ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH AND SERVICE SAFARI IN STORES

Deep-dive into the world of physical retail in three different cities (London, Paris, Tokyo) to analyse how different kinds of shops approach product sales, service sales, and customer service functions.

We conduct a combination of behavioural observation, customer interviews, and front-line staff interviews to understand the ecosystem of the retail space.

ELABORATING ATTITUDINAL PERSONAS

We turn the observations into personas as a tool to align retail stakeholders, who can be very distant from the world of Experience design.

By mapping the personas onto 2 behavioural axis, we manage to move away from the traditional market segmentation personas, and we can focus on their needs and attitudes in store.

MAPPING MULTI-CHANNEL JOURNEYS

We also use the interview material to understand each persona’s journey before, during, and after the visit to the shop.

These multi-channel journeys will be used all along the project to bridge the organisational siloes among retail, customer service, regions, and brand. 

ELABORATING ALTERNATIVE VISIONS WITH GLOBAL STAKEHOLDERS

To facilitate the envisioning process of the Future of Retail, we organise our research findings into a set of five alternative visions, each of which is described in a Manifesto, and is supported by proof points and ongoing trends.

We present this work to the stakeholders group, collaborating with them to understand which one of the visions would suit the brand better, and therefore should be developed in the next phase.

CO-CREATION PHASE WITH FRONT-LINE RETAIL STAFF

Once a vision is set, we create a conceptual framework and a set of template user journeys to be used in a collaborative workshop.

Front-line staff and technologists are invited to improve the multi-channel user experience before, during, and after the visit to the store.

VIDEO-MAKING TO SHOWCASE THE KEY CONCEPTS

All the concepts are then elaborated further and plotted into a 'library of ideas'.

We design and orchestrate some of them into a video, to communicate within the organisation what are the possibilities and the values of the Store of the future, and to encourage collaboration between areas of the business that are usually working independently.