The humble shopping list gets the flick with Woolworths’ new smart watch app

Supermarket giant, Woolworths, is set to be one of the first apps available for Apple’s new smartwatch when it launches in Australia on 24 April.

The ‘Woolies Shop Glance’ shows customers key convenient data points like their nearest store, including opening hours and location, walking and driving distance. The app also has a shopping list capability, which can be sorted according to aisle order so the customer can navigate the store more efficiently. Items can be checked off as soon as they’re found so nothing can be forgotten.

“What that means from a customer perspective is that when they are in-store trying to find their groceries quickly, and get in and out of the store, they’ve got their hands free because they don’t have to be holding a phone,” Woolworths digital marketing manager, Katrina Colpo, said. “The key is that you have access to both the store location quickly if you need to do a top up shop, as well as your shopping list from your wrist.”

According to Colpo, this will benefit customers by making their shopping experience a lot quicker and easier.

“We’re always looking at improving the service to our customers and I think this is another example of engaging with our customers, making the service and shopping experience as simple and as valuable for them as possible,” she told CMO.

From a customer perspective, Colpo is confident the new smartwatch technology will become a consumer necessity, which is one of the reasons why Woolworths decided to invest in this space.

“When it comes to the wearables market, Australians are early adopters of new technology and we’ve recognised that,” she said. “I certainly see its longevity. From our perspective, we have developed this app right now, but we have a roadmap of things where we can add benefits to our customers to benefit their shopping experience. We are investing in this space and we’ll keep investing and providing new things to our customers.”

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Barrie said the new wearable will take traditional mobile interaction to a whole other level, and the company is already receiving enquiries for further app development from the health tech space as well as the financial services industries.

“There’s massive interest because it is all about that higher availability of information, what we need right now, as painless as possible,” he said. “We think the mobile phone is not painless but it actually can be. You have to take it out of your pocket, unlock it and open. You actually have a five- or six-step process. If you’re looking for something really fast, just a small snippet of everyday information, personally, I think there's a compelling argument for a watch.”

“There have been so many things in the past 10 years that have been released that upon release we felt were gimmicky, but it turns out they’re not,” he added. “I think the only true measure of success of it is how people use it - and that is what we’re really excited to see.”

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