dimanche 4 septembre 2011

Digital grocery shopping: all you need is an app

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Running errands is getting smarter and smarter, especially for groceries. The smartphone is changing the way we shop and is redefining in-store marketing.
aisle411  my list (the best part!)
Many stores and grocery chains are introducing apps making grocery shopping easier, covering all consumer actions. Making and managing lists, choosing, paying, couponning, group buying, price comparison, traceability, coordinating recipes and shopping list, managing loyalty card, etc.
See among many other apps: aisle411, Winn-Dixies Stores, SavvyPenny, Publix, Sam'ClubGroceryIQShopsavvyHarvestMark, Fooducate, Ziplist, shopkick, SavingStar, Shopmium (France), Stop&Shop (Modiv), inMarket, etc.

Example 1: Savvy Penny in Miami.
  • First the customers are registered (once). 
  • Then, when paperless coupons are proposed in the aisles, shoppers select the product on the touch screens (tablets) and transfer an electronic coupon to a smartphone (4 last digits of their number). 
  • And finally the electronic coupons are redeemed on the touch-pad at the checkout upon entering the 4 digits. They are taken into account automatically by the cashier.
  • No more clipped paper coupons to collect, select and carry in the store. Simple and immediate, impulse couponing!
Example 2: aisle411
  • Make a list, share it with the family (with aisle and section)
  • Map the list for each product, find a route/path shopping in the store 
  • Information offers (sort of group buying) and discounts
  • Scan product barcodes and read reviews served by amazon.com 
  • Find the available electronic coupons and clip them to your list (saved on loyalty card)
Example 3: SavingStar
App Stop&Shop for Peapod
  • "Save on groceries": digital coupons
  • Loyalty offer: buy an item in multiple stores to get cash back
  • Brands promote products for free: they only pay when customers buy their product
  • Links to all loyalty cards that the customers register
Remarks
  • Ubiquity of the smartphone and apps, used in all moments of our life. When it comes to shopping, apps may become more important than the Web. In Europe, more and more mobile subscribers access online retail sites, especially in U.K. (9,2% of  them, according to comScore).
  • Wonderful data provided by these apps! All the Ws in one single place: Who, Where, When, What, Why. Data about highly "engaged" people : this is not audience anymore, not spectacle, but action. This is what Google calls the "Zero Moment of Truth" (ZMOT). The data is extremely sensitive: advertisers and planners will have to use it carefully, respectfully or else.
    • Who: a phone number, loyalty cards or not
    • When: rhythm of visits. Always up-to-date.
    • Where: not only the geo localization of the store (store locator, see also Zoomingo), but also where in the store (the aisle)
    • What people are buying, which coupons they are redeeming. Much richer than any demos. 
  • In the U.S. this threatens an important source of revenue for regional newspapers which carry lots of inserts with coupons in their Sunday edition.
  • Like for catalog shopping, mobile tools are improving the way we buy.

4 commentaires:

Raluca Mocanu a dit…

What I really like about your articles is the fact that they are full of information, they have been teaching me a lot of new things that, I admit, I have not been aware of. All the links and connections that you are offering are presenting the latest apps and technologies that are not even present in Europe yet, so this is what the future of media, sales, marketing and advertising will be in the next years for us.
It is pretty amazing for me though that every single app is originating in the USA, the Americans have the big ideas and always innovate. Mostly all these apps are extremely smart and they find the precise target…they convince a bit with the ''save the trees without paper coupons'', with the time saving idea which is primordial for busy families with kids having to shop.
Still, the ZMOT concept has made me think a lot about the skills of a good future marketer and I think it is getting every day more complicated and it is a question of psychological insights that you have to master in order to be a good professional.

Anonyme a dit…

I remember when my family got internet years and years ago. My parents allowed me to have my very own AOL email address - to which they also had access - and my mother told me time and time again NOT to share any personal information with anyone online or anywhere on the net. I was not to give information about who I was, where I could be located, what I looked like etc.

Today, with the advent of so many different online communication tools and smartphones and apps, I realize that these things become much harder to hide. For example, you mentioned all the data (ZMOT) that would be provided to companies by these digital shopping applications and I find it interesting that the concern for privacy online has diminished so much in past years.

While using smartphone apps may become the future of shopping, I find myself wondering about the sector of clientele without smartphones. For example, older clients who are unfamiliar with the technology or less wealthy families who cannot afford to purchase smartphones, much less pay for the pricey monthly phone plans that required for use. Will these people be forced to adapt or will they continue shopping the 'old fashioned' way? Do we use these new technologies because we really 'need' them or just because we can? I think in the future, we may really need them if users continue to become increasingly more dependent on data provided by their smartphones.

-Carmela

Anonyme a dit…

And think just at the possibilities of such Apps in combination with near field communication technology (NFC). No doubt that our mobilephones will sooner or later replace our wallets. The only think i'm a bit concerned is safety.
here an interesting link about googles new service: google wallet
http://gigaom.com/2011/09/19/google-wallet-goes-live-with-nfc-payments/

Jonas Wechsler

Jonas Wechsler a dit…

I'm personally have been raised without TV and still don't possess one. That doesn't mean that i'm not consuming TV shows or miss anything as one can easy find all the shows online either as streams or even podcasts. I think it's about time that the TV embraces the possiblities and freedom of the Web and give the people what they want. Instead of annyoing addvertisments which are often not interesting, you could get only ads/coupons and other interactive offers which you are really interested in.
A great new product for gamers (but might also be available in the future also for regular tv content) is the dual Play TV. Instead seeing a splitscreen. Each player can see his part of the game on the full screen. This is provided by active shutter glasses (known from 3D-TVs). So two or more persons could mulittask simoutaneously on the same screen....

Check it out: http://www.flatpanelshd.com/news.php?subaction=showfull&id=1315402582

Jonas Wechsler

http://www.flatpanelshd.com/news.php?subaction=showfull&id=1315402582