Grocery store chain Shop ‘n Save is ramping up its mobile initiatives to help its customers find what they are looking for and access coupons and promotions via their handsets.

Shop ‘n Save is partnering with mobile retail navigation and promotions service aisle411. The vendor is launching an iPhone application and mobile Web site in November, with Android and BlackBerry applications coming in early 2011, all of which will integrate with aisle411’s online pre-planning shopping Web site.

“Shop ‘n Save is continuously striving to ensure our customers have the best possible experience in our stores,” said Marlene Gebhard, president of Shop ‘n Save, St. Louis.

“Aisle411 enhances customers’ experiences with the ability to quickly find what they are looking for and then access relevant coupons and promotions to help save money, as well as product information to make more informed decisions,” she said.

“Aisle411 will continue to be an important part of our strategy to provide a rewarding total value shopping experience.”

Shop ’n Save is a grocery store chain with forty stores in the St. Louis market. The company is a wholly-owned subsidiary of SuperValu, based in Eden Prairie, MN.

Founded in 2008, aisle411 offers a retail product search service that helps consumers save time and money. It provides product information to consumers via voice and text technologies with support for an iPhone application, the mobile Web and interactive voice.

Mobile-enhanced shopping
Shop ‘n Save tapped aisle411 to help shoppers find what they are looking for and get rewarded for it.

Via the aisle411 partnership, Shop ‘n Save is letting anyone with a mobile phone find products and promotions quickly and easily in its retail locations.

With interactive voice technology and dynamic text messaging via 1-877-AISLE-411, and soon an iPhone application and mobile Web site, aisle411 is powering in-store search and comprehensive mobile retail shopping service for Shop ‘n Save.

According to National Consumer Research, 83 percent of shoppers have trouble finding what they are looking for in stores.

With the aisle411 application or mobile Web site, Shop ‘n Save customers can locate products in stores, down to the specific section of the aisle, find product reviews, manage shopping lists, share experiences with friends via social media integration, then get reward points and mobile coupons for using the service.

“Consumers can use aisle411 to click on a store to go inside, search and find products via a vertical search engine,” said Nathan Pettyjohn, founder/CEO of aisle411, St. Louis. “We’ve integrated best-of-breed voice technology, because consumers like the ability to multitask and not necessarily type in full product names, instead just say ‘I need double-sided tape.’

“There is also a social check-in component letting shoppers earn social gaming badges, so there’s a competitive element to what we’re doing,” he said. “A brand can insert an advertisement to reach shoppers.

“Consumers can add an item to their shopping list, map it, get more information on the product and share information about it via social networks, email or text message.”

Final Take
Dan Butcher is associate editor at Mobile Commerce Daily