Supermarket chain Countdown launches new online shopping app

Countdown has launched a Click & Collect app for its customers. Photo / David Rowland

Supermarket retailer Countdown has launched an app designed to make its Click & Collect service more convenient for consumers.

The Countdown Click & Collect app alerts users to let them know when their online grocery order is ready to pick up and the store when the customer is on its way.

The app, a collaboration with Melbourne-based tech firm Localz, uses GPS to create a 400m "geo-fence" radius around a selected Countdown store. When a customer "breaks" the radius the in-store team is alerted.

Sally Copland, Countdown head of online, said the app was the first of its kind in New Zealand, using proximity technology to improve its online shopping experience.

"The beauty of the Countdown Click & Collect app is it allows our team to have a customer's order ready as soon as they walk through the door, streamlining the process of collection and making sure customers can quickly drop in, pick up their groceries, and get back on their way," Copland said.

Localz chief executive Tim Andrew said Countdown had grasped the essence of the rising individual economy.

"Countdown is a forward-thinking retailer that has grasped the individual economy - the 'i-conomy'. Customers know what they want, where they want it and when. The Click & Collect app delivers this," Andrew said.

The app had already had more than 3600 downloads, Copland said.

The first store to offer its Click & Collect service was Auckland's Countdown Mt Roskill.

Countdown Whangarei, Takapuna, Birkenhead, Chartwell, Tauranga, Kilbirnie and Bush Inn and now set up with the function.

The retailer will be expanding the offering out to all of its stores in coming months.

Countdown's online delivery service had grown more than 20 per cent year on year and its Click & Collect service has grown 70 per cent.