Knowing that its customers remain busy through the holiday season, Banana Republic is relating to them by trying to ease their stress during The Procrastinators Event. As mobile is increasingly proving to be a problem-solver, Banana Republic is recognizing its potential by leveraging mobile capabilities to better its own business.

“People today live their lives on mobile, so partnering with mobile apps that could help us deliver last-minute services felt like the natural and obvious way to go,” said Chris Nicklo, vice president of marketing at Banana Republic, San Francisco. “These partners were at the top of our list when we started our exploration.

“As mobile continues to grows in importance for our customers, it will continue to grow in importance for us, both in terms of marketing outreach as well as shopping and service delivery,” he said.

Appealing to mobile shoppers
The entire promotion will begin Dec. 17 and will go through Dec. 22.

In addition to Curb and deliv, Banana Republic will also be teaming with TaskRabbit and Shyp to simplify the busy time of year for shoppers.

Customers that shop at all U.S. stores will receive a $30 credit from TaskRabbit, a task-outsourcing platform, to help with last-minute tasks, such as holiday party cleaning help and hanging Christmas tree lights.

To avoid traffic and carrying around heavy packages, Banana Republic can catch a free ride, up to $20, with Curb, a mobile taxi service.

Shoppers in San Francisco, New York and Miami will be given a $25 credit at the register that can be used to ship their gifts through Shyp, a mobile delivery service. Customers that visit the Banana Republic store in San Francisco on Grant Avenue, the Soho store in New York and Aventura Mall in Miami can give their gifts to Shyp ambassadors to be gift wrapped with Brit+Co-designed wrapping paper. Their items will then be shipped off to their destinations.

Banana Republic will also give shoppers 10 percent off a purchase worth $50 or more in gift cards, and the retailer will have special, express lanes open for gift card purchasers.

Shoppers can learn more about the promotions at Bananarepublic.com/lastminute.

Through these partnerships, Banana Republic can see which apps are interacted with and used more often than others. The retailer can then use data from this effort for future efforts.

Getting mobile right
The past few years have seen an increase of mobile efforts for Banana Republic, and social events further aid in the branding of the retailer and building of its community.

This summer, Banana Republic conducted via social media a marketing campaign seeking to drive foot traffic by offering goodies such as products from Skinnygirl Cocktails and Benefit Cosmetics to attendees of a special in-store event.

Calling the event Girls Night Out, Banana Republic worked with other brands that share a similar audience to host a grand occasion sure to bring shoppers into its stores. Meanwhile, the other participating brands gained exposure, given that sharing samples can often lead to further sales transactions (see story).

In 2013, Banana Republic, Modcloth and eBay were a handful of the first retailers to crank out shoppable content for news reading application Flipboard.

The curated catalogs were built on a feature that Flipboard rolled out about six months prior that let consumers pack their own personalized magazines with videos, pictures and articles. Additional retailers to push out the new shoppable content were Birchbox and Fab (see story).

“In all the business of the holiday shopping season, we believed that focusing on convenience would be a way for Banana Republic to stand out and offer something that would be really valued by our customers,” Mr. Nicklo said.

Final Take
Caitlyn Bohannon is an editorial assistant on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York