Supermarkets across the island are wrapping up their participation in a test run of the e-kalathi application, whose goal is to benefit shoppers by increasing competitiveness and transparency.

The app’s pilot phase, started on February 10, ends on Friday, and the app is expected to go live for users on March 4, director of the consumer protection service, Konstantinos Karagiorgis, told the Cyprus News Agency.

“It will not be a static platform but will be continuously modernised and upgraded so that we can satisfy the potential needs of consumers as they arise,” he said.

The app lends itself to the performance of a number of helpful functions, such as filtering products from cheapest to the most expensive, selecting an area via location for price comparison, and choosing specific supermarkets to compare.

Consumers will also be able to choose the products they want to put in their [virtual] cart and have the ability to compare of the total price of these products across supermarkets.

Twenty-two legal entities representing sales points island-wide had participated “substantially and creatively” in the entire effort, Karagiorgis said, and the app’s implementation was on track.

On March 4 the prices of 478 products included in e-kalathi will be updated in real time on a daily basis and food shoppers will be able to access them wherever they are around the clock. Efforts are underway to also set up phone-in access to the information.

“The goal is to give consumers a tool that will provide transparency [and] allow comparisons […] so they can make choices based on their financial capabilities,” Karagiorgis said.

The pilot phase had served its purpose, namely, to get supermarkets to sign onto the platform and upload their data in real time, with virtual consumers using the app, so that any user-friendliness or other issues could be rectified.

The the consumer association had been in contact with the contractor to oversee improvements, which is an ongoing process, Karagiorgis said, adding that issues with connectivity encountered by some smaller shops had been resolved.