The digital transformation of many spheres of business, including grocery, is absolutely stunning. Recently, 'to go shopping' meant wondering around different stores in your neighborhood and was a highly time-consuming process. It required to find a needed product in the store and also to wait in the long billing queue. Now you can check this information in a few seconds, not to mention that you can pay with no money in your pockets.25% of customers are buying groceries online according to the Nielsen report. They use their mobile devices to make shopping lists, find discounts, compare prices and order groceries online. That's why to stay on top today, you have to satisfy their demand and develop an application for your grocery store The grocery market is in the middle of digitizing and now the market shares are being divided between those who managed to implement the newest technologies and, thus, provide a better customer service and those who didn't. If you want your business not to hang around the break-even point and could raise some serious money, the choice is obvious.A grocery mobile app will always remind customers of your store when they use their devices, and not only when they have run out of groceries. The leading grocers like Walmart, Aldi, Kroger have already boosted up their sales significantly thanks to grocery shop app. Now, let's unveil the advantages of developing a grocery mobile app, no matter if you own a grocery store or just want to build a grocery app to monetize it.
How the digital influence affects grocery shoppingThe influence of digital has raised four times from 14% in 2013 to 56% in 2016, according to the Deloitte report. The use of mobile to improve the in-store experience seems to follow the same pace and boosts from 5% to 37%.The influence of grocery mobile apps on in-store sales is rapidly growingAlthough the digital influence for grocery is lower than for electronics, automobile and clothes, in 2016 this indicator grew by 18% during the year and, thus, aught up with the other product categories.From the article by Deloitte called 'The new digital divide: The future of digital influence in retail'.Also, the grocery industry is about to double its revenues in 2021. According to Statista, online grocery sales in the U.S. accounted for $14.1 billion in 2017 and will grow to $30 billion. So if you want to possess a share of this money, you should be one step ahead of your competitors. And one of the ways to do that is to develop a grocery shopping mobile app.Online grocery sales in the U.S., according to Statista.How can a grocery shopping app improve your business?Not to mention that with the help of mobile application development your grocery store can go international, there're also some other benefits which come first to the mind:Strengthening your BrandProbably, you know that people would rather buy not from an unknown merchant on the street, but rather from a reliable brand whose very name resembles the best shopping experience. In this case, nothing helps better than a grocery shopping mobile app. It offers a pile of methods to remind customers of your shop:A grocery store application can be a powerful tool to increase your sales
- It's available 24/7;
- Able to send notifications;
- Allows to read/share reviews with each customer.
According to a study, 45% of companies order grocery mobile app development to strengthen their brand image. And though, grocery shopping apps are pretty common in today's business world. However, if your app offers some unique capabilities, it can greatly boost customer engagement.A way to examine customer behaviorWhat time do your clients prefer to shop? Which products are best-selling and which are the ones that only cause monetary losses? What are your customers' favorite payment method (credit cards, cash or online payments)? A grocery store application will provide you with all of these statistics and you can use this precious data to improve your sales.Find out about the
ways how to define the target audience of your app better.Either way, you are able to personalize your app for each category of your clients and, thus, even gain customers with opposing tastes and opinionsImproving loyalty programsThe task to convert a new customer into a buyer is 10 times harder than converting an existing one. Moreover, regular customers spend 68% more. Mobile app for grocery shopping is a perfect platform for launching loyalty programs like discount proposals or payments with brand's loyalty cards, etc. Also, the benefit of a mobile platform is that you can embed push notifications to promote your loyalty programs. It's noted that 59% of brands take advantages of online grocery app development to boost customer engagement.Attracting even the busiest customersVisiting a store to buy groceries is a low priority task for all of us. We are terribly busy with our jobs, children, relatives, etc. A mobile app to buy groceries would be a great relief. Grocery mobile apps allow finding a needed product online with no need to attend several stores, wonder in their halls to find a needed product and wait in the long billing line.And making it more comfortable for customers will engage them better and increase your sales. It was reported, that 26% of people who remain in public places utilize mobile apps for grocery shopping to purchase food and this rate is planned to grow to 50% in the next years.Grocery shopping app categoriesThere is no single standard of how to build a grocery app. Thus, it may be created for different tasks. Your grocery mobile app may also fulfill multiple tasks, making it more complex. And how complex it should be depends on your budget and goals.Grocery list appPreviously, writing a shopping list was a problem, especially for those customers who thought that their memory is sharper than their pencil. Now there's no need to write a new paper list each time you go to the store. Almost any modern grocery shop app lets the customers add/remove products to their online cart and keep them to be accessed later.Grocery list app offers a more flexible and convenient way to work with shopping lists. Unlike their paper variant, they can also perform such actions as:
- Keep users' lists to utilize them in the future;
- Remind to purchase default list of products on a regular basis;
- Share a list with other users;
- Commit changes to the list online so that other users could see them.
Grocery IQ is a grocery list app that shows the corresponding brands to customers while they type their search queries. To add an item to the list they can either scan a product's barcode or say it by voice.A grocery list app called Grocery IQUsers can create numerous lists for various shops or for different events like birthday or picnic. This app also saves every item which users buy to easily reorder them again. Grocery IQ provides discount tickets (from Coupons.com) which customers can easily print, send by email, etc.Grocery store delivery appSince shopping is a decently time-consuming activity, no wonder grocery delivery apps have appeared and become so successful. They have two varieties. The first one is grocery delivery companies that can bring products from almost every shop (e.g. Instacart and Shipt). The second one is online grocery shops (e.g. Peapod).The usage of grocery delivery service app is simple Grocery shopping delivery apps provide such opportunities as:
- Find products without leaving home;
- View previously bought goods as well as use them as a list to reorder some of them again;
- Assign purchases beforehand or order them instantly.
32% of buyers have installed grocery delivery service apps as of National Grocers Association report. Especially overwhelmed with work people and millennials who don't like to waste time at the billing lines can become your loyal buyers if you create a grocery store delivery app.A grocery shopping delivery app called Instacart One of the largest grocery delivery services in the US with the same mobile app name is, of course, Instacart. With its help, users can get their products delivered in about 1 hour. They can always be in touch with their personal shopper via chat. There's a group cart feature that allows them to shop with their family or friends simultaneously using the shared shopping list. Instacart also offers its exclusive coupons and special offers.Grocery store rebate appGrocery rebate apps enable customers to save money and get discounts with no need to print discount tickets. Here's how they work: the users get the rebate app and purchase certain groceries that are on the app's list. Then they should take a photo of the bill, send it and receive a specific cash back.