PINK Nation brings Victoria’s Secret to your Phone
by Toni McQuilken
Feb 13, 2012 8:35 AM –
Install
PINK Nation is Victoris’a Secret official Android app making shopping for their signature undergarments a breeze while on your phone and on the go. Plus the app offers little extras like discounts, exclusive content, store locator and mini games.
Price: Free
Tested on: MyTouch 3G Slide
Content Rating: Low Maturity
Pros & Cons:
Pros
- Easy access to shop Victoria’s Secret from the app!
- Access to exclusive offers and information!
- A variety of things to do besides shop!
Cons
- It will only work on a phone – no tablets.
- Unless you’re a die-hard Victoria’s Secret fan, there’s not much here.
Features:
Okay, let’s be clear up front, this is the official Victoria’s Secret app, and as such, it’s main purpose is to drive sales. So with that up front, I will say it does a pretty good job.
First of all, the prime component, which is ordering, is actually pretty well done. It’s all done right in the app, so no external Websites for browsing or ordering. This also means that everything is scaled correctly for the mobile screen, and has a uniform look and feel, which makes for a much more pleasant shopping experience. I did find that the drop-down boxes for selecting things like size, color or quantity were a bit small, and a few times I hit the wrong one. This is partially a limit of the small screen, however, and not so much the app, but that brings me to my second complaint, and this is really the bigger one – you can only download it on a phone.
Tablets are not supported, and that is a huge missed opportunity to me. Frankly, when it comes to most of my browsing these days, and especially if I plan to do any shopping, I’m on my tablet with the bigger screen, and not on my phone. I want to be able to see larger pictures and more information on the screen, and zoom in or out to make sure I’m hitting the right buttons as I input my information. Not offering a tablet version, to me, limits this app quite a bit. Granted, the find a store option is one part that is more than appropriate for the phone, since that’s the device you’ll have when you’re out and about.
In addition to just shopping, however, Victoria’s Secret has made an effort to bring some added value to the app, which is actually kind of nice. You can log in with Facebook, and then access their page directly through the app, there is a word scramble game to play, exclusive offers, badges to unlock for doing various things, and a way to access video content (although the videos will take you out of the app; they are the only thing not done within it.) The game was a little silly, a word scramble where the object is to make the words found on the company’s panties. Since I tend to shy away from words on my rear end, I actually didn’t know any of them, and I wished for a hint, or a database of phrases or something so I wasn’t just randomly guessing words. The offer wasn’t bad, giving me a discount, which is always a plus. And the badges were a nice touch. In today’s world of Foursquare and other check-in apps, people just like to earn things, and this is yet another reason to open the app and use it.
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Pink Shopping
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Pink Offer
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Pink Videos
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Pink Find a Store
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Pink Scratch Off
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Pink Game
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Pink Scramble
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Pink Facebook
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Pink Checkin
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Pink Badges
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Pink Settings
Usefulness:
Overall, I found the shopping part of this app useful, since it made it quick and easy to find what I wanted. I would like to see it on a tablet so I have more screen real estate to work with, but other than that, it worked well. I also like that it stays in the app and doesn’t force you to the browser at any point along the way, that was a huge bonus.
Ease of Use:
I found it pretty easy to use overall. Everything worked as advertised when I tried it, and each section made it pretty clear what it was for and how to use it. Again, the main purpose is to drive sales, and the shopping portion was probably the best I’ve seen in a dedicated app for Android.
Frequently Used:
If you like to shop for undergarments, you’ll use this pretty often. And that there are things like badges, offers and a game to play increases the odds you’ll want to go in at least daily if you’re a Victoria’s Secret fan.
Interface:
The interface was actually pretty clean, and the branding here was pretty impressive. They were able to stick with the Pink look and feel, while still making this a usable, straightforward app with lots of features.