As we wrote earlier this year, Amazon joined the flash sales market with the launch of MyHabit, a private sales site for discounted items from designers and boutique brands. Similar to Gilt, Ideeli and others; MyHabit holds daily events featuring up to 60 percent off a selection of styles. In Amazon-like style, the flash sales site also includes free four-day shipping shipping. Today, Amazon is launching a companion iPhone app for MyHabit.
The MyHabit app includes all of the functionality a the website, and allows users to view detailed product pages, videos and images, and purchase items directly from their phones In addition, customers can preview the week’s calendar of events and receive start of sale reminders from specific brands before they sell out.
M-commerce is a growing segment of the business for Amazon, and many other e-retailers like eBay. In fact, Forrester estimates that mobile commerce in the U.S. will reach $31 billion by 2016.
As we’ve seen with other flash sales sites, mobile offerings are particularly popular because of the short time-frame in sales. Other recently launched Amazon mobile apps include barcode scanning app Price Check, shopping iPad app Window Shop, and a Gold Box deals app.