E-commerce Project – COOP.dk/mad

Task for this group project on second semester of Digital Concept Development was given by Coop Denmark – one of the pillars of Coop Amba, Denmark’s largest retailer for groceries, with several stores under its umbrella: Kvickly, Irma, SuperBrugsen and Fakta. In total, Coop owns 1,200 stores across Denmark which are partly owned by Coop Denmark and by a number of independent cooperatives.

Coop Denmark has approached Team 12 students at KEA Bi5 to help them solve a different challenge – Coop.dk/mad was launched in quite a rush, therefore no usability or UX testing has been done for the webshop.
Now Coop.dk/mad would like to know:
● The general usability assessment
● Do visitors understand the new concepts implemented in the web shop (“Specialbutikker” and “Discount”)
● How the web shop’s usability could be improved
Our client goal for this project is to enhance Coop.dk/mad ecommerce business, specifically by improving UX in order to optimize the usability of the web shop

Development process:

In order to develop a solution for this case, we first analysed the following factors:

1. What are the current e-commerce trends of shopping online for groceries?
2. Who are the main Coop.dk/mad competitors, and how is Coop.dk/mad performing against main competitors in Denmark in terms of shopping online?
3. What is the usability of the webshop?
4. What is the current value proposition and BMC of Coop.dk/mad?

Trends analysis combined with interviews with people from the target group revealed to us that there is a tendency towards online shopping, but people are still not entirely convinced of the advantages and benefits.

All in all the benchmarking shows that Coop.dk/mad should try to differentiate itself from its competitors by creating a competitive advantage in one area where the others are not excelling, such as shopping experience and usability of the webshop.

The main outcome from usability testing of both Coop.dk/mad and the current market leader, Nemlig.com, was as follows:

• There are no significant differences between Nemlig.com and Coop.dk/mad when strictly comparing webshop usability
• There are small adjustments that could makeCoop.dk/mad better in terms of usability
• Most of the test subjects prefered Coop.dk/mad over Nemlig.com

After evaluating the value proposition, the approach of the Coop.dk/mad business model focuses on the convenience and efficiency of supplying groceries through a webshop. Key front end considerations are providing a competitive advantage through an easy to use interface, focusing on KPI’s such as traffic flow. Key back end considerations include customer security and assurance as well as efficient supply chain management.

Solution:

1. Optimization of Coop.dk/mad usability according to usability test results:
   
   • Visualization and emphasize of the minimum basket size via gamification –
     the more items you add to the basket, the more meter will fill up showing how far customer is to actually place and order and receive free delivery.

     

   • Showing total amount of in basket. This way customers will feel more satisfaction of larger orders, simply because they will have bigger savings.
   • Checkout: With the current display, users find it difficult to remove an item from their basket. Therefore, a trash can will be implemented next to the plus/minus sign of a basket product. The frustration of not being able to remove an item from the basket can make the user bounce completely, thus it is important to also simplify the removal of items.
   • Category bar: The grey category bar will be frozen so it will also be on top of the page. This will allow users to look for an item from another category without having to scroll all the way up. It will ease and speed up the shopping process. Since saving time is one of the biggest motivations to shop for groceries online, any feature that can accelerate the time spent on buying groceries will improve the customer journey on Coop.dk/mad.
     
   • Product information symbols: To get a better overview of some basic product characteristics, symbols, for example, for gluten free, lactose free, organic, etc. are added to the basket overview. Like this, the user will have a better overview about what he bought and can reassure that everything according to his needs and preferences.

     

2. Adding value to shopping online for groceries through Coop.dk/mad to accelarate the slow adoptation of shopping this way:
   • Recipes: Implement an online service consisting of buying groceries based on recipes. The idea is to provide an easy to order and cook meal kit for customers. Recipes are to choose from wide range of recipes and categories, depending on customers’ dietary preferences. This service will offer menu, recipe-sized ingredients and delivery right to customers’ door with few simple clicks.

     

   • The mission behind this concept is to ensure that Coop.dk/mad customers are able to prepare homemade meals with minimum effort. This would add value to the online shopping on Coop.dk/mad. Customers would avoid the checkout lines and enjoy the convenience of  box of ingredients delivered to their door.
   • By delivering the right amount of products to be used for specific recipes will build stronger reletionship between Coop.dk/mad and their customers. It shows that the company wants to ensure that customers are eating healthy, homemade meals with family and friends.
   • In addition delivering just the right amount of groceries for specific recipe would contribute to reducing food waste in Denmark. It is a good way to show even more concern about the food waste, as the nation’s largest grocery market.

 

Feedback: 

After pitching the solution to the client, we received fairly positive feedback. They were mainly interested in our usability tests results, therefore we provided them with hard copies of the results, as there was not enough time to cover all of them during the presentation.

Marketing & Communication Project – Adapt Mobile

Task for the first group project on second semester of Digital Concept Development was given by Adapt Mobile – a digital app bureau  developing apps by combining business understanding, design and technology.

Adapt Mobile gave us a brief about their own client – Sportmaster. Sportmaster is well established sport apparel retailer in Denmark. They have over 100 outlets and a responsive web-shop on Danish Market. By launching the loyalty club they collected data from 800.000 members. Company is owned by Nordic Capital. Company was rewarded with “The Best Omni-Channel” award in 2015 for operating on the conditions of each channel, showing that all channels help and increases the overall result for Sportmaster as a company and for creating a new vision for customers in all shops.

With this open brief we needed to do some proper work done towards solving the task. Based on the brief we formulated following problem formulation:

How to use existing Loyalty Club members’ data and existing technology in order to optimize their shopping experience?

We decided to identify the technology trends in sport retail industry as well as identify the competitive landscape in Denmark. After having this research done we made a  benchmark of Sportmaster against omni-channel companies with strong loyalty service for their custom identify areas of improvement.

The solutions created was focusing on few key areas. First of all, shopping experience of Sportmaster’s loyalty club members needed to be improved by a better use of customer data that Sportmaster has gathered. Second, in-store shopping needed to provide a unique experience to appeal to young adults that would make them, and their friends, return to the shop because such an experience is only available at Sportmaster. This could be done by applying available technologies that are trending in sport industry right now.

Strategy After research and analysis part, our approach for the solution will consist of, but is not limited to, the following:
● Two focus areas to improve shopping experience of Loyalty club members – online and in-store;
● Improve online shopping experience of mothers by optimizing gathered data of their Loyalty club membership;
● Improve in-store experience of young adults by utilizing knowledge of current trends in sport industry, and providing unique experience when shopping;

In our solution we advised the client to make a use of the big data collected through their online tools by having good CRM system in place with automation rules and customized messaging towards customers. Second, we suggested better staff training as the knowledge about products and customer profiles is crucial in providing the customers with the best in store experience, the customer service in the shop should be excellent. As a part of in-store experience we came up with the idea of having iPads with easy access to the client data while shopping.

Second part of the in-store experience we suggested is a virtual reality – a multimedia technology which reproduce an environment that lets the user experience a physical presence in places in the real world or an imagined world, allowing the user to interact in that world.
Since Sportsmaster is in a need of digital in-store customer experience, VR implementation could be a great solution. Custom Virtual Reality set (treadmill and goggles) should be placed in the Sportmaster store and this experience could be available for every customer trying new shoes or sportswear. Shop staff should be able to explain how new technology works and invite customers to try it. As soon as the customer puts on the VR goggles, chosen 360 video is displayed and treadmill turned on. Customer has an option to walk on a chosen speed in the VR outdoors, see and explore new environment while wearing new shoes or clothing. VR space will create a unique and different experience allowing customer not only experience new technology but also to try the comfort of new shoes or clothing in a fun, engaging and interactive way. Virtual Reality experience is still very new and the possibility to try it attracts a lot of people. As one of the major current sport trend is smart technological products, and our target group is millennials, generation of first movers, placing a VR set in the shop should attract more of the young people, make them spend more time in the store, give and increase experience, as well as enhance ‘word of mouth’ promotional process.