The Surprising Retail Winner In Mobile Apps

When it comes to mobile applications, an unlikely sector is crushing the big department stores and giants like IKEA and Burger King: drugstores. When it comes to consumer reviews, no top-100 retailer can boast the positive sentiment of CVS Caremark and Walgreen Co. And among the retailers who don’t get it, Kohl’s and supermarket chain Giant Eagle are the worst offenders, according to a new retail apps report from mobile solutions firm Xtreme Labs.

The throwback drugstores were the only two retailers to receive positive ratings for both Apple iOS and Android-focused apps in the study, which scraped every review in the Apple App Store and Google Play store for Android apps and ranked them for their positive or negative response. The totals were then averaged and an absolute ranking assigned. (Xtreme Labs works with eCommerce retailers but did not have to rank any of its own clients, the company says.) Among those favorability rankings, Walgreens finished first on Apple products and sixth on Android phones, while CVS placed second over iOS and was the top performer over Android devices. Kohl’s and Giant Eagle, meanwhile, finished in the bottom three over both platforms.

The key to Walgreens and CVS’ strong performance is that each provides an app with immediate actual utility, says Jeremy Black, Xtreme Labs’ director of retail. Users can manage their pharmacy prescriptions such as fill out rapid refills, find deals on products, and make orders that they can then pick up in their local store. There's mobile-focused shopping with free shipping, but the experience is oriented toward improving a user's in-store experience.

That may sound like obvious functionality to have in a retail app—and you may be surprised that some of these retailers have one at all. Of the 100 retailers in the study, 70 have at least one app; 56 have a version for each platform. The effort they give, however, is largely lacking, according to Xtreme. “Mobile users are extremely forgiving if you show you are trying hard and make improvements,” Black says. “They are unforgiving if you’ve made an under-investment.”

One area where companies trip up is a focus on mobile commerce. When a company like Kohl’s app is geared toward shopping by mobile phone, it has to deliver that experience in a way that makes things easier for the buyer. Showing products but then redirecting a user to a hard-to-read website for the actual purchase or failing to tie in the process to the in-person experience through deals and pickup ability at a brick-and-mortar store will upset your customer. Lack of features was one of reviewers’ top complaints—about one quarter of reviewers on each platform included that gripe. “That [percentage] shouldn’t be that high,” Black says. “There will be a natural gap” as apps have to continually catch up to new phone capabilities, “but that number should be 5 or 10 percent.”

Where Giant Eagle tripped up is by providing an app that doesn’t really simplify or shorten a user’s shopping experience. That’s a concern for any utility app—more connection points with a consumer doesn’t always make their process easier. Black points to H&M in apparel and Starbucks in quick-serve restaurant chains as two brands that make shoppers’ lives easier with their apps. McDonald’s and Burger King—the second-lowest rated Apple retailer—have yet to add purchasing ability that would make their fast food even faster.

For companies known for a good in-store experience like IKEA, such results could signal a call to action. For drugstores, it's a sign that years of mobile investment have paid off--and that people really want to refill their meds without waiting in line.

[You can download the full report from Xtreme Labs here.]

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