Walgreens has redesigned its app for the first time in four years and, at the same time, released some interesting data about app usage stats.
The new app maintains the same features as Walgreen's previous app, but is more proactive. When the user needs to refill a prescription, a prescription is ready for pickup, or when it's time for a user to take a pill, a message will pop up on the app's home screen, that the user can then tap to go right to the appropriate section of the app. The messaging widget also works with Walgreens Balance Rewards.
In addition, rather than having all the app features on one page, the new app breaks them down into categories, while still keeping the most popular features -- the store locator, balance rewards, and refill by scan -- accessible from the home screen.
According to Walgreens, 14 million people visit the company's websites and apps -- including Walgreens.com, Drugstore.com, Beauty.com, SkinStore.com and VisionDirect.com -- each week. That number was 12 million in 2013. Half these visits are via a desktop computer, 40 percent are mobile, and 10 percent are via tablets.
Forty-eight percent of users tell Walgreens that they plan to visit a store in person immediately after using the app, which would translate to 5.3 million app-driven store visits per week, and those customers also spend more according to Walgreens data. Customers who use the store and the website spend 3.5 times as much as store-only customers, and those who use mobile as well spend six times as much.
Fifty percent of Walgreens app users actually use the app in the store, the company said, and nationwide Walgreens fills a mobile prescription more than once a second.
At the HIMSS15 conference this past spring, Walgreens president Alex Gourlay also shared data on how third party integrations attracted Walgreens customers. He said that more than 16,000 people have now signed up for the digital coaching program Walgreens launched in collaboration with WebMD, over 80,000 now access third-party data, like the data from PatientsLikeMe, through their Walgreens.com dashboard, and more than 40 million new patients have gained access to Walgreens prescription refill service via a third party app that uses Walgreens’ API. Over all, the Walgreens app is the third-most downloaded retail app in the United States, he said, and the number one brick and mortar pharmacy app.