Dive Brief:

• Schnucks has added two new features to its Schnucks Rewards mobile shopping app, the company announced in a press release.
• A new real-time, in-app shopping list feature will automatically organize the order of a customer’s list based on their selected store’s layout. Shoppers can add items to their list through typing, scanning a barcode or clicking from a digital ad. The app will automatically clip any available coupons.
• The second new feature is a wellness guide, which allows customers to see nutrition information and product labels through the app. The wellness guide also highlights product attributes such as "heart smart," gluten-free, high protein and organic. WIC-approved products will also be identified.

Dive Insight:

With its newest app features, Schnucks is joining a wave of retailers that are updating their in-store apps or launching them for the first time. Many grocers are using apps to help customers manage their rewards and customer loyalty memberships, and features such as shopping lists and digital coupons remain popular.  

Adding a scanning feature to the Schnucks Rewards app aligns with other retailers’ efforts to bring scanning technology to stores. While it’s not quite the cashierless scan-and-go technology that Sam’s Club is piloting or the mobile checkout scanning feature that Meijer is deploying, it does show Schnucks shoppers that the company is working toward a more frictionless shopping experience.

Updating its app isn’t the only recent investment Schnucks has made in technology. Last fall, the retailer announced plans to expand aisle-scanning robots to 15 stores after a successful pilot in St. Louis, Missouri. "Tally" the robot will be placed in stores that need it most, first, including those that are under-staffed and those that have seen a boost in customers.

The addition of a wellness guide in its app should resonate well with Schnucks shoppers. From the food-as-medicine movement to the addition of nutritionists to grocery store teams across the country, health and wellness is top-of-mind for consumers as they fill their baskets today. Shoppers have also reported that they trust their primary grocery store as an ally in their health, and Schnucks’ wellness guide is one more way for the retailer to strengthen this role.

Schnucks has been hard at work lately as it rebrands 19 Shop ‘n Save stores that were acquired last fall. The company also launched alcohol delivery last month in partnership with Instacart in Missouri and Illinois.