inStorebuyer - April 2011 - 30

equipment &technology
NEW IDEAS IN CONVENIENCE

IB FACT

Smartphone Shopping
There is no doubt about it— smartphone shopping is on the rise. Market research group ForeSee Results surveyed 10,000 people who visited online retail sites during the 2010 holiday season and found that d 11 percent made purchases using their smartphones—up from 2 percent in 2009. Moreover, 30 percent of those people used their smartphones to research the products they were thinking about buying. And those numbers are only going rise. The greatest advantage that smartphones have over computers is mobility. People can now access everything from product research to recipes to location-specific manufacturers’ coupons while they’re actually inside the supermarket. And to stay competitive and build brand loyalty, supermarkets across the country are developing their own, company-branded mobile applications (apps). Publix, for example, has developed an app called Publix Mobile that is compatible with the Droid, Blackberry and iPhone. The app provides a store locator and gives users access to the weekly circular. Its most unique feature, however, is the option to sign up for At Season’s Peak messages, which alert subscribers by text or email when their favorite produce peaks. It also sends out growing facts and nutritional information about fruits and vegetables, as well as recipes that incorporate the in-season produce.

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Mobile-App Companies
Arguably, two of the most sophisticated mobile-app companies serving the supermarket sector are AisleBuyer and Mercatus USA. The AisleBuyer product suite available for purchase and customization to retailers includes Digital Circular, Dynamic Coupons, Smart Clerk, Mobile Self-Checkout, Advanced Analytics and E-commerce Integration. And Mercatus USA offers retailers customizable home pages, personal shopping lists, meal planning, easy to find stores, profile synchronization, easy store navigation, a recipe database and loyalty benefits. For more information: www.aislebuyer. com; www.mercatustechnologies.com.

Food Lion Supermarket customers can also go mobile—thanks to an app developed in conjunction with Mercatus USA. Shoppers can easily access weekly specials, new recipes and store directions right on their iPhone, iPad and iPod devices. Food Lion’s mobile app also gives users the ability to build and manage virtual shopping lists and sign up for the Food Lion MVP loyalty program. If you are thinking about building an app for your instore, be sure you have a total enterprise plan in place before doing so. It is not enough to simply classify going mobile as another marketing effort. Right from the beginning, involve your marketing, store operations, finance and IT departments in developing the best mobile plan for your instore. And finally, while mobile apps are extremely beneficial for use by your customers, don’t forget about their value internally. When setting up your mobile app program, ask about setting up a system that will allow you to use mobile phones to monitor employee time-and-attendance, to assign tasks, and to aide in approval processes.
ANNA COMSTOCK

| 30 | inStorebuyer | April 2011 |

inStorebuyer - April 2011

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of inStorebuyer - April 2011