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'Club, GroceryIQ, Shopsavvy, HarvestMark, 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.