Retail Consulting : Customer Journey

The Client

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Our client is a company that operates only in wholesale trade. The company is present in Côte d'Ivoire and has 17 supermarkets and 2 hypermarkets.

1 hypermarket and 10 supermarkets in the capital

1 hypermarket in another city

6 supermarkets in 4 other cities in the country

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The objective of the mission

The company asked strategyks in order to:

-Analyze consumer data

-Know the real expectations of its visitors and consumers

-Verify the quality of service provided to customers

-Improve the user's ease of navigation on the e-commerce site

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Duration

2 months and 12 days

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Human resources

A team composed of 24 people for the mission leaves as follows:

9 test analysts

6 agents in supermarkets

3 Data Analyst

1 Statistician

1 Retail consultant

3 Supervisor

1 Project manager

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The mission

Strategyks was responsible for user tests and user feedback on the in-store customer experience as well as tests on products belonging to the group.

The test campaign took place in the group's 19 supermarkets.

-A face-to-face campaign by operators who are regularly present at the supermarket

-A test phase of the e-commerce site carried out in the test laboratory.

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Data analysis

The data analyst team was responsible for collecting:

(1) Available customer data and

(2) The given figures of the items available on the shelves

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Supermarket visits

Supermarket agents made purchases just like normal customers in order to postpone the supermarket's friction points, including reception, cash desks, shelf agents, security, and parking.

-Several purchases of different products per agent

-Visit twice in the morning, at the opening, before noon, once in the afternoon, and when the store closes.

-Interview with normal supermarket customers at the exit.

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E-commerce application and site tests:

The launch of the application and the e-commerce site took place two months before the mission.

It was important for the customer to identify bugs and possible problems related to customer navigation. A redesign of the site was done about 1 month before the mission of Strategyks.

The tests were carried out by a panel of 27 devices:

-16 cell phones

-6 tablets

-3 desktop computers

-2 laptops

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The results

This test was very useful for the customer. During this campaign we tested more than 150 steps. The test campaigns on the store's products were carried out by supermarket agents recruited for the tests, interns and temporary workers paid by the day for their feedback.

This campaign has proven to be essential to guarantee a quality customer user experience in every way.

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1. ‍Customer data:

The stock data was extracted from the customer's database, we carried out the processing taking into account several criteria such as

-The frequency of buying a product,

-The time of purchase of the products

-The shelf life of the products

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It was found that the store's large margins came from products such as:

1- Rice (5kg bag) = 20% of turnover

2- The mineral water pack (1.5L bottle) = 12% of turnover

3- Cleaning products (detergents + dishwashers) = 8% of turnover

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2. ‍Digital experience:

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Mobile app

We assigned 9 testers as well as 2 supervisors for guided testing in the Strategyks test lab.

-25 graphic type

-16 text errors

-5 bugs (crashes on important pages)

-9 faults on ergonomics

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Ecommerce website

Our team of testers recorded 22 anomalies and 14 suggestions for improving the customer experience when browsing the website.

-Failed to register with the Facebook method, the page gets stuck on the first step

-Google ads ads slow down the page load and the ads are not contextual

-The site does not appear in the first pages of Google search

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3. ‍In-store customer experience :

A report containing 36 remarks and observations was sent to the general manager in order to overcome the problems encountered during in-store purchases. Among others, these are:

-No procedure in case of a long queue

-No reception at the entrance of the store

-Rayonists are not permanent on the shelves, difficult to find out about a product

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Recommandations/Suggestions

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We collected all the suggestions on the online platform in order to allow managers to know the real problems encountered by customers on a daily basis in the store, on the application as well as on the e-commerce website.

This data made it possible to apply the relevant corrective measures and facilitate decision-making aimed at improving the customer experience on digital and in-store solutions.

A few examples below:

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1. Customer data

-Since rice represents a major daily order, the store opted for a “direct purchase” instead of the previous model, which was consignment sales by suppliers. This measure increases supermarket margins and creates a certain dependence on suppliers.

-Identify customer telephone and/or email contacts in order to offer them online services such as home delivery, purchase on the e-commerce site or the application.

-Integrate mobile payment via a new payment integrator that lists all payments by mobile operators

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2. Digital experience

-Correction of bugs following the test book sent

-The colors have been harmonized as well as the design of the mobile application and the e-commerce site, which allows the user to familiarize the graphic space

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3. In-store experience

-Reception hostesses in order to better manage the customer as soon as they arrive

-Make a demo space for customers to test on site at the supermarket for electronic equipment and certain connected objects sold in supermarkets

-Parking assistance

-Delivery service

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Conclusion of the study

A final report of the mission was sent to the general manager, the technical director and the commercial director.

A list of comments and recommendations has been included.

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Source: Strategyks.com

Duration of the mission: 2 months and 12 days

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