I am sure they did not have time to pull it together just because of my last post about poor apps in grocery retailing, but in a serendipitous piece of timing, Walgreens launched a great answer to that blog this past week with a truly helpful app.

Built on top of the usual retail app ‘standards’ (mobile coupons and digital circular) are some TRULY helpful features for shoppers, including some really useful features for managing prescriptions – like the scan & refill feature – plus a pill reminder, to make sure you remember to take those pills long after you leave the store. As a shopper marketer, I think this is a great step forward… but more importantly, as a shopper I see this really making a difference in my preference for where to fill prescriptions.

The pill reminder is a great example of adding a feature that is helpful to the shopper, even if the benefit to Walgreens is at best indirect (ie. if I remember to take them, perhaps I will refill more often).  Adding this feature says “we really do care that you feel better”, not just “we really do care that you buy your pills at Walgreens”.

Even better, Walgreens took a big step that few others have done: putting high-production-quality TV time behind ads for the app, letting shoppers know what it can do for them.  And why not… when you have a great app, you want it on as many phones as possible.

So congrats, Walgreens, for setting a new bar… and overcoming the dead thinking in so many other retail apps.

— the orange sheep