Supermarkets: Your Personal Online Shopping Assistant
I was listening to Tom Kelley’s “The Art of Innovation” audio book about IDEO during my morning run yesterday.A part of his story is a show they did for ABC. ABC asked IDEO to demonstrate their innovation process. IDEO had to come up with something new an exciting… and they decided to revolutionize… an ordinary shopping cart. They changed it from top to bottom based on their observations of user experience in supermarkets, as well as analysis of products used in many other areas – from child car seats and roller-coasters to personal gadgets. ABC filmed the whole process and the resulting product.
The bottom line is there is a space for improvement in some most-evident areas, in things we see and do every day.
One of such areas for improvement is the same as the one explored by IDEO – our weekly grocery shopping. Most of the people usually go to some big supermarket, a part of a chain like Albertson, VONS or Ralphs here on the West Coast.
So how can we improve user experience? And what are the unmet needs if any?
They vary from customer to customer of course, but I guess some of my issues will resonate with you as well:
- I have to compose a list of stuff to buy prior to my weekly visit – otherwise I have to spend time again on Saturday to buy whatever I forgot to buy
- Quite often I buy what I do not need – we ran out of something but I do not remember if I need to buy beans or canned corn, or if we still have any spackling juice left
- I have a problem remembering all the recipes – each time we invite our friends over I need to find all the relevant recipes again to get a list of components I will need to buy
- I remember location of most of the things in Albertson – but few things (especially those I do not buy every week) give me hard time – and even if I remember where to go I end up wasting time having to go back and forth from one corner of the supermarket to another
- I am getting a bunch of coupons I usually toss – I do not carry them with me all the time and usually forget to take them when I go shopping – and over a half of them are not relevant anyway
Is there a way to improve my weekly shopping experience?
Why don't we combine the brick-and-mortar and online shopping together?
Let’s imagine a portal run by a supermarket chain (like Albertson or Ralphs), where I can:
- Select supermarket location I am usually shopping in and see the floor plan
- Check product availability and see where they are located
- Check what I bought during my previous visits (which might advice on what I should by this time and what I should not)
- See specials and coupons (and print out those I am interested in)
- Add to my online shopping list products I need to buy when we run out of something
- Browse recipes and enter recipes of my own
- Prepare a list of things I need to buy
- Create an itinerary that would help me to pick all the stuff I need with indication of the aisles it is located in
I should also be able to print my shopping list either at home or at a mobile kiosk at my supermarket.
What’s the point for the supermarket chain to develop and maintain such a portal?
- Increased customer loyalty: all my stuff – history, recipes, etc. – is available only on Albertson.com (for example) and I will not have the same shopping experience if I go to Ralphs or VONS
- Ability to influence my shopping behavior – advice on up-sells, cross-sells, etc.
- Advertising space on this web site can be sold to manufacturers itching to promote their products to the consumers
If we assume that half of local customers (at least here in Orange County) use Internet on daily or at least weekly basis, I would bet this idea should work.
posted by Dmitri @ 1:37 AM
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