Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has issued a special app and taken other steps to encourage Valentine’s Day sales, endeavoring to boost revenues at a time of year when retail sales are often weak following the major purchases made during the Christmas season.
As part of this promotional effort, Apple (APPL) launched an update today for its Apple Store app, enabling iPhone users and others to browse a special “Top Valentine’s Gifts” page directly from their mobile device.
The lifestyle app, whose latest version was issued in November 2013, already allowed users to search the Apple Store, choose personalization when available, and order products from any location with cellular access. With the February holiday approaching, the app now also provides a shortcut to suggested Valentine’s gifts.
Apple Inc. (AAPL) is using the slogan “Love is in the Air,” accompanied by an image of an iPad Air with a pink screensaver and a declaration that this product is a good Valentine’s present, though the device is curiously absent from the special store page linked from the “Love is in the Air” advertisement.
Free custom engraving is available on both the iPad Air and the iPad Mini, which Apple (AAPL) currently suggests can be used to include an amorous message to one’s significant other when gifting one of these devices.
The Cupertino, California firm’s online store has temporarily refocused in several ways to seek to boost sales during the coming romantic holiday. The Apple Store’s main page features various products in passionate colors appealing to the lovesick, such as a bright red iPad Smart Case and a crimson iPhone 5S case. A special page linked prominently on the main store page offers a table of order dates for various products and customization options to ensure guaranteed delivery by Valentine’s Day.
Apple Inc.’s (AAPL) weaker than expected earnings report has likely prompted the firm to pursue new methods of increasing sales throughout the year. Whether the Apple Store app update and other special 2014 Valentine’s promotions boosts will increase February revenues or whether these measures are too conservative and cosmetic, thus squandering the potential that a more robust holiday campaign might have offered (as Apple Insider’s overview hints), remains to be seen.
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