JCPenney is promoting its Joy Worth Giving campaign that will span all of the holiday season by offering an exclusive peek at Black Friday deals to users of its mobile application.

The move was intended as a perk for loyal customers who use the brand’s loyalty app, giving them a head start on the crowds that will inevitably form on the morning of Black Friday. Black Friday marks the beginning of the holiday season for JCPenney.

“Our app users were able to exclusively view our Black Friday deals before anyone else — this was a new holiday perk we added to our app this year,” said a JCPenney spokesperson.

Black Friday
Black Friday is drawing nearer and with it the biggest shopping season of the year – the holidays.

For big brand such as JCPenney, preparing for Black Friday and the ensuing holiday shopping season is one of the biggest priorities they have. Increasingly, brands are turning to mobile to help ease the burden of increased foot traffic and to drum up excitement for the business.

JCPenney leveraged its community of loyalty app users by giving them a sneak peek at what the brand would have on sale for the big day. As consumers hunger for the best deals, giving their mobile users a special preview rewards them for being loyal customers as well as incentivizing non-app users to give the loyalty program a try to earn similar rewards.

The app offers a variety of functions that will be valuable to both customers who want to find the best deals as well as employees of the store who want to keep things orderly and efficient.

Mobile loyalty
Users of the app can locate items in the store by searching through the app as well as get coupons and save promotions to their mobile wallets.

Those coupons can then be shown in-store at the cash register to be redeemed.

This capability will be paramount when Black Friday rolls around, especially for app users who have already had time to study the available deals thanks to the sneak peek and can use the locating feature to make a beeline for the items they have already picked out.

Finally, JCPenney is introducing a price match guarantee feature that lets consumers get discounts on any product if they find it at a lower price somewhere else within 14 days of purchasing it.

JCPenney is making use of mobile as a powerful tool for decision making and purchasing this Black Friday, offering a reward for its loyal customers and enticing new ones to join the fold, just in time for the big holiday season

“We’re seeing more and more customers use their smart phone as a shopping tool inside the store and expect that trend to continue this holiday season,” the spokesperson said. “We launched a redesigned app on iOS and Android earlier this year, offering a more simplified shopping experience.“