Teenagers can purchase items using the Hollister app, with parents footing the bill.
Hollister, the popular apparel brand, has launched a new mobile app function called Share2Pay. This innovative feature, developed by parent company Abercrombie & Fitch Co., is aimed at reducing friction in shopping for teens and their parents, thereby boosting completed orders significantly.
The new patent-pending technology allows customers to share their shopping carts with purchasers such as parents and guardians. The shopping bag can be shared from Hollister's mobile app with the purchaser via text message for customers in the U.S. and U.K. Purchasers can change, add, and remove items from the shopping bag through their mobile app before paying.
This move comes as Hollister has been working to gain more success with younger audiences. The brand has been experimenting with various strategies, including a soft launch of the payment options that showed customers who used it placed orders nearly twice as much as those who didn't.
The success of Share2Pay is particularly noteworthy given the current retail landscape. Buy now, pay later has quickly grown in retail despite regulatory concerns. Instagram, for instance, added a pay-in-chat feature for smaller businesses to finalize transactions in the app in July.
However, Hollister's sales fell 15% in the second quarter. The fall in sales was attributed to a greater than anticipated impact from inflation and a shift away from core categories. Despite this setback, the brand is expanding payment options like other companies to stay competitive.
Last holiday season, Hollister debuted an augmented reality store concept with Snapchat. The brand also held a pop-up shop for its subbrand Social Tourist earlier this year. The new Share2Pay feature is aimed at making it easier for Hollister's young customers to tell their parents exactly what they want ahead of the holidays.
By streamlining the checkout process, Share2Pay is intended to support teen customers who often leave their shopping bags idle since they don't hold purchasing power. The feature has proven to be quite effective, nearly doubling mobile order conversion rates among teen customers.
E-commerce darling Shopify announced a new point-of-sale hardware product for retailers last month. As more and more companies explore innovative payment solutions, it will be interesting to see how Hollister's Share2Pay performs in the long run.
- The AI-driven tech in Hollister's Share2Pay mobile app function, aimed at reducing shopping friction, has boosted completed orders significantly among teen customers.
- Inflation and a shift away from core categories are reportedly the reasons behind Hollister's 15% sales fall in the second quarter.
- As more companies, including Shopify, explore innovative payment solutions such as point-of-sale hardware products, it remains to be seen how Hollister's Share2Pay performs in the long run.
- With the Share2Pay feature, Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy (LVMH)-owned fashion-and-beauty brand Sephora is now making it easier for teen customers to share their shopping bags with adult purchasers, replicating the success of Hollister's strategy.
