Target’s new mobile app is aimed at improving customer experience, and includes technology that allows users to create shopping lists in-app and maps store footprints to make items easier to find.
The retail giant is leveraging Point Inside’s StoreMode technology, which allows customers to make their own lists to see if specific items are available at a certain store, and pins item locations on a map of the store to help customers find what they’re looking for. Auto-complete text functionality allows guests to quickly add items to their shopping lists, and interactive Black Friday maps will provide store layouts and “doorbuster” locations for Target’s Black Friday sale.
Webimax ceo and founder and ecommerce expert Ken Wisnefski says Target’s new app is an example of what brick and mortar retailers should be looking to do in order to survive in a mobile-driven landscape.
“Bridging that gap between the physical and digital domains will engage users in a way that can drive sales. The problem hasn’t that people are unwilling to go out and make in-store purchases, but that people are getting so used to shopping with all the available information they could ask for right in front of them,” Wisnefski says.
Including these kinds of features directly in the mobile app is providing value and helping customers by giving them the information they need—and by making sure they’re not wandering around stores for items that aren’t in stock.
Wisnefski says that combining this kind of app solution with mobile payment will allow people to avoid lines and could make the hassles of brick and mortar shopping experiences a thing of the past.
“People will never give-up the convenience of online shopping, and I don’t think people will ever give up entirely on shopping at brick and mortar stores, but they may eventually give up on stores that don’t enhance the shopping experience in ways similar to this. With the holiday shopping season already in gear, this technology could give retailers a slight bump, but I’d expect a much larger bump next year as people become more aware of this capability,” Wisnefski says.
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