OREANDA-NEWS. August 11, 2015. Markor International Home Furnishings Co., Ltd. today announced it selected an IBM (NYSE: IBM) MobileFirst for iOS app to improve its customers' shopping experience -- empowering sales associates with iPhones or iPads to place orders, demo products and show 3D images of custom furniture. Analytics will give sales associates the ability to make personalized recommendations such as complementary pieces or fabric patterns personalized to a customer's unique taste and preferences.

As the leading high-end furniture and home brand in China, Markor Furnishings has been at the forefront of digital transformation in the home furnishing industry. With the new IBM MobileFirst for iOS app, Markor sales associates can help customers browse home furnishings, offering to record their preferences and capture purchase details on their iPhone or iPad and feeding that data into Markor's back-end systems. That data can, in turn, be analyzed to classify customers’ historical buying behaviors -- improving product recommendations -- as well as to guide Markor on the design of new products and pricing.

"Markor Furnishings has always been committed to helping customers in China artfully create their perfect home,” said Richard Feng, Chairman & CEO of Markor Investment Group Co., Ltd. “With the help of Apple and IBM, we will use analytics to provide our customers more personalized, efficient and high-quality service ideally suited to their unique tastes and preferences, ultimately realizing our strategy to provide customers a transformed, seamless shopping experience in the store and beyond.”

The new IBM MobileFirst for iOS app will specifically address the requirements of lifestyle and home furnishing retailers.

“What we’re delivering for Markor aims directly at the new quest of business -- smart technologies that unlock new value at the intersection of big data and individual engagement. With a range of custom options and discrete customer tastes, the home furnishing industry is in the perfect position to capitalize on this opportunity,” said Nancy Thomas, Managing Partner of IBM Global Business Services, Greater China Group. “Industry by industry, Apple and IBM are lifting the performance of business professionals by combining IBM’s industry expertise and big data analytics capabilities with Apple’s legendary user experience and excellence in product design.”

Built exclusively for iPhone and iPad, IBM MobileFirst for iOS apps are delivered in a secure environment, embedded with analytics and linked to core enterprise processes. The apps can be customized for any organization and easily deployed, managed and upgraded via cloud services from IBM specifically for iOS devices.

IBM MobileFirst for iOS apps are now available to enterprise customers in banking and financial services, healthcare, retail, insurance, telecommunications, energy and utilities, industrial products, travel and transportation, electronics and government agencies, thanks to the unprecedented collaboration between Apple and IBM.

For more information regarding the IBM MobileFirst for iOS apps, please visit www.ibm.com/mobilefirst/us/en/mobilefirst-for-ios.html or www.apple.com/business/mobile-enterprise-apps/.