3/22/11 – Is your business ready for an App?
A few weeks ago, Kathy and I attended the Bozzuto’s Independent Retailer Conference with two of our employees, Megan and Jeff, to discuss iOrder, our iPhone app. At the invitation of Bozzuto’s, we had a small booth space down “technology row” as we liked to call it, to demo iOrder on both my iPhone and iPad.
Reception to iOrder was terrific, overall. Many folks who stopped by were very interested and as no one is really marketing apps to the retailers in this space, smaller-sized independent grocery chains, it was a great opportunity for us to showcase what iOrder can do and what an iPhone app could mean for their stores.
Many of our booth visitors however worried about the level of technology required to run the app, mainly an iPhone, while others worried that their current customer base would not be so eager to adopt this sort of technology. Let’s take a look at these concerns, as they are definitely valid.
It’s true that the iPhone, while seemingly ubiquitous, only has about 25% of the Smartphone market share in the United States. So, while it may seem like everyone has one, the truth is, they don’t. Concentrations are definitely higher in densely populated urban areas as well as among a slightly younger demographic, than other Smartphones, like Blackberry, which cater to an audience of 40+. Before investing in any technology, especially mobile, it is important to take stock of your location. A few small stores in rural Mississippi probably wouldn’t have use for this because their main customer base more than likely doesn’t have an iPhone. However, a corner market in a suburb of New York City or Los Angeles could greatly benefit from the exposure and functionality of an app like iOrder.
As far as adoption goes, it’s true that different people have widely different views on technology. While it’s easy to generalize and say that older adults don’t use technology and young adults and 30-somethings do, that’s doing a disservice to your customer base. The truth is, a 50-year-old grandmother is just as likely to have an iPhone to stay in touch with her newest grandchild, as a 20-something who relies on the technology for GPS and game-playing.
Whether your customers will embrace an iPhone app depends on a two things—one that’s out of your control and one that’s not.
1) Is the app easy to use and useful?
That’s our job, to make sure the app we’ve programmed is one that your clients will want to use.
2) Are you as excited or more excited about introducing this kind of technology than we are?
If these issues are the only things holding you back from adopting new technology like an iPhone app, there’s only one thing to do—go to the source. In the case of iOrder, that would be deli customers. Next time you’re walking the store, go visit your deli counter and ask a few customers if they’d use an app that allowed them to skip waiting in line. Or even, ask them something far simpler: Do you have an iPhone?
With the recent introduction of iPhone to Verizon Wireless, the United States’ largest wireless provider, the chance that iPhone will gain a greater piece of the Smartphone market is good. Wouldn’t it be great if you and your stores were ahead of the curve with a fully-branded iPhone app available in Apple’s App Store?
Personally, I’m a big fan of the “front” of the curve. Even better, I like to lead the way. I’ll bet you do to.
Until my next post, take care and prosper,
Tom
3/4/2011 – Where did February go?
Wow, what a busy month. I can’t believe we’ve made it to March. I was fortunate to do some traveling in February, visiting with existing clients and also some new ones in the Pacific Northwest and California. I spent a little over a week on the “right” coast and even had time to squeeze in a few vacation days. It was a nice respite from the frigid winter we’re having in Massachusetts this year—although, truthfully, the weather was pretty chilly in California too.
I also made a stop in Pittsburgh to give a presentation on our scales software at the Consolidated Food Equipment Distributors (CFED) Regional Meeting. We’ve had a long-standing relationship with many folks at CFED as they sell scales to some of the stores that also use our software. It was nice to meet them and also get to talk about how our software can positively impact their business.
Here’s a stat that really grabbed everyone’s attention:
One store with $5,000 in deli sales per week can lose at least $150 of revenue, per week, by just having six items wrongly priced by only $0.25.
Using Droste’s PC Scale Manager, you can update all of the scales in all of your stores, simultaneously, removing the chance for delayed updating and manual entry error. It also saves you about $45 a week in maintenance time per scale per store.
So, it’s possible to save almost $200 a week or approximately $10,000 a year in revenue, just by using our software.
That realization was a big hit with the attendees.
March is shaping up to be a somewhat quieter month, although we will be attending Bozzuto’s show at Foxwoods in Connecticut next week to talk about our iPhone app, iOrder. We’re very excited to discuss this with a new set of customers! We’re still looking for our inaugural iOrder client; maybe we’ll meet them there.
Have a terrific few weeks and until my next post, take care and prosper,
Tom