers enhance and customize their discounts and offers before the customers reach the point of sale if they don’t want to be locked in to a one-size-fits-all discount. And it offers co-promotions, so retailers in a shopping center can work together to support each other’s marketing efforts, or to work with the mall’s marketing plans. Finally, it gives retailers a content management system and analytic so promotions can be updated and tracked with ease.
This could raise the bar for retail apps, if it turns out as good as it sounds.
Past in the Future, a cc licensed flickr photo shared by motionblur
