Budgens supermarkets across The Cotswolds are set to pioneer a new supermarket shopping app that claims to knock all others into a cocked hat – and which will ‘save the supermarket experience’ claim its fans.
Already successfully trialled in Budgens in Moreton in Marsh in the Cotswolds, the retailer’s parent group Warner Budgens is now planning to roll out the Ubamarket retail app across all its stores in Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, and Warwickshire.
Chief among the apps features is the ability to locate the goods on your shopping list and give you the ideal route round any Budgens store to find them. In addition to locating all goods on a shopping list, facilitating in-app payment and removing the requirement to queue or unload items, Ubamarket shoppers receive real-time automation of their loyalty points and personalised store-offers with each purchase, without the need to search for points cards at the checkout. In its following phase, Ubamarket will enable shoppers to locate an entire shop according to dietary or allergy requirements.
With Ubamarket founder Will Broome defining the app and whitelabel solution’s market positioning due to the fact that every feature is designed with the consumer experience at its core.
The app certainly taps into the core reasons why people are abandoning supermarket shopping, with 53% of UK consumers stating convenience trumps price and store-loyalty in deciding where consumers grocery shop.
Faults with both online and in-store shopping have seen 12.4 million Brits already turn their backs on the supermarket. National statistics across a survey of over 2,000 UK adults show that more than a quarter of UK consumers highlight grocery shopping as their least favourite shopping experience, while 17.8 million cited long checkout queues as their top deterrent when buying food in-store. 71% of online food shoppers are frustrated with the online format, with 38% citing the inability to choose their own fresh produce as their biggest irritation and with 8 million annoyed at receiving unwanted replacement items, 69% of UK adults are looking for a solution to combine online efficiency with the benefits of the in-store experience.
Guy Warner, MD of Warner’s Budgens Supermarkets explains: “I’m delighted to be the first store in the world to offer a completely white-labeled version of Ubamarket to our customers. I feel that the revolutionary ‘Taste Club’ app will effectively bridge the gap between online convenience and the in-store experience that Warner’s Budgens shoppers enjoy. We’ve already seen fantastic results in our Moreton store and are now excited to offer it to all Warner’s Budgens customers .”
CEO and Founder of Ubamarket Will Broome adds: “Today’s launch is a milestone event for Ubamarket, and one we’re incredibly proud of. Over the past two and a half years, a huge amount of work has gone into ensuring the solution is a perfect fit for a shopping experience entirely centred around convenience, putting the consumer truly in control for the first time.”
Broome continues: “Having built a premium tech solution that enables progressive retailers to stand head and shoulders above the UK’s major supermarkets for a fraction of the price, today’s launch marks a total game-changer for the industry – and one that will evolve with speed – Ubamarket’s installation time is 48 hrs from integration.”
According to Broome, Ubamarket’s driving focus revolves around the behaviours and habits that keep consumers happily in-store, meaning every facet of this app is geared around their exact desires and challenges, for the entire shopping journey – from being a handy tool for writing your shopping list and being a real-time in-store-sat nav to receiving personalised offers, automatically collecting loyalty points and enabling to you skip the queue by paying in-app.”
Budgens is leading the way – and will be adding it to its London and Manchester stores later this year – but the app is likely to start appearing elsewhere too. Due for national roll-out in association with leading payment solutions supplier HTEC Ltd, part of Universe Group Plc – whose portfolio of stores includes Morrisons, Budgens, Nisa and Spar – the app has been developed to launch across HTEC’s extensive group of UK stores in 2018. Ubamarket’s innovative technology enables the app to be compatible with any store in the UK.
Here’s how it works:
- Step 1 – Input your shopping list into the Ubamarket app (including any personalised offers in one tap)
- Step 2 – Enter the supermarket and the app will rearrange your shopping list as the items are located in store
- Step 3 – The app automatically tracks and updates your loyalty points as per your last shop
- Step 4 – Using the app’s scanner, scan item barcodes – including variable barcodes on weighted products – as you go, keeping track of your spend
- Step 4 – No queues, simply tap your smartphone on a payment point without the need to unload items to a conveyor belt and re-scan purchases.
IMAGE Geograph
