Dive Brief:

• Menswear retailer Destination XL Group is rolling out its first mobile app, designed with mobile commerce platform PredictSpring, enabled with features for customers to use both remotely and while they are shopping in Destination XL stores, according to Chain Store Age

• App users have access to filtered product search, and a Google Maps-driven store locator, as well as a scanner for use in-store to scan barcodes on products to get further details about them. 

• The app is currently available for download in the Apple App Store and on Google Play, and customers who download the app will receive 100 rewards points through the retailer's loyalty program.

Dive Insight:

Destination XL's first mobile app appears to be a pretty straightforward affair — not too glitzy, and without any particularly ground-breaking features — but that's just fine. What the app does have are a set of useful mobile and in-store tools. In an age when retailers are rethinking their mobile strategies, retailers and brands could do much worse than lean on the practically.

The highlight of the app is its link to the DXL Mens Apparel Account and Loyalty Program, which allows customers to log in on the app, and have instant access to XL Rewards certificates and point balances, for use online or in-store, the retailer said. That means, ideally, app-using customers should never suffer the pain of visiting the store only to find out they have forgotten their rewards card or discount offer.

Arguably the other notable thing about this app is who DXL worked with to design it. PredictSpring, the mobile app developer founded by a former Google Shopping executive two years ago with a mission to create app experiences to keep users from jumping off apps and onto web sites. Destination XL's loyalty program links may have been developed with that notion in mind.

PredictSpring has made headlines particularly for its work with apparel/lifestyle brands such as Tommy Hilfiger and Charlotte Russe, the latter of which surpassed 1 million downloads back in March, just eight months after it launched. As a newbie to mobile, Destination XL has a ways to go to reach that threshold, but at least it's in good company.