ShopRite Pilots Scan And Pay Mobile App
By Anna Rose Welch, Editorial & Community Director, Advancing RNA
Grocery shoppers can now scan and pay for their groceries, no cash register necessary
Busy ShopRite grocery shoppers no longer need to worry about getting stuck in long lines at the cash register. ShopRite announced earlier this week that it is piloting a new Mobile Scan app, which will enable customers to scan the items in their grocery carts with their smartphones and pay by syncing their phones to a designated pay station. This app, which is still in the pilot stages, is currently being offered in eight New Jersey and Connecticut locations. Customers interested in acquiring the app can sign up at the customer service desk in those locations. As the press release says, customers that have the app can create and save grocery lists, as well as receive promotions for certain items while standing in the aisles. The Price Plus Club card is also integrated into the app so customers receive discounts on select items as soon as they scan the item.
With the development of this scan and pay app, ShopRite joins the ranks of other grocers that are paving the way into this long unchartered territory. According to a FierceRetail article, the grocery industry as a whole has been slow to embrace this technology, though some chains have been working with it. In particular, northeast grocery chain Stop and Shop, began testing the technology in several Massachusetts stores in the summer of 2011. Stop and Shop has since expanded the app to stores throughout the region.
It should come as no surprise that ShopRite is one of the grocers to be leading the charge in the scan and pay arena, considering how much work the grocer has done in the realm of mobile apps. Two years ago, ShopRite became the only grocery store to have a presence on three major mobile spaces: iPhone, Android, and mobile website. ShopRite says in a press release. Back in 2011, customers could access the app, look at digital sales circulars, and add items on sale in the circular to their online shopping lists via mobile. In Spring 2013, the company took a step closer to allowing people to complete their shopping via mobile by launching an app that allowed customers to place orders and schedule delivery or pick-up times. Customers could also search for recipes, clip coupons, and search weekly circulars.
Rebecca Roose from MyWebGrocer (which powers ShopRite apps) says mobile commerce has been a tricky area for grocers, but is one worth looking into and exploring. As she tells Mobile Commerce Daily, “Mobile visits to our retailers’ Web sites have been doubling every year since 2009. This translates to 10 percent to 25 percent of visits to grocery retailers’ sites are from a mobile device. When you trend this out over the next few years, the majority of retailer digital interaction will be through mobile.”
Read: “Bricks And Mobile: How Mobility Is Impacting Physical Retail Locations.”
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