Imagine you are in a supermarket, buying grocery, food, shampoo, tissue, flowers,… Are you always being loyal with branded products or non-branded can be bought as well? Would you buy chocolate if it’s not branded “Cadbury” or “Kitkat”? Would you get a Coco Cola or a Pepsi? Which ice-cream should I go for?… Have you ever got confused of choosing product so you open… an app (such as Woolworths app) right at the moment you are at the supermarket to check star rating points or customer feedback about the products, nutrition or compare prices? If you are having problems with choosing a product…
The first hint is in the picture below. 10 companies with hundreds sub-brands control food and beverage markets that their products are worth to try!
However, choosing one product from ten “different but similar” ones is not an easy job, not only brands but quality, price, quantity are put into consideration. Therefore, I add in here 5 useful apps that you should download to your phones and carry to the supermarket:
1/ Shop Ethical
This is an app for “green” product, friendly to the environment 
2/ ShopWell
Checking Nutrition of Food on the packages
3/ FoodSwitch
When you are on a diet and still want something like chocolate, download this app to switch to a better choice!
4/ Frugal
If you are considering to buy a big pack or small package of any product, this app would help you convert price and quantity to determine the best price for you.
5/ Sustainable Seafood Guide
If you love seafood, this app is for you! It helps you to make choices at restaurant or supermarket by telling you the nutritions of specific type of seafood, over 100 types with a ranking system.
Before this reading this blog post, have you ever heard of these apps or actually use them before? Did you find your favorite branded food product in this app when you searched for it? What would be your main consideration if there are two similar products from the same brand? Do you truly love the brand/product or you consume it just because everyone else does? Do you think these Big 10 should have their own app for customers to check on their products?
Please leave your comments below and sharing your thoughts.
Source:
http://www.bodyandsoul.com.au/nutrition/nutrition+tips/five+apps+to+take+grocery+shopping,17139
SCARLET FILE 
Feeling kind of silly that I never thought about the possibility of apps that you could use at supermarkets. Such as great idea by app developers and so valuable for consumers as well. The emphasis on health and fitness these days means we are shopping healthier and these apps can really keep us since they are simple and easy to use (no excuses anymore). Its a step in the right direction for consumers but I do question if brands will wise up and get into this app game and the level of bias that might start to filter through from partnerships, it could affect what the app recommends to us.
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Thank you for your comment Katherine. We can’t deny that health and fitness are increasing trends among customers’ behaviour and affected their purchases. Apps help to compare products. But I guess bias and incorrect information still exist. Sometime it’s a bit inconvenient to check all the products that you buy. Companies can develop their own app for their own products, could be a way to communicate with customers, observe customers’ behaviours, favourite products and receive feedbacks. I would not check the app when I am in the supermarket simply because I buy what I want to buy and I am more attracted with the sales displays 🙂
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Wow they all seem like great apps for international students like us who have to do our own shopping. Thanks for the recommendation Helen! I have the Sustainable Seafood Guide (So I got 1/5 marks?) which I downloaded after watching a documentary on fisheries last year. The app would tell us which types of fish are the better choice to consume, nutritional facts, population facts(Tuna is the fastest species to endangerment, so we should eat less tuna), and so on. Good post here! I’m definitely going to try out the other 4 apps!
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Thanks for your comment Elizabeth and it’s good to hear that the app you downloaded actually helps! Apps are made to clear our confusion and easier for decision making process. Please try the other 4 apps and share your feedback.
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These apps can actually educate the consumers as well. But the concerns would be the accuracy of information and time consuming to literally check all the products that are on the shopping list. It would be good to have an app like this to assist the consumers with decision making. However, if consumers do find out one product is better than the other one then they would walk away from that brand. Which might impact on the brand and the sales of that product.
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Thanks for your comment Mandy Tran. I agree that apps would teach customers about nutrition, how to use products, maybe feedback from other customers and what would be the best choice (which lead to your concern that customers would walk away from our brand if they can find something better). However, I think that’s natural. Is is the key point of “competition? That’s why brand always needs to improve, to satisfy customers. Companies could solve this problem in many ways, such as sales, cheaper price, bonus, improve the product, create their own apps to support their own products, create a new product line, etc.
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