The new Staples Windows 8 app aims to make shopping easier for small businesses. The company has been ramping up its mobile commerce efforts over the past few years and continually looking at ways to drive engagement.

“Staples Windows 8 App is designed and built to provide a best-in-class shopping experience to find, review, compare and buy office products while leveraging Microsoft modern user interface,” said Prat Vemana, director of mobile and Velocity Lab at Staples, Framingham, MA.

“Recognizing that Windows 8 will be used by both consumers and small businesses, we added conveniences, such as the ability to look up which ink you should use for your installed printers, and created a fully transactional application,” he said.

“Staples Windows 8 App lets customers create and share distinctive lists of Staples products, like ‘my favorites’ or ‘recent orders,’ and provides direct access to Staples rewards and tools, like an ink and toner selector, to help personalize customer’s experience and solve their pain points around managing office products.”

Mobile shopping
Through the Windows 8 app snap view, consumers can set up a list of their favorite features from the Staples app on either the left or right-hand side of their screen.

The Staples Windows Store app also works in conjunction with Staples other ecommerce properties and lets customers view or add items to their cart on the Windows Store app, the Staples smartphone app, the company’s mobile site, the tablet site or Staples.com.

With these features, Staples is looking to make the shopping experience more convenient and seamless.

“In the coming weeks we will continue to build awareness and drive app downloads through Staples marketing properties, including email, banner ads, public relations and social media, and training for our associates,” Mr. Vemana said.

“Allowing customers to shop and interact with the Staples brand when, where, and how they want is an important initiative for Staples,” he said.

“Mobile gives us another touch point with our customers and providing best in class on-the-go experiences that solve our customers’ pain points is key to Staples omnichannel strategy.”

Previous endeavors
Staples is no stranger to mobile.

Last year, the company enticed mobile users to start their Black Friday shopping early with mobile-only deals that began on Thanksgiving Day (see story).

Most recently, Staples opened an innovation lab to expedite the delivery of  mobile and online solutions designed to enhance the shopping experience (see story).

“It’s important to be where your customers are and we develop products that help to solve the customer’s pain points wherever they are interacting with the Staples brand,” Mr. Vemana said.

“Windows 8 is a good opportunity to provide a best-in class app experience on new Windows devices,” he said.

“As customers migrate to Windows 8 laptops, desktops, and tablets we will be there to make shopping easy.”

Final Take
Rimma Kats is associate editor on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York