Not so long back, it was unimaginable to find out which nearby grocery store has all the items you need; as you step inside the store the discounts or offers will be in the palm of your hands; the checkout takes a couple of seconds and you can pay without carrying a single penny in your wallet. Furthermore, shopping on-the-go and getting the grocery items delivered at doorsteps was far-fetched.
As the customers are showing more inclination towards digital, it has become all-important for the grocery stores to seize the mobile shift to keep their grocery store on the top of the customer’s mind. The leading grocers- Instacart, Amazon Fresh, Big basket and pretty more have experienced the remarkable growth and enjoyed the advantages by turning to grocery store apps.
A few statistics supporting the customer’s craze for online grocery shopping:
- In 2015, top five grocery apps raised $120 million revenue in a matter of three months.
- In 2016, one-third of the global app users shop their groceries with mobile apps.
- The grocery app adoption rate is anticipated to rise to 34% in 2017.
Let’s unearth the benefits that traditional bricks-and-mortar grocery business will reap with mobile technology integration:
Enhance the store awareness
With the mobile app, the grocery stores can improve the store’s branding and connect with the customers easily. The logo designed for the mobile app reflects the store and when the same logo is imprinted on the store’s shopping bags, the particular store will become a brand in itself. Besides, it becomes a natural extension to increase the customer outreach.
Saves a lot on time
It’s a boon for the time-crunched customers to find and get the items needed in a matter of seconds as it alleviates the need to move to the different stores for various grocery items, then roam in the store to search for the product, and buy the items after standing in a long billing queue.
The custom mobile app development is a time-saving option that makes the shopping faster with no traffic snarls, easy product browsing and handy checkout. All in all, it’s a great alternative for grocery shoppers to not expend huge time in buying groceries.
Never let customers go out of the budget
It’s quite common that once customers start shopping, unexpectedly they often end up buying the unnecessary items and exceed the budget limit, which influences the monthly spending over groceries. Or, in some cases they might opt to dump the unnecessary items right at the billing counter and then the Store has to make the arrangement to keep those items at their respective place.
By having grocery stores go online, the shoppers will have more control over grocery purchase and can better manage the budget as the mobile app facilitate customers to track the expense in the form of a graph or list view. The valuable information enables the customers to shop smartly while staying within their budget.
End of the checkout queue
During peak hours, standing in the long lines for checkout is the biggest nightmare for the customers. After a tiring day at the office, no one wants to waste the time at stores in the long waiting queues. Here, the mobile app for the grocery store comes to the rescue.
According to a research, “the global mobile payment market is estimated to reach USD 1080 billion by 2019.”
Using a mobile app, the customers can self-checkout and pay for the groceries just with a single tap on the smartphone. The handheld scanner scans the product that customers wanted to buy and then customers can make the contactless payment through the mobile app on the store’s terminal. Digital wallets, the tap-to-pay services like- Android Pay, Apple Pay and Samsung Pay are mainly leveraged to enable mobile payment.
Eat up all types of payment
Restricting the customers to make the payment either with cash or through credit/debit card annoys them and sometimes, it results in the cart abandonment and reduced basket size. That’s displeasing!
The mobile apps made the payment for grocery shopping convenient by providing the plethora of payment options such as e-wallets, net banking, credit/debit card and pretty more. The customers can select any of the payment channels to complete the purchase or these options come handy in the situation of cash shortage.
Transform the loyalty program
It’s no surprise that price is the main driver behind the store switching or to keep the customers coming back. That’s the reason the customers are rewarded with special offers or points under a certain loyalty program. The plastic loyalty cards are provided which customers have to keep with themselves while going for the shopping to collect and redeem the points, but the customers find the card handling stressing. Also, informing the customers about the latest deals is difficult.
In a fickle world, maintaining customer loyalty becomes easier when loyalty programs are made mobile. Yes, the push notifications are sent to the customers to inform them about the deals or discounts. There will be no hassle of carrying plastic cards as it is replaced by virtual cards in the mobile app.
Personalize the shopping experience
Traditionally, it’s implausible to keep track of all the customers’ shopping preferences, items on the shopping list and the frequency of the purchase, and then making recommendations to them individually. The digital solution makes it easy to gain all the customers’ shopping data and get the insights out of it.
Using the data-driven insights, the tailored messages can be sent to the customers, which makes the customers take interest in, and keeps them engaged in shopping. The customized messages meet the shopper’s unique needs, improve the basket size and takes the customer experience to a new level.
Also, the data is helpful in analyzing the marketing strategy and enable the grocers to take merchandising decisions intelligently.
Epilogue
The mobile app brings the grocery stores to the palm of the customers’ hands that makes grocery shopping easier, convenient and relevant. It’s a great feat for the grocery business that operates on a razor-thin margin as it let the stores to step in with the digital customers who want to shop at the fingertips, which in turn uplift the shopping experience, and thus, the sales and bottom line.
Stay fresh as customers shop for your grocery and heal the grocery shoppers’woes with mobile app development!