Since mobile plays such a strong role in these grocery executives' strategies, they were asked about the biggest benefit that smartphones provide. Mobile coupons was the top response, cited by 55.6%. Meanwhile, Facebook lost value, dropping to 25.9% from 59.1% in 2017. Scan-and-go technology wasn’t even included in last year's survey, and now 17.6% think it has value.
Expect to see more supermarkets and other retailers adopting mobile scanning tech in 2018 thanks to the attention garnered by Amazon Go earlier this year. This week The Kroger Co. unveiled its version, Scan, Bag, Go, which lets shoppers use an app or an in-store device to pay for goods. Kroger plans to expand the feature to 400 stores by the end of the year. And Meijer announced that its Shop & Scan test, which began in November 2017, will be rolled out to all 235 stores by summer.
Waiting in line is frequently cited as one of the biggest in-store shopping pain points, so many retailers are attempting to leverage shoppers’ always-present mobile devices to their advantage. In a statement, Terry Ledbetter, chief information officer for Meijer, characterized the impact that the new Shop & Scan feature will have on the shopping experience as “dramatically faster and more convenient for our customers."