Prospecting: iPad Mobile Shopping is Where E-Commerce Meets Catalogs

While a sale is going on, app users can browse, examine and buy items just as they could from Gilt's e-commerce website. The cart is on-screen the whole time, and putting an item in it is simply drag-and-drop, much like real shopping. The touch-zoom function on this large, high-definition screen lets you get "closer" to the item than on any other portable platform, giving the goods perhaps their best presentation outside of actually fondling one in a store. If the hallmark of catalog shopping is big, full-color, high-quality images that draw a visceral connection from shoppers, then this is catalog 2.0.