Do you know, more than 80% of professional (age: 22–45) hate spending their weekend in a crowded shopping place. They firmly believe that our current shopping settings are inefficient and time-consuming.
Situations such as long waiting hours in a checkout lane, searching multiple products, improper or false product information could create an anxious and frustrating experience not only to young people but also to elders and people with disabilities.
Grocerr aims to improve the shopping experience of the people by reducing the time & effort involved in searching for a product to checkout. Grocerr leverages technological solutions such as a smart cart, smart shelf, mobile app, intelligent management app for the best possible shopping experience.
Objective
Although the online shopping experience has changed by leaps and bounds in the last decade, people prefer to shop in physical stores and pick the products by themself. Also, there is a need for improvement in the experience of buying products in the real world.
So the primary objective is
- To create a better in-store experience for the shoppers in hypermarkets
- To create a seamless blend of digital and in-store shopping experience
- To provide a design solution for finding products, knowing their
- To provide a design solution for finding products, understanding their availability and the checkout experience
Design Approach
User Research
To begin my research, I went to a nearby hypermarket and observed how users find a product, and how they react while shopping and interacted with them about their shopping experience. I got a chance to speak with one of the managing directors of the hypermarket. Also, I did a couple of interactions with the store employees.
Research Insights
During my research, I found many insights, and I’m listing them below
User Personas
Going further through the research, I identified three different personas; each one of them has different traits, needs, and goals.
The objective is to provide the best possible experience for each persona.
Empathy Mapping
Pain Points
From the research data, I have summarised the major pain points of the users and listed them below
- Very Frustrated at not finding the product they need
- Limited availability of local products
- Ineffective categorization of products
- Can’t find product details properly
- Wrong label & un-updated pricing
- Long queues at the store during peak hours.
- Hard to find what you need in large stores
- Tired returning the products at the store
- Carrying bags to different floors
- Older age people find it challenging to shop
- Older age people couldn’t reach for goods on the upper shelf
Conceptual Model
Based on what we discovered so far, a concept model designed which shows how the store would be, what are all the technology used to create a seamless in-store experience for the shoppers
Store (Physical Solution)
- Good store layout & arrangement for easy accessibility of products to everyone.
- We are tagging every product with an RFID tag.
- Smart Shelves — the shelves with an RFID reader to maintain the inventory & restocking of the products.
- Smart Shelf Display a cloud-based display solution that displays prices, discounts, and information about the products.
- RFID readers & IoT sensors fixed on every department to keep track of the products, Temperature of the section, shopper count & shopping patterns.
- Inventory management system — a cloud-based inventory management solution to keep track of the inventory.
- The manager shall Monitor entire supermarket activities by the central server.
- Content Management system — A Cloud-based CMS to manage the products list, Customers, Inventory, RFIDs, Price, Promotions, and reports
- RFID checking readers equipped with gate-type antennas to all exit points of the supermarket, the possibility that a person will pass with unpaid products through the gates of security will be eliminated.
- We are providing Free wifi for the customers for reliable Indoor Navigation.
- Assisted shopping for old age people
Smart Cart (Physical Solution)
- A shopping cart equipped with the RFID reader with weight sensing at the bottom
- The cart automatically detects the product added to it with the help of the RFID reader
- The touch screen display will be equipped with the cart
- The height of the cart shall be adjusted.
Cart.Display -Android Tablet
- The pre-installed store app in the cart display helps shoppers in a better shopping experience.
- Shoppers shall sign in into the app in the cart using a six-digit code to access their account.
- Shoppers shall access the smart checklist if they have any or simple shop what they want.
- Search any product and navigate to the searched product.
- Products added to the cart will be detected & displayed here for checkout.
- Shoppers shall choose their desired payment mode and checkout in the cart.
Mobile App (Digital Solution)
- Sign in/ signup: Users can create a profile or sign in with the existing account.
- User Profile: Users shall enter the information about their Allergies, health records, Size of their apparels, etc.
- Browse Product: Users shall browse the available products and create a checklist for their shopping.
- Smart Checklist: Checklist created by the user will be processed & the shortest path will be shopping with the help of indoor navigation.
- Smart Suggestions: Users add any product to the checklist, which is allergic, will be alerted.
- Augmented Reality based Indoor navigation with the help of WIFI and AR core / AR kit for mobile.
- Search any products from the store & navigate to it.
- Orders & Receipts: Previous Order history & Receipt for their purchases can be accessed here
- Self-Checkout — Add a Credit card to their profile which is used for the self-checkout
Tablet App (Digital Solution)
- Sign in / Guest Mode — Sign in with six-digit code displaying on the mobile app home screen. Or just use it as a guest.
- If the user signed in, they shall access the smart-checklistcreated on mobile in the cart display and navigate through the shortest path with Indoor Navigation.
- Smart Suggestions: If shoppers add any products which are allergic to them, the system will prompt an alert to the user.
- Search any products from the stores & navigate to it.
- Checkout — If the user has signed in they the checkout amount will be automatically debited from the credit card and if they aren’t signed in they shall choose Mobile payment, Cash & Card payment methods
Drop Bags & Collect (physical Solution)
- Hypermarkets usually have multiple floors. People find it challenging to carry purchased products to every level they shop.
- So the user shall drop their purchased products in the drop counters available on every floor & collect it on the exit.
Information Architecture
UI Design
Conclusion
I have learned a lot about the retail industry while doing this case study. There is a lot more to explore in this field. I hope this will create an impact on the shopping experience and make the shopping better for the customers.
This case study is featured on Design rush