Do you have the app that is associated with your favorite grocery store? Safeway’s app makes it easy for you to find coupons rather than use the traditional newspaper cutouts. Whole Foods’ app if full of tasty recipes and makes it easy to create a shopping list based on ingredients you may already have.
A screenshot from Trader Joe’s Mobile App
Trader Joe’s has always done things a little different, so it comes as no shock that their new app skips the coupons and instead focuses on social media. For the record, TJ’s has always been about social sharing. Take a look at their Twitter account and you’ll find tons of retweets from customers posting about their favorite products. No offense to Safeway, but people just aren’t posting about their Safeway Select coffee.
On the app, customers can comment on products, share their favorite items through Twitter, Facebook and email, and see recipe ideas. Also, a big button encourages users to call their local store to see if an item is in stock.
Will this non-commerce approach work in favor for the store? Well, the answer is, it already has. While massively-stocked stores like Safeway are making a personalized experience on their apps through coupons and loyalty programs, Trader Joe’s is doing it through their “community approach” – which they’ve done from the beginning.
Now – where is my cookie butter?
Trader Joe’s has debuted a new application that ditches the traditional couponing emphasis that many grocery chains take with mobile to instead focus on social media.
The new initiative is the grocery chain’s first attempt at a branded app and is available for free download in Apple’s App Store. In lieu of coupons or hard offers, Trader Joe’s new app tightly integrates with Facebook as a way for consumers to discover more than 3,000 privately-labeled grocery items.
Leave a Reply