CVS today announced the launch of a newly rebranded and updated CVS Health app (formerly called CVS Pharmacy). The iPhone app offers a variety of new features, but perhaps the most exciting is one that’s currently being piloted in select CVS stores: the ability to open locked-up product cabinets.
When it comes to retail shopping experiences, CVS can make things especially frustrating.
That’s because, depending on your local store, you may find that CVS locks up the majority of its products.
Historically, this has required hitting a button to call a CVS employee for help. The whole process is a pain for shoppers and a pain for employees.
But soon, the new CVS app could solve that.
Isabelle Bousquette writes for The Wall Street Journal:
The company is now trialing an app feature that lets loyalty program members unlock those ubiquitous cabinets from their phone. App users need to be logged in, on the local store Wi-Fi and with their device’s bluetooth enabled to activate the feature. The pilot is currently in three stores. Mandadi said the pilot is going well and the next step will be to expand to 10-15 stores, with the ultimate goal of full-scale deployment.
It sounds like unlocking a CVS cabinet may require a little jumping through hoops initially, but once everything’s set up, it should make shopping a lot easier on return visits.
Innovative approaches to app adoption
Funnily enough, this tidbit about the CVS app is presented in the context of CVS thinking of ways to boost user adoption of its app.
“You’re talking about behavior change. If most people shop in-store, they have a certain way of doing it,” said Scheibenreif. For the app, he added, “They have to have compelling reasons for you to open it and use it in the store.”
[…]
“People really, really dislike locked cabinets.”
I must say, the ability to unlock product cabinets would absolutely get me to start using the CVS app more. Assuming the pilot continues to be successful, I wonder if this application of technology could cause other retailers to find their own fresh methods of driving app adoption.
What do you think of the CVS news? Would you use the app to unlock cabinets? Let us know in the comments.
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