ARCHIVES: This is legacy content from before Industry Dive acquired Mobile Commerce Daily in early 2017. Some information, such as publication dates, may not have migrated over. Check out our topic page for the latest mobile commerce news.

Seattle residents leverage mobile to clean their houses post-holiday

Storrage, a provider of self-storage, home pick-up and delivery, is now offering its services via a mobile application in time for the holidays to allow Seattle residents the ability to easily clean their houses and pack away their holiday decorations as the season comes to a close. 

Customers can take advantage of the app Un-Deck the Halls for a special promotion for only $1, enticing them to use it. Due to all the build-up of excitement and stress that the holiday season brings, this mobile solution allows consumers to combat the busy time with ease.

“A lot of people relate to the chore of holiday clean-up and, when they hear about our service, they are excited to give it a try,” said Terry Drayton, founder and CEO of Storrage. “By offering as an app, we’re making it easy for customers to immediately sign-up and get started; they just pull their phone out of their pocket and download the app.

“Our customers also use the camera and voice recognition capabilities built-in to their smartphones to take pictures and add descriptions that make it easy to catalog and find specific items when they retrieve them back next holiday season,” he said.

Easy cleaning
The app is available on iOS and Android smartphones and tablets.

Users can use the app to have storage containers delivered to their door, and once they are filled with decorations, they can be picked up and stored until the next holiday season.

The service is currently only available to Seattle residents. Storrage is in charge of storing a variety of items for its customers, but out of all the items, holiday decorations are the number one most items.

The special promotion currently going on includes one high-quality container and ornament tray to keep. To signup for the promotion, customers need to download the free app, setup an account, enter a day, time and location to have containers dropped off at their residence or business, enter a day, time and location to have containers picked up and pay $1 for the first month’s storage of each container.

The monthly cost to store each container is then $4 per month. More details on the promotion can be viewed online at Storrage.com/undeck-the-halls.

Omnichannel solutions
By implementing a mobile solution to accompany a physical channel, brands are able to appeal to more consumers and build their businesses for the future of commerce.

For example, during the final week of the holiday shopping season, Target ramped up efforts to bring added convenience to last-minute shoppers via a variety of mobile services, including special offers, store pickup and gift cards.

According to a recent survey from location-based mobile app Retale, 20 percent of all holiday shoppers wait until the last-minute to buy their gifts and 58 percent will use smartphones or tablets to help them shop. Target, which let shoppers place mobile orders on Christmas Eve as late as 5 p.m. and pick them up that day, is a great example of how mobile can be used to capture last minute sales (see story).

Similarly, Mazda USA is letting customers schedule their own service appointments through smartphones as the automaker strives to enhance the vehicle owner’s experience on mobile, making it easier to do business with the dealer.

The automaker’s Xtime-assisted mobile foray is also allowing anyone in the dealership to answer the phone, book service orders and ensure efficient use of the shop. It shows how mobile can bring value to the operation of vehicle dealerships, including both the consumer experience and the management of service departments (see story).

Storrage had a similar concept, including the use of a multichannel experience.

“The inspiration came from our own personal experiences of taking decorations down after the holidays,” Mr. Drayton said. “We all recognized that putting them up is the fun part and taking them down the drudgery.

“From that starting point, we designed a program that we felt could simplify the whole process while, at the same time, creating more space for families,” he said.

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