Criteria 2: Awareness

In this article, we shall look at how some of the  grocery chains in the US are driving awareness for their mobile app.

Observation 1: Drive End User Awareness of the Mobile App.

Surprisingly, although nearly all the big grocery stores promote online purchases, there is little or no mention of their mobile app. While one can view the calls to action for social media sharing like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest or Instagram, an user may end up spending a few minutes on the website, looking for the app.

For example, we looked up Kroger’s website. A quick look at Kroger’s homepage shows us an option for online shopping, but you have to scroll down two more pages to find any mention of their mobile app. But if you were to open your browser on your smartphone, it first suggests you download the app.

In comparison, there is no mention of mobile apps anywhere on the website for Whole Food Market.

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Engaging the mobile customer – how to create awareness?

When considering the mobile shopper, it is important to remember that there may be multiple scenarios of use. For instance, the user may simply choose to download the mobile app and install it. The user may also open a browser and key in the domain. There is yet another scenario where the user may simply make a search on the mobile.

In each case, the user should ideally be directed to the option of installing the app. For Instance, this may be achieved through a pop up window. Given the minimal real estate on the mobile user screen, the placement of this pop-up should be carefully considered.

For example, on initiating a search for “Kroger”  from a mobile browser, we observed that there is a small pop-up that directs the user’s attention to the mobile app. However this pop-up does not stay on the top of the screen for more than a few seconds. To see this again, you would have to scroll back up.

An attempt to reach the websites on a mobile browser for Whole Foods Market, H-E-B,  Publix Super Markets  resolves into a simple mobile friendly version of the website, without any pop-ups or ads for the mobile app, as shown below. While Whole Foods Market recently updated their mobile version of the website to include a bar code for Amazon Prime, it still does not feature the app.

 

Search engine results for these stores did not yield immediate results for their mobile apps either.

However, when search query was specifically tagged with the words “Mobile App”, search results for all these stores indicate the presence of mobile apps for both iOS and Android devices, some including phones as well  as tablets.

A summary of our initial findings

Stay tuned for our next blog – The Mobile Maturity Model.

smartGrocery   Part 1 – How mobile friendly are our grocery chains?

This is the first in a series of articles where we attempt to provide a view into the effort made by various grocery chains to capitalize on the mobile shopping channel.

With the pervasive availability of Internet connectivity and adoption of smartphones in the US, one would assume that the top grocery chains would have made an effort to capitalize on this new channel to engage with customers.

Who we looked at?

We looked at seven prominent grocery chains in the United States, based on a cross-section of regional popularity and market share .

What we looked for?

We looked at a number of criteria to assess their state and readiness for mobile. We will progressively review these in the upcoming articles. In this article, we will focus on two aspects.

1. Is the website optimized for mobile browsers?

Most of the 7 businesses have websites well suited to the mobile screen interface. While some of them actually direct the user to a mobile specific server, some do not. But overall, the user screen is well rendered, though not optimized, in many of them. 

2. Is a mobile app available ?

As you can see from the results, it is great to see that everyone we looked at has already taken the initial step towards “delivering a website that is mobile friendly” and “making mobile apps available” for customers. Some of them redirect the user to a mobile specific website, while others don’t. These 7 businesses appear to be in different stages of adoption and readiness for the mobile shopper. In the next article, we will compare and contrast how they drive end user awareness of the mobile app.