SAINSBURY’S: A hybrid online-offline supermarket shopping model gives customers the speed of online and the impulse buying opportunities of visiting the store. Click to enlarge.

UK supermarket chain Sainsbury’s is to pilot a mobile shopping app that allows customers to build a virtual basket of favourite products from anywhere before they visit a store, get directions when they arrive at the store to find the items in their virtual basket, scan selected items as they shop, and then check out and pay with their mobile phone.

Sainsbury’s staff will begin testing the service at the retailer’s Wandsworth, London store at the end of November ahead of a planned rollout to Nectar loyalty cardholders “later next year.”

“Overall, the app is proven to cut the time taken to do a shop — reducing checkout time to seconds in testing,” Sainsbury’s says.

“We know that customers’ weekly shop doesn’t start at our front door — they know what they like and they also like that search for a bargain,” says Jon Rudoe, digital and technology director at Sainsbury’s. “They still want to come into store — but with limited time, they want to be able to get their shop done quickly.”