Victoria’s Secret Reaches for Mobile Shoppers

Mobile is considered a highly personal medium, and intimate apparel retailer Victoria’s Secret is raising that intimacy bar with the soft launch of a new mobile e-commerce site and a text-message campaign to promote the site.

The dedicated mobile site offers to let shoppers “GetSexy Anywhere,” as the welcome page says.

Users can shop the Victoria’s Secret catalog that is available on the retailer’s main Web site or in print by entering an item number into a “Catalogue Quick Order” query box. Once they’ve located the item they want, they can then buy it securely over the mobile site and check the status of their shipments.

Users can also purchase gift cards from the site, either on plastic or in an e-card form that can then be e-mailed to a recipient and used for online purchases.

A “Special Offers”’ tab on the mobile site lets wireless coppers access special discounts from their handsets. For example, through June 21, shoppers who spend $100 or more on the mobile site and enter a special offer code will get free shipping in the contiguous U.S.

Lingerie products are shown with color thumbnail photos that can be enlarged, along with product specs, size and color information and price. Customers can select their color, size and quantity and click to add the item to their shopping bag. If they want to speak to a live customer rep about a product or an order, the Victoria’s Secret site allows them to click to call from its shopping pages.

The current site also offers two tabs of the “Top Picks” and “Most Wanted Bras” to aid quick browsing, as well as a “Sale and Clearance” section for discount offers. A store locator lets users search for Victoria’s Secret outlets by ZIP code—either all stores, or specifically those offering just lingerie or those stocking other beauty products as well.

Mobile customers can opt in to receive notice of new products, special offers and promotions either via e-mail or text message. They can also sign up for alerts without going to the mobile site by texting START to the short code 26435 (ANGEL).

Victoria’s Secret reportedly is promoting the mobile site to its in-house e-mail and SMS database. Future text communications to that house list will include a link to the mobile site to help drive traffic.

The site was produced for the retailer, a leading division of Limited Brands, by mobile developer Usablenet.

Mobile e-commerce for real merchandise has been slow to take off in the U.S., largely because of concern over the safety of payment systems. But those attitudes may be about to shift. A recent study by Harris Interactive for security firm Billing Revolution found that 45% of those polled consider shopping by mobile phone to be “somewhat safe.” But that confidence rose among the 18-34 age group, 59% of whom found mobile shopping “somewhat safe,” compared to 34% of those over 54.

Other retailers are experimenting with making partial inventories available for purchase via Web-enabled smartphones. That list includes the biggest e-tailer of them all, Amazon.com. An experimental feature in its free iPhone app called Amazon Remembers lets users take a picture of something they want out in the world and send it to Amazon. The app will try to match that visual image to Amazon’s inventory and send back a message about the availability of the item or something close to it. Shoppers can then buy the item from their phones, or store it in a wish list for later purchase.