However Woolworths, an Australian supermarket chain, has recently started advertising their new free app (via television commercials) that allows users to create their own electronic shopping lists. According to the app, you can search for products Woolworths sells in 3 easy ways:
- by typing in a key word
- by browsing categories (e.g. orange juice)
- by scanning the barcode of products in your pantry (I love this idea!)
His article also highlights the way in which the app has been tied to Woolworths' 'Everyday Rewards' loyalty card program, enabling them to undertake further market research into people's shopping habits whilst enabling customers who choose to enter this information the chance to see how many rewards points they have etc.
I love the idea of this app and think that it has the potential to reduce the time we waste wandering around supermarket aisles. Interestingly Woolworths' biggest competitor Coles, which has had a shopping app for a couple of years now, has recently added the 'scan' feature to keep up with Woolies.
I would love to know what people think of this app. Will it enable us to shop faster and smarter? Will it be just another app people download but never use? Or will it drive people away from the supermarket giant's website and out of their stores quicker, resulting in less sales and lower profits?
My husband has been raving about this app for the past two days! He swears it made shopping almost fun... everything was listed in aisle order so it saved him heaps of time!
ReplyDeleteThis app is sadly not for me. I tend to be one of those people who doesn't know what they want to buy until they get to the store.
ReplyDeleteI'm loving the innovations coming out at the moment, and this app is on top of my list. They've effectively brought all of the technology together into a single application that is built to make our life easier. Brilliant.
ReplyDeleteThe app won't be for everyone, though. There are people who know the layout of their local supermarket like the back of their hand, who would find the app more cumbersome to use. But for the person who is a focused, targeted shopper, who moves from store to store, this app is great.
This is a great idea, I may even consider a supermarket shop once this is out. A friend of mine said last year that he wants to develop something like this, almost exactly to the idea of this, well he ain't making his fortune anymore!
ReplyDeleteGreat post!
Ross
That app sounds amazing! Although, I tend to wonder around the supermarket without knowing what I really want but those times that I really need to find things quickly and get out this would be very useful.
ReplyDeleteHard to say if it'll lower sales. Even though it makes shopping quicker they have been able to get the consumers inside the store and as you said, they've set everything so strategically that it makes us buy more. Supermarkets are almost like casinos nowadays, you can't see the daylight, you can't beat the system and in the end, the house always wins...
I would agree with Roni. I think it will effect a lot on the sales as I have read a statistics about how consumer buy things in store, and the research found that most of the stuffs that consumer buy its actually decided when they were in the store.
ReplyDelete@Wags I completely agree- my jaw dropped when I saw the ad for this app and I just thought how clever it was and how much potential there is for technology to make our lives easier and easier- as well as creating endless opportunities for companies (like Woolworths) to take advantage of that and increase their profits in the process!
ReplyDelete@rossouwe this app is out- its free to download now! I had a lot of fun checking it out. Thank you- I hope your friend comes up with something equally as brilliant as this!
@RoniJ i tend to agree with you. Humans are so easily distracted that it probably won't matter if we have an electronic list as opposed to a paper one- we'll still go for the impulse purchase the majority of the time!
@JoanLie again I tend to agree. If this app gets more people in stores (because the task of shopping seems less arduous) then it will result in more sales for sure.
Great comments everyone thanks! :)