Retailers offer apps, Wi-Fi for Black Friday shopping
November 27, 2014 Last updated: Thursday, November 27, 2014, 8:30 PM
By JOAN VERDON
STAFF WRITER |
The Record
This Black Friday, which actually begins tonight, on Thanksgiving, getting shoppers to reach for their smartphones is almost as important to retailers as getting them to reach for their wallets.
While retailers spent the beginning of this week engaged in some of the traditional preparations for Thanksgiving night and Black Friday — stocking shelves, having door-buster specials stacked and ready to go in backrooms and warehouses, unpacking merchandise — some of the most important advance work for this weekend began right after Black Friday 2013, when retailers realized they needed to make it easier to shop by phone.
The country’s largest retailers are greeting customers this weekend with new or upgraded mobile apps that perform functions such as steering them through the store to find a specific item; comparison shopping for them and issuing a refund if they didn’t get the best price; and letting them scan for discounts while shopping.
https://www.northjersey.com/news/business/stores-get-more-connected-1.1142597
