Source: Australian Food News

Story By: Natasha Rawlings

Introduction

Australian Food News recently reported on a new iPhone application introduced by Woolworths for use by its customers. The following presentation was prepared for clients of food industry lawyers FoodLegal, by direct-marketing smartphone guru Natasha Rawlings. Natasha is the CEO of Dealsta, a company that has been developing apps for several industries (although not currently in the supermarket space). Natasha Rawlings has held senior marketing positions in some of the largest direct-marketing companies in the world. In this presentation, Natasha Rawlings reviews the Woolworths app as well as highlighting the recent trends in iPhone / Android applications.

Review by Natasha Rawlings:

With futurists predicting the convergence of the digital and real world in the not-so-distant future, and smartphone (iPhone / Android) adoption in Australia outpacing the US by 5 – 10%, Australian retailers are lagging behind the global pack when it comes to mobile marketing (in fact, most types of digital marketing…!). Not so for Woolworths, who released their new iPhone app in the middle of August.

In April 2011, I listened to a presentation by Julie Coats, Managing Director of Big W. It was very clear that Woolworths Ltd has a vision, and this includes digital. With 35% of Australians owning a smartphone and 38% having already downloaded a shopping app*, Woolies understands that mobile - especially smartphones – are already driving real world sales and ongoing loyalty, and so Woolworths have created an app to do just that.

US and European smartphone trends

As retailers slowly catch on to the fact that smartphones have already become an integral part of the shopping experience, there are many statistics coming out of the USA and Europe which point to exactly what shoppers are looking for in an app.

•    84% of US shoppers use their phones while they shop (we lack statistics here but the markets are similar)
•    70% are comparing prices
•    67% are accessing product reviews
•    61% are looking for specific store information – hours, other locations. (WhiteHorse, July 2011)
•    ‘Sales and Promotions’ are what shoppers want to know about when they are close to a brand’s store or product location (JiWire, Aug 2011)

Google has recently created the futuristic ‘Google Wallet’ (just imagine tipping the contents of your wallet into your phone – credit cards, drivers license, loyalty cards). Their survey found that 95% of smartphone users have looked for location information, with 88% of these users having acted on this information within one day, often contacting or visiting a business. Smartphone users are ready to take action NOW!

Google also found that 79% had used their smartphones for shopping, with 75% having made a store purchase, either at the shop or on their phones (Google, April 2011). These statistics have been reflected in other reports, clearly showing that mobiles have become integral to the shopping experience.

However, one figure that really surprised me – but perhaps Woolies already knew - is that 42% of shoppers use their smartphones in the supermarket (WhiteHorse July 2011).

When you take a close look at the Woolies App, you’ll see they have really understood what shoppers want and expect from an app:

They get a tick for:
•    Providing store information. You can find store locations, opening hours and contact numbers.
•    Showing you specials. Woolies lets you see the regular catalogue specials, categorised so you can easily find what you’re looking for.

They get a bigger tick for:
•    Personalising it. The successful players in mobile’s future will understand personalisation. This app allows you to easily pick the items you are looking for (browse or scan barcode), and then tells you the aisle at your local supermarket you can find them in.
•    Really personalising it. Woolies links to your Everyday Rewards card so it knows what you buy, and what you might appreciate an offer on. Data will be a very big component on future mobile advertising and offers – getting the right deal, to the right people, at the right time.
•    Interactive content.  Woolies has over 800 recipes in which you can add the ingredients straight to your shopping list (these don’t have aisle numbers however – so hopefully that gets fixed soon.)

The feedback in the app store so far has been pretty good. Essentially the same as the Coles app (although I think the Coles app is a little ‘cuter’ and feels less functional), Woolies is receiving a lot more positive feedback soon after its launch. This comment sums up most of the early Coles feedback:  ‘Coles should take some notes from the Woolies app’ as the Coles app evidently crashes quite often, many stores and items are missing and it misses some feature flexibility e.g. you can’t add one ingredient from a recipe, they’re all loaded into your shopping list.

To read the full story, follow this link: www.ausfoodnews.com.au/2011/09/02/woolworths-shopping-app-%e2%80%93-a-fresh-analysis.html