– Paula Polei, director of marketing at SuperLumin Networks (www.superlumin.com), says:

The increased use of tablet devices is evident, and it has triggered a dramatic change for retailers. From customers using their own tablets to purchase products not available on store shelves, to in-store tablet kiosks used to browse visual catalogs or product videos, a new era of shopping is now taking place.

According to the State of Retailing Online Report, tablets account for 21 percent of a retailer’s total mobile traffic. While once an emerging trend for tech-savvy shoppers, in-store tablet browsing is now a shopping tool that everyday consumers are using to research products, check inventory and redeem coupons.

That being said, retailers typically have limited bandwidth that can’t accommodate spikes in Web traffic accompanied by use of these devices. In the past, retailers have simply added bandwidth as new applications filled and superseded current network capacity. However, with the advent of high-definition applications and videos, bandwidth no longer solves the problem. The extra external bandwidth becomes saturated almost immediately when multiple viewing options exist.

Recently, SuperLumin Networks, a leading provider of scalable, high-performance media proxy and application acceleration solutions, announced the launch of its Nemesis Store Proxy. Designed to improve in-store browsing when using iPads, tablets and other devices, the Nemesis Store Proxy is ideal for retailers with limited bandwidth looking to improve the customer experience and enhance network performance.

Instead of purchasing more bandwidth to support these network challenges, retailers now have the option to utilize the Nemesis Store Proxy to cache frequently accessed content, so customers have an enhanced browsing experience. Copies of popular retrieved Web objects are stored locally on the proxy, so subsequent requests for the same objects are delivered directly from the Nemesis Store Proxy, thus minimizing response time and bandwidth consumption, and ultimately improving customer satisfaction.

Those interested in more information about SuperLumin Nemesis can download the ISO, documentation and a 45 day trial license here.