Zola continues to climb the charts as it has aimed to reinvent the wedding registry arena by channeling mobile and has seen as much as 50 percent growth from month to month. Following its initial launch in October 2013, the brand climbed the ranks and now sits in the number three spot in the wedding registry category on the App Store.

“We want to incorporate Zola into couples’ wedding registry by making it possible for them to pull products from anywhere onto their registry on Zola,” said Shan-Lyn Ma, founder of Zola, New York.

Powering a solution
Through updates provided by iOS 8, Zola will allow its users to add any product found on the mobile Web to their wedding registry on Zola.

For example, if users find a product on Target.com that they like, users can easily add this via Apple’s tool of Custom Action. Custom Action is the ability to create a new kind of interaction from Mobile Safari to any iPhone app.

Zola users can also set up their notifications preferences to receive real-time updates about their registry. Through this view, users can see how many gifts have been purchased and how much cash they have been given.

While the wedding registry service values word-of-mouth advertising, by users telling their friends of the experience they had on Zola, the platform also used social marketing to reach new users, particularly on Facebook and Twitter.

Zola’s service also allows users to snap bar codes of items they see in stores and can directly add them to their registry.

Zola’s database currently consists of 30,000 couples and continues to grow about 50 percent per month.

Zola partners with top retailers, such as blender manufacturer Vitamix and cookware manufacturer Le Creuset, to provide a seamless wedding planning experience via its ecommerce Web site and mobile app. Other retailers that the service works with are Wusthof, Peugeot, Joseph Joseph, Riedel, Royal Copenhagen and many others.

Wedding movements
In April, bridal destination The Knot rolled out an update to an application launched earlier this year that helps brides map out their weddings with local resources.

Photo-based and recommended vendor information has been added to The Knot Wedding Planner app for iPhone devices. The app was originally launched in late January as a resource for couples to organize and find the right resources to plan a wedding (see story).

French jeweler Chaumet recently added a digital touchpoint for consumers shopping for engagement and wedding rings with a new iOS mobile application dedicated to weddings pieces.

Chaumet Marriage lets consumers browse the collections of rings and other ceremony essentials and also educates on the house’s history of marital jewels. These are pieces that consumers contemplate heavily before purchasing, so making research easily accessible on a phone or tablet will help Chaumet reach those planning a wedding (see story).

By integrating technology into wedding planning, users are met with seamless ways to prepare for their special day.

“Our goal is to provide a technological experience for modern couples and give them the ability to personalize everything when planning for their wedding,” Ms. Ma said.

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