real,- starts app for the iPhone

The next generation of mobile shopping

Moenchengladbach, 25th January 2010 – The supermarket company real,- is pursuing new ways of targeting customers and is expanding its range of services to include mobile shopping. With immediate effect, iPhone owners can download the free “real,- app”* from the App Store and thereby access successful online services offered by the retail company using a mobile phone. The “real,- app” shows customers the nearest real,- store and a selection of weekly special offers. It is just as easy for customers to watch the “real,- cookery show”, in which the renowned chef Armin Auer presents meal suggestions by video and offers the corresponding recipes. The ingredients required for the meals can be directly entered into the “mobile shopping list”. The days of the shopping list written on paper and left behind on the kitchen table are a thing of the past.

"Hits on our company website www.real.de using internet-enabled mobile phones have increased sharply in previous months. That is also why we are now providing our customers with the most frequently used online services in an application for mobile use," said Manfred Mandel, Chief Marketing Officer for real,- International. The “real,- app” is allocated to the “Lifestyle and Productivity” category in the App Store.

The application was developed in collaboration with the METRO Group Future Store Initiative. In its innovation workshop, the real,- Future Store, further mobile phone applications and solutions for mobile dialogue marketing have been tested since the beginning of 2008. For example, customers can scan in items directly using their mobile phone whilst shopping, thereby speeding up their own checkout process. They can also request product information or make a contactless payment via mobile phone once they have finished shopping. The mobile shopping list from real,- has now been available for several weeks for around 650 different types of mobile phone.

* The apps are classified into themed categories. From cookery recipes and news to music and online games – the entire world of the internet is available to mobile users. 0.8 MB of storage capacity is required to download the “real,- app”.