Albert Heijn tells you how to walk in a supermarket

Albert Heijn is currently trialing an app that will calculate the ideal shopping route based on your grocery list. Starting 7 May, it will test it in the AH supermarket in Hoofddorp.

AH points customers the way

From May onward, Albert Heijn customers in Hoofddorp will be able to use indoor navigation to quickly and effectively complete their shopping list, according to iCulture. An app, co-developed with Philips and Aisle411 will point customers in the right direction to every item.

The Appie app already allows customers to sort items based on the route in their supermarket, but this navigation app will basically become a Google Maps with a route to follow. It would also tell you where the items are, eliminating the need to search or to ask an employee for assistance.

It has trialed the app in two American supermarkets and there is also a supermarket in Dubai where a similar app not only shows the ideal route, but also scans the items automatically. However, Albert Heijn will currently only focus on the route.

New data and promotional tool

The trial will last several months, after which an evaluation will follow. It remains to be seen how much faster a shopping trip will be because of the app. In any case, Albert Heijn can prove useful to Albert Heijn: the retailer will obtain a wealth of information when it can see how customers walk and where they stop.

It can also send push notifications with discounts or specific content based on the aisle or product a consumer passes. It would even be possible to send a consumer past specific product categories, like impulse buy items (candy, chips) according to iCulture. Albert Heijn has indicated it will not do that because people would lose trust and that is not what the company wants.