Retro boutique receives new app-arel

A BURLESQUE boutique in Edinburgh has signed up to become the first shop to test a new smartphone app that allows customers to receive special offers through wireless networks.

Emma Dixon, who owns Miss Dixiebelle, will be able to use the system to advertise her store’s vintage clothing and her new beauty parlour.

Bonnie Lawson-Brown, who came up with the idea for the Silver IMP app, is an Edinburgh-based student doing a retail degree with the Open University. She commissioned xDesign365 – which has worked with Eastern Western Motor Group, Sainsbury’s and builder Stewart Milne – to create the app, which is to be launched on Android phones next month.

Lawson-Brown, 33, will hold talks in London next week with a major high-street retail chain and hopes to extend the app’s service to Glasgow in time for the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

She also wants to translate the app into five other languages so that foreign visitors to Edinburgh can sign up to receive adverts and special offers in their own tongues.

Lawson-Brown said: “Customers can download the app onto their smartphone and then receive special offers and information as they walk down the street. Tourist attractions could even use the app to give out information about historic buildings.”

Some firms already push adverts out to mobile phones using Bluetooth signals, but Lawson-Brown said using such a system can be intrusive, as shoppers are often “spammed” with messages they do not want.