Best Buy is continuing to grow its mobile presence with an iPad application that lets users shop deals by creating customized content.

The app is available for free download in Apple’s App Store. Best Buy has heavily relied on mobile in the past to drive both online and in-store traffic.

“The Best Buy iPad app helps the company expand and develop new sales channels, offers more choice for loyal consumers and at the same time offers great educational opportunities to potential consumers as well,” said Isabella Lin, content director at Appitalism, New York.

“This app is more focused on online sales – this is a great idea for Best Buy, helping them maximize their business opportunity, maximize their customer service and bring convenience to their customers as much as they can,” she said.

“With the trend of the online development of society as a whole, this is a must experience sales channel. The online marketing channel makes it able to bring the quality shopping experience to the consumers who has no time to go to a store but still can experience the same level of shopping experience.”

Ms. Lin is not affiliated with Best Buy. She commented based on her expertise on the subject.

Best Buy did not respond to press inquiries.

Mobile deals
The Best Buy app aggregates all of the retailer’s deals into one place.

The app is sectioned off into weekly, daily, recently-viewed and popular deals.

The app also uses a mobile device’s built-in GPS as a way to speculate on what types of deals are most relevant for a user.

Users can set their preferred store and view contact information and store hours directly from the app.

There is also a page where users can customize their own preferences. Consumers can choose from a list of product categories to create a slim list of deals and can slide their finger around the screen to set an order that content appears.

Search plays a big role in how consumers discover content. For instance, consumers can browse deals by filtering results for weekly or daily products.

Moreover, a search bar at the top of the screen lets users filter search results to find specific products and can be sorted by brands and ratings.

Users can then read reviews on products, view photos and add products to their shopping cart.

Consumers with a Best Buy account can log-in to speed up the check-out process. Users can also sign-in as a guest and fill out their shipping and contact information.

Mobile past
Best Buy has a long history in mobile.

In the past year, the company has continued to rely on advertising and marketing efforts that drive in-store traffic.

Most recently, Best Buy began working with Placecast and SocialVibe on a location-based campaign that includes geo-targeted advertising, offers and rewards (see story).

The company also ran multiple location-based advertising campaigns in 2012, including one that drove TV sales by showing users where the nearest store was located (see story).

For big-box retailers specifically, mobile is quickly becoming the go-to channel for brands to connect vast online and in-store inventories.

In this case, Best Buy is banking on an app as a way to drive repeat traffic with customized deals that give users an incentive for shopping through their handsets.

“There are opportunities for a wider range of applications on the iPad given that the iPad has a very large audience and user base in its own right,” Ms. Lin said.

“The deals are specially designed with a clever design of a daily deal from its offering,” she said.

“The deals are very affordable and most likely customers will download this Best Buy iPad app and watch the deals every day to catch the best deal.”

Final Take
Lauren Johnson is associate reporter on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York