MANILA - Puregold on Friday launched its mobile app featuring a chatbot and a barcode scanning capability, taking grocery shopping “to the next level.”

Puregold Mobile, available on both Android and iOS devices, enables users to order groceries anytime, anywhere simply by scanning barcodes of items in their pantry, cutting the time spent on shopping by half, vice president for operations Antonio Delos Santos said.

Scanned items can be paid through the app and picked up in select stores during users’ preferred time, he said.

The app can also be used while shopping in stores by scanning barcodes of items on display.

Consumers can skip the long lines since pickers and packers will prepare the items while the shopper conveniently waits in a designated lane for orders placed through the app.

The system is currently available in 10 major Puregold outlets and will soon be rolled out to at least 100 stores by the end of the year. Puregold has 380 stores nationwide.

NEXT LEVEL GROCERY SHOPPING

Sally, short for shopping ally, manages orders and payments and learns consumers’ buying habits for even faster transactions in the future, Delos Santos said.

The chatbot “is the more sophisticated sister” of its “Tindahan ni Aling Puring” brand, he said.

Payments can be done in cash, card and through GCash with the group’s partnership with Globe Telecom.

“We wanted to help them make Puregold the most digital retail supermarket operation in the Philippines today,” Globe Telecom president and CEO Ernest Cu said.

The app is available for download starting Jan. 31.