The company worked with Branding Brand to integrate Google Commerce Search Live Local Inventory features into its mobile site. Last year, Branding Brand added in-store inventory data to Vitamin Shoppe’s mobile site by repurposing the company’s Google local availability data feed for use on their product pages.

“It is important to view mobile from a holistic perspective that also includes social and local components,” said Jared Horowitz, chief revenue officer of Branding Brand.

“Displaying local availability data on the go acknowledges that sometimes you can have a mobile means to an in-store end,” he said.

Mobile enhancements
Consumers can access the Vitamin Shoppe mobile site by entering m.vitaminshoppe.com on their mobile browser or vitaminshoppe.com on their device and it redirects them to the mobile version.

Consumers search for a product in the search feature.

From the search results page, consumers can click “Locate Me” after they find their desired product.

Users can view items in stock nearby and get directions to the nearest store or add them to their cart and check out via their smartphone.

“The ability to quickly deliver relevant results is especially important for mobile, and integrating Google Commerce Search provides an easy way for brands to do this, regardless of what’s on their main ecommerce site,” Mr. Horowitz said.

“Before adding Google Commerce Search, we only displayed local availability data on the product pages – people could ‘Check Nearby Stores’ and see if the item was in a store near them,” he said.

“Now, because Google Commerce Search makes it possible to list local product availability in search results, that information is available in fewer page loads. We are committed to constantly analyzing and improving the usability of our sites, and this was another opportunity to do so.”

Commerce features
Additionally, Google Commerce Search can make it easy for brands to run mobile-specific promotions, display customized search results, and add Google-quality search to their site, per Mr. Horowtiz.

BrandingBrand added a button to The Vitamin Shoppe’s mobile site.

Now, whenever consumers search for an item, they will see an orange locate me button at the top of the results page.

“All you have to do is click on it to see which items are available nearby,” Mr. Horowitz said. “We realize that our job doesn’t end after we design and develop a site – in many ways, it’s just beginning.

“This enhancement is perfect for a company like The Vitamin Shoppe, which uses a holistic approach to give customers a better user experience,” he said.

Final Take
Rimma Kats is staff reporter on Mobile Commerce Daily