The “Find-It” app will let Men’s Wearhouse employees check inventory levels across the retailer’s network and add an item to a customer’s order regardless of its location. The retailer will also deploy iPads in more than 650 of its locations so that employees can access the app.

“No segment of the market seems immune from the trend of multi-modal shopping,” said Brennan Hayden, vice president of mobile at [x+1], New York.

“A lot of the time and stress of shopping is removed with a well-designed app.”

Mr. Hayden is not affiliated with Men’s Wearhouse. He commented based on his expertise on the subject.

Men’s Wearhouse declined to comment.

Find it
By rolling out this employee-facing app, Men’s Wearhouse is enhancing the in-store experience for consumers and making it easier for employees to help shoppers.

The Find-It app leverages the retailer’s eCommerce Web site www.menswearhouse.com to search for inventory information.

This means that if a customer is looking for a shirt that is not in stock in that particular retail location, the employee can see where it is in stock and have it delivered to the customer.

Now that Men’s Wearhouse is providing employees with iPads, it can also develop other apps to increase efficiency and productivity to provide better customer service in-store.

Men’s Wearhouse also enables omnichannel shopping for online customers. Consumers can search for products and opt to pick-up in a nearby store after reserving products online.

Consumers can select merchandise from a local store online and then be notified within the hour when the item has been located and is ready for pick-up. This saves time for consumers and helps Men’s Wearhouse employees provide better customer service by being better prepared.

Men’s Wearhouse piloted the reserve online, pick up in-store program in the Houston market and is now launching it company-wide.

Omnichannel retail
As online commerce grows, retailers are realizing that they need to step up their game to drive consumers in-store and create great experiences across channels and platforms.

A number of retailers have rolled out similar efforts to Men’s Wearhouse.

For instance, Gap and Banana Republic recently expanded their “Reserve in Store” pilot to help shoppers save time by reserving items on the go and easily picking them up in-store (see story).

Walmart, Sears and Nordstrom have also been making a bigger bet on ship-to-store efforts, driven by the increasing importance of mobile for the bricks-and-mortar shopping experience (see story).

Other retailers have also been rolling out in-store tablets to better equip sales associates.

For instance, RadioShack opened its first custom concept store in New York on Feb. 1 and armed employees with in-store tablets (see story).

At the NRF 103rd Annual Convention & Expo cited, a Footlocker executive said that arming sales associates with in-store tablets was one way that bricks-and-mortar retailers could help crush online competitors (see story).

“The online shopping experience is training people to shop in their spare moments regardless of location,” Mr. Hayden said. “Many people prefer this mode, and physical stores risk losing these shoppers to the 100 percent online experience without this feature.”

Final Take
Rebecca Borison is editorial assistant on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York