Let me show you the way

The news last week that Harrods has launched a mobile app specifically to help customers navigate its cavernous store went down well with my colleagues at Retail Week. It’s the perfect example of what a mobile app should be; it gives shoppers a real reason to download it, and I wouldn’t be surprised if those that do go on to buy more.

Hot on its heels comes Tesco’s foray into navigational apps. It is running a beta test at Romford’s Tesco Extra store of what it has dubbed a ‘sat-nav’ system. Customers with an Android smartphone can download it, create shopping lists and the app then works out the optimal route for them to take around the store. Customers can also search for products using the app while in store to locate them.

This isn’t a new idea, Metro was trialling a guided shopping app that customers could download to their phones in its Future Store several years ago. But consumer technology has developed at a pace since then, and smartphone penetration rates, mobile internet costs and consumers’ familiarity with the concept of apps have all moved the story on somewhat.

It’s early days for this Tesco development, but clearly shows the direction that other retailers and those related to the industry are likely to head. Just as first-generation iPhone apps and mobile-optimised sites proliferated in a matter of months last year, so too will these more advanced cross-channel mobile developments during 2011.

So who will be next? Retailers with large stores and those that are more complex to navigate are the obvious answer. But it’s also likely that shopping centre operators and those trying to promote certain shopping areas will invest in such developments to help drive footfall. The soon to open Westfield Stratford would be the perfect place for such a launch, with its young, urban and tech-savvy East London catchment.

Mobile should not be thought of merely as another channel which will cannibalise store sales, developed properly it will most definitely be an enabler of them.