Longo’s Launches Grocery Gateway iPad App

Canadian grocer Longo Brothers Fruit Markets Inc. has launched its Grocery Gateway App for iPad, which supports grocery delivery, allowing shoppers to easily create orders, select a delivery time and securely checkout with any credit card.

The app, developed by Toronto-based digital shopper marketing company Unata, is available now in the App Store, and is the latest addition to the suite of apps that Grocery Gateway offers for iPhone, Android, Windows Phone 8 and Mobile Web.

As one of the largest independently owned supermarket chains in Canada, Longo's prides itself on its customer-centric focus. "Launching a dedicated iPad experience is an important part of supporting our customer base's growing demand for a convenient mobile experience," said Stephen Tallevi, general manager for Grocery Gateway.

The Grocery Gateway App leverages iPad's larger screen to provide an easy to use interface. Unata adapted its dual-panel navigation into a multi-panel interface, making it easier and faster to navigate the entire product catalogue on the iPad. Additionally, the cart has been made accessible from every screen within the app to simplify the checkout process.

Powered by Unata's personalization engine, the Featured section provides an easy way to swipe across automatically generated product collections, including recommended items, trending products, popular specials, top selling items and access to the user's most frequent purchases.

"As we work with Longo's to make their digital experiences more convenient and personalized, we are now enabling the shopper to engage on their iPad, with an experience tailored to the device," said Chris Bryson, Unata founder and CEO.

Unata aims to help retailers enhance and influence in-store and online shopping through highly personalized digital experiences. Its platform connects to a retailer's ERP/loyalty systems to deliver automatically personalized experiences, track shoppers across the path to purchase and enable 1-to-1 marketing.

Grocery Gateway, owned and operated by Longo Brothers Fruit Markets Inc. since 2004, is the leader in online sales of home-delivered groceries in Ontario's Golden Horseshoe area. It won the 2012 PG TECH Innovation Award for its Unata-developed mobile app.

Family-owned Longo's operates 21 traditional stores, four small-format The Market by Longo's stores, and GroceryGateway.com.