Target App Now Tells You If Times Are Available In-Store And Where To Find Them

Target’s updated app allows customers to see if items are available at local stores and where to find them inside the store.

Have you ever made a shopping list, driven to the store and then realized they were out of certain items? Apparently, Target has an answer to that frustrating experience in the form of an app update that can tell consumers what’s in stock and where to find those items inside the store.

VentureBeat reports that Target’s new service, which was implemented by Washington-based tech company Point Inside, makes it possible to offer in-store functions for all 1,801 of its U.S. locations for the first time.

A customer’s shopping list shows what aisle the item can be found in. [Click to enlarge]

The company’s updated app allows a shopper to start their list using a type-ahead function that includes brand named items. The app will then notify the customer if the product is available at their chosen store location and what aisle they can find it in.

The new function uses Point Inside’s StoreMode platform which digitizes stores’ layouts for electronic use.

Once inside the store, the app uses the digitized model of the store to create a map showing the user the aisle location of each of the items on their shopping list. During Black Friday the app will reportedly alert consumers to the location of doorbuster items.

While the map can pinpoint the location of products, Target lacks the in-store beacons or similar communication capabilities that would enable Point Inside to provide shoppers with the exact route to those locations, VentureBeat reports.

Additionally, because GPS is lost inside the retail stores the new service can’t show shoppers where they are in relation to their desired items.

Josh Marti, CEO of Point Inside, tells VentureBeat that the service’s platform does not support personal information; meaning that if the system were to get hacked it would only produce an unnamed person’s shopping list.

Attention, shoppers: Now you can target anything inside a Target store [VentureBeat]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist