The Ubamarket app, which allows customers to complete their food shopping using their own phone, is to be rolled out to a range of convenience stores and supermarkets.

Warners Budgens

The Ubamarket app, which allows customers to complete their food shopping using their own phone, is to be rolled out to a range of convenience stores and supermarkets.

The shopping app launched in Warner’s Budgens stores in Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, and Warwickshire earlier this year. The app allows consumers to scan and find products and collect loyalty points in-store. Shoppers can then use a QR code system to pay at the checkout.

The Ubamarket app was trialled at Guy Warner’s Moreton in Marsh store in 2017, after years of development. The app, which operates under Guy’s ‘Taste Club’ loyalty brand, also allows shoppers to do an entire shop according to dietary and allergy requirements.

Ubamarket is working with payment solutions supplier HTEC Ltd, whose portfolio of stores include Morrisons, Budgens, Nisa and Spar, to give other retailers access to the platform.

Guy Warner, md and owner of Warner’s Budgens, said: “I’m delighted to have been the first store in the world to offer a completely white-labelled version of Ubamarket to our customers. I feel that the revolutionary Taste Club app will effectively bridge the gap between online convenience and the in-store experience that Warner’s Budgens shoppers enjoy.”

Ubamarket ceo and founder Will Broome added: “Having built a premium tech solution that enables progressive retailers to stand head and shoulders above the UK’s major supermarkets for a fraction of the price, the apps launch marks a total game-changer for the industry - and one that will evolve with speed - Ubamarket’s installation time is 48 hrs from integration.

”Our driving focus revolves around the behaviours and habits that keep consumers happily in-store, meaning every facet of this app is geared around their exact desires and challenges, for the entire shopping journey - from being a handy tool for writing your shopping list and being a real-time in-store-sat nav to receiving personalised offers, automatically collecting loyalty points and enabling you to skip the queue by paying in-app.”

Responding to criticism from other retailers, Lucy Worrall, marketing manager for Warner’s Budgens, explains how the app works in some of Guy’s smaller stores.

She said: “Our Broadway store is our smallest site at 3,000 sq ft. so customers may not need to use the app to guide them around the store. However, the app is all about speeding up service and is particularly useful for those who are nipping in for their lunch and can use the QR codes to pay and skip the queues.

“For us, the biggest win is that all our Taste Club members now have a reminder on their phone of all our loyalty offers, rather than having to look at the POS in-store.”

Ubamarket App