Rite Aid and Assist

Drugstores have seen an increase in customers since the Coronavirus pandemic began. To keep up with the surge in demand, Rite Aid is rolling out new digital features. 

Rite Aid is implementing a series of new digital features in-store and on its new mobile app. The brand is enacting digital pharmacy reminders, updating its online shopping cart, and revamping its rewards program and loyalty benefits. By ramping up its digital loyalty benefits, the brand can increase its chances of hooking customers into long-lasting relationships, according to a Gartner report. In-store, Rite Aid is adding self-checkout technology to 260 locations, with plans to add it to 400 additional stores in 2021. To help out during the current crisis, the drugstore chain plans to open more COVID-19 testing sites at stores in eight different states, with the capacity to conduct 5,000 daily tests. 

Rite Aid has been developing its new app and updated website for months, and is now rolling out the features following a surge in digital sales during the pandemic. All of the new effects will officially launch in early May, with brand COO Jim Peters seeing the retail updates as an “early step in a digital journey” that Rite Aid will expand upon in the future. Though the brand is working to expedite prescription pick-up through its new app, it has recently extended its pilot partnership with Instacart that helps customers get prescriptions quickly delivered. Creating prescription functionality on its own app, as well as working with Instacart, emphasizes Rite Aid’s focus on its pharmaceutical strategies, which makes sense as the brand has seen a sales spike from digital refills. 

Rite Aid’s rise in digital sales comes at a pivotal moment for the brand. As a necessary business during the COVD-19 crisis, Rite Aid’s new features have the potential to reach a wider audience in need of its services.