In-store marketing solution Point Inside has launched a search marketing program for retailer apps. The company calls it “StoreBoost.”

As the name suggests, it enables retailers to promote specific products or brands in auto-complete or to the top of search results within their apps:

The StoreBoost service is available via Point Inside’s StoreMode platform, and allows retailers to boost a particular product or brand to the top result position in response to a mobile search query. The StoreBoost service is also available during autocomplete search, allowing a retailer to pair a boosted suggestion with a related term in the search type-ahead field.

Retailers can use StoreBoost to promote whatever they want, whether it’s house ads or content or third-party information. But the capability is most intriguing as a paid-search platform to enable retailers to monetize in-app search. My understanding is that no one is currently doing this, but retailers using StoreBoost now have the capacity to charge brands for enhanced visibility in app search results.

Point Inside says that StoreBoost can be customized for each individual store’s inventory and products. The new offering is a component of Point Inside’s existing StoreMode Platform. StoreMode enables retailer apps to deliver product-inventory search, product locators, shopping lists and in-store mapping.

Roughly a year ago, Point Inside announced a deal with Target, which has one of the most widely used retail apps. The company also has relationships with Lowe’s and Meijer grocery stores.

If the user base of retailer apps is large and engaged enough, it will be possible for those retailers to generate new revenues from in-app paid-search advertising, which becomes a digital version of in-store merchandising.