One of the key benefits of the iPad application is the ability to merchandise and display products in a way that the regular Web does not currently allow.

That, in itself, is a major boon to retailers who struggle with online consumers still insistent on getting as tactile an experience with the merchandise before making a yes or no buying decision.

A visit last week to luxury retailer Gilt Groupe?s office to meet product executive Shan-Lyn Ma and corporate communications chief Jennifer Miller showed how an iPad application can lend more depth to merchandising on a mobile device.

Ms. Ma proudly showed the Gilt application?s ability to showcase several products on a single page in a grid format (see story). Consumers can zoom in on one of the squares by running the finger across that high-quality product shot and then doing the usual pinch-and-pull motions so typical of the iPhone.

In addition to the close-ups, the application just brings to life granularity that?s not currently possibility with regular Web page demonstrations.

Indeed, the ability to let consumers get as close a feel to the real experience will undoubtedly convince them to buy more merchandise from the Gilt application.

And, as covered in this publication and its sister Mobile Commerce Daily, Gilt is far from being the only retailer to make optimal use of the iPad.

The iPad application is merchandising?s best ally simply because it allows the showcasing of a product with natural-hand motions to give the closest thing to a store touch-and-feel experience.

Window of opportunity
In the bricks-and-mortar world, the window display is what draws consumers into the store. The iPad makes the digital display window one of the best available in the market.

It would be great if retailers go further with their iPad applications and let consumers move clothes from a grid to a mannequin or a real photograph of that consumer. The goal would be to give as realistic an idea as possible to the product?s suitability for the buyer?s physique or shape.

How about the ability to don that apparel item on a sitting mannequin ? just to see how the dress falls or how high it goes? These are real-life dilemmas that shoppers face in the physical store?s changing room.

Next, the retailer should also let the shopper invite three or four friends of the shopper to watch her mannequin model wearing the item she?s chosen. Place that invite button on every page of the iPad application and ask the consumer to link the contact details to either an IM or email address.

Build a community of what-do-you-think reviewers around this whole concept and retailers will find renewed loyalty from their best customers and more thronging their application?s doors.
 
Sooner or later, most retailers will have to borrow the best features of iPad and iPhone applications and incorporate them into their regular Web sites.

Be prepared for Apple to someday migrate some of these attractive features of the iPad to newer models of its laptop and desktop computers.

It would seem that the iPad is just a harbinger of things to come not just in computing, but also the Web, mobile and retailing. It?s no time for retailers to merely gild the lily.