Ubamarket, engineers of the retail industry’s ‘Scan, Pay, Go’ technology, has announced the launch of their solution in a flagship store in north London, the Nash and Gardner’s Budgens. Budgens’ Scan, Pay, Go app’s proprietary technology creates dynamic real-time reductions on hundreds of products in store. The company says this revolutionises loyalty for the convenience and mid-sized supermarket sector.
Ubamarket’s technology identifies shopping patterns, favourite brands, and regular purchases of buyers. The solution offers consumers exclusive deals and money-saving opportunities for products they love the most – such as 20% off oat milk. Budgens suggests this will help consumers combat the cost-of-living crisis. As a special promotion, app users also get 10% off all deli & lunch items throughout the month of September.
With the rising rate of inflation for British consumers continuing to hit new peaks, British consumers face the worst cost-of-living squeeze since the 1950s. Furthermore, businesses wrestle with rising supply chain costs, energy prices and deteriorating purchasing power. Food price inflation across Britain could reach a peak of 15% this winter.
Ubamarket’s app is branded to each retailer and participating store and hyper-personalises the shopping experience for each customer. Working with retailers across the country, such as Central England Co-op, Budgens, Nisa and EuroSPAR, the ‘Scan, Pay, Go’ technology provides consumers with the pioneering Magic Shopping List. The platform automatically orders a shopping list and provides an aisle Sat-Nav feature, highlighting exactly where in-store produce is located.
Headline features
- Personalised deals through AI: Ubamarket’s AI recognises shopping patterns, favourite brands and regular purchases. The platform begins to offer consumers deals and money-saving opportunities for products they like the most. This feature offers consumers exclusive access to special offers and deals that you can’t find anywhere else.
- Age Verification: Ubamarket has seamlessly incorporated the industry’s leading phone age verification technology. It can approve the customer for products which would typically require an age check. Once a customer has uploaded the appropriate ID and documentation to the app, they can immediately approve their purchases. There is no need for assistance from store managers or cashiers.
- Shop by dietary/allergy requirements: The technology provides in-depth allergen information and allows consumers to shop according to dietary or allergen requirements.
- Plastic Alerts: As part of Ubamarket’s commitment to sustainability, the app provides information on which packaging can and can’t be recycled in your weekly shop. It also provides a summary of the environmental footprint of your shop. This also helps retailers to meet their sustainability goals.
- Click & Collect: Launching in 2022, Ubamarket has now announced that through the Budgens Scan, Pay, Go app, users are now able to pre-order their groceries via the app, before collecting in-store.
Magic Shopping List technology
To use the app in-store, customers can simply enter or dictate their shopping list into the app. This will then be rearranged into the order in which the items are displayed in the store via the bespoke ‘Magic Shopping List technology, which guides the shopper to each item. Customers can scan additional products that are not on their list at any time (using the shopping list is optional).
According to Will Broome, CEO of Ubamarket, “Supermarket chains and suppliers rely on narrow profit margins. Although most industries are affected by the rising rate of inflation, consumer goods and foods have felt a stronger impact. Suppliers will typically request small price increases.
“Now we see suppliers requesting up to 10% increments to fight inflation, which is directly passed on to the consumer. At the end of the day, it becomes a tug-of-war on profits and the burden lies with the consumer. We can expect to see food prices begin to fall in line with inflation. But this won’t happen until 2023 at the earliest “
Enterprise Times: What this means for business
The war in Ukraine, rising inflation, supply chain issues, increased energy prices, Brexit impact has had a devasting impact on the UK Grocery marketplace. As a result, these trends have fed through to the perfect storm – the cost-of-living crisis. The average cost of annual groceries is estimated to increase by £533, according to the Institute of Grocery Distribution.
As British consumers seek cost-effective ways to curb the impacts of inflation, Ubamarket’s solution brings a new scope of opportunity for local grocery retailers. Economies of scale will ensure the larger grocery chains will inevitably weather the storm. Ubamarket’s solution may slightly level the playing field to enable local retailers to compete in the food retail landscape.
The app appears to the first to provide bespoke, inflation-matching offers. The company says it transforms loyalty within the most technologically enabled grocery store in London.
