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Dive Brief:
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CVS Health introduced a mobile app that allows shoppers in a handful of stores to unlock secured display cabinets to access merchandise, the company announced Tuesday. The feature is a test for now.
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With the app, which succeeds the retailer’s previous CVS Pharmacy app, shoppers can also access savings offers and pick up prescriptions in stores using personalized barcodes. Through partnerships with Everyday Health, Headspace and other companies, CVS app users will have access to a variety of health and wellness content.
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The drugstore retailer also leaned into AI for the overhaul, integrating AI into its search functions to help shoppers locate products, services and information. It plans to add a conversational AI chatbot to answer questions about medication refills and order status later this year.
Dive Insight:
CVS’ unlocking feature follows shopper frustration with retailers securing inventory in stores as a way to deter retail crime.
Some drugstores and mass-market retailers, as well as beauty retailer Ulta, have turned to locking products behind glass to prevent theft, and staffing issues further deter shoppers from buying the products they want, experts told Retail Dive. While 62% of consumers will wait for assistance from a store staffer if they find a product locked up, 27% of shoppers will abandon their purchase or choose a different retailer, according to a survey from the data technology company Numerator.
CVS’ app also includes features to manage shoppers’ healthcare needs, including vaccine scheduling and prescription management. The retailer will continue enhancing its mobile app this year with additional features, including personalized recommendations and educational content for patients with chronic medical conditions and efforts to connect them to cost savings and copay assistance programs.
“As a company, we are super focused on improving the health care experience,” Tilak Mandadi, executive vice president at CVS Health, said in a statement. “The CVS Health app will make it easier for our customers to access and manage their health and care, save time and money, and make informed decisions about their health.”
The app upgrade comes a few months after CVS announced plans to lay off 2,900 employees, about 1% of its workforce, on the back of a plan released last summer to reduce expenses by $2 billion. Just weeks after the October layoffs, CVS named David Joyner as its chief executive officer, replacing Karen Lynch.