Reimagining Retail Experiences
As part of my System Design class at the Indian School of Design and Innovation, my team and I focused on improving the retail system, a vital societal necessity facing significant changes. With the shift from brick-and-mortar stores to online shopping, we aimed to enhance the retail experience by exploring experiential retail and integrating the best aspects of both online and offline shopping.
Tools
Figma, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Substance, Physical Materials
Concept
Systems Thinking
Imagine a hypermarket like no other—where you don’t just shop, you experience!
Our revolutionary concept redefines the shopping journey by allowing customers to sample nearly every product before they buy. Paired with cutting-edge navigation technology, we make exploring effortless and decision-making smarter, easier, and more enjoyable. This isn’t just about convenience—it’s about transforming shopping into a memorable, interactive experience that keeps customers coming back for more!
Welcome to the future of retail—where curiosity meets confidence. Are you ready to shop differently?
The Process.
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The Process. *
Problem Statement: To create a better physical retail experience by maximising customer centric practices through the use of innovative design and technology.
Step 1: Discovering the problem statement
Tools: Rich Picture analysis, ZIP analysis, establishing guiding star, discovering feedback loops.
Our main goal was to enhance the physical retail experience, which has lost favor due to the rise of online shopping. We focused on redesigning in-store shopping to emphasize the value of seeing products firsthand while maintaining the convenience of online options. We believe that innovative design and technology in physical stores can improve customer satisfaction. By staying committed to customer needs, we can continually evolve our approaches, creating a positive feedback loop that leads to a better retail system.
Customer Centric Practices
Better Physical Retail Experience
Innovation in Design and Technology
We analyzed the existing Physical Retail Experience using a Rich Picture Analysis. This approach examines the overall Retail Design and the interactions between various departments to gain a holistic view. By focusing on aspects like retail layouts, point of sales, and customer-staff interactions, we aimed to identify gaps and negative feedback loops that could be optimized.
zoom in
ZIP Analysis
We focused on navigation, infrastructure, and product interaction in our research plan, as these areas offered the most potential for innovation. We examined how store layouts and product placements affect customer shopping behavior and checkout time.
Problem Area
Innovation Opportunity
We focused on innovating navigation and product interactivity to simplify wayfinding and empower consumers to make informed buying decisions independently. Our goal was to blend the convenience of online shopping with the tactile experience of physical retail.
The biggest challenge we faced with offline retail is the strict competition it faces from its online counterpart. With people getting more comfortable in placing orders from their homes, we wanted to explore how to incentivise them to come to a physical store and engage their senses.
Step 2: Primary and Secondary Research, and Observation Study
Tools: Field visits, in-person Interviews, focus groups, affinity clustering.
Secondary Research: Looking into existing technologies
Observation Study: Visiting different retail stores to gauge experiences and talk to staff
For the observation study, my teammates and I visited various retail stores such as shopping malls, clothing, toy shops, grocery stores, fragrance stores, etc and gathered insightful intel by experiencing some of the installations, experiential marketing, retail layouts, checking out a few items and talking to store managers as well as shoppers to understand the workings, philosophy and feedeback.
Self checkout needed personnel help
Products are not easy to locate
Customers paying in cash increases checkout time
Personal shopper experience
Too crowded, lack of decompression zones
People focus on building a bond with the commodity before checking out
Interactive but improperly executed
Brand wise demarcation and segmentation
Preference to play with/test products before purchase
Primary Research: Survey, Focus groups and Interviews
Data Insights
Accessibility
“No information about which floor sells what products.”
“Trolleys are usually found in the apparel section and not with the grocery.”
“Online shopping is more convenient as it has better deals and I’m a lazy buyer.”
“Debit/Credit card section is separate but there is no mention of it.”
“Some products are not easy to locate.”
“Some supermarkets often do not showcase products in posters.”
Use of Tech
“Immersive and interesting.”
“Cheerful environment.”
“Something like virtual rack system.”
“Prefers self-checkout.”
“Immersive, wholesome, lively.”
“Personal shopper experience.”
“Self-checkout experience has been good.”
“Welcoming temperature, lights, ambience.”
“Lack of tools for faster and easier checkout.”
Layout
“Easy to go around stores once you get used to the layout.”
“Poor product presentation.”
“Congested stores with poor labels.”
“I like minimalistic stores.”
“Offline shopping is preferred during sales as I can test and buy in bulk.”
“Some products are not easy to locate.”
“Special booths for certain brands.”
“Most stores have genegral merchandising.”
Novel/Exciting
“Online shopping is out of boredom but offline shopping can be retail therapy.”
“Sensory elements can bring back the fun in supermarket shopping.”
“A special area to help you discover. your signature scent”
“Integrating the best of online retail with offline shopping will be an ideal experience.”
“Allowing you to test/play with products.”
“Welcoming temperature, lights, ambience.”
“Infrastructure and merchandising of products are good in lifestyle stores.”
“Love the colour coded/thematic categorisation of clothes.”
“You can stay longer in showrooms and no one will ask you to leave.”
“Wow factors such as pristine infrastructure, interactions, neat merchandising, etc.”
Affinity Clusters
Product Presentation
Enablers
Interactive store without the use of advanced technology.
Ability to test products in store.
Self checkout features.
Integrating the best of online features with offline experiences.
Inhibitors
Poor product presentation in stores.
Products are not easy to locate.
Lack of tools for faster checkout process.
Cash payments increase checkout time.
Feedback Loops
Step 3: Deep Structure and Ideation
After the interviews, we developed a Deep Structure model for Retail Design that explores the entire system and identifies potential solution spaces. By organizing the clusters and finding connections among them, we created a systems map. This map highlighted categories like customer engagement, product experience, and overall comfort in stores, deepening our understanding of the retail system and our ability to innovate further.
Hypothesis Validation
If
Then
Because
Final Statement
Creating Memories
If stores could create a way to make memorable experiences.
Then stores could be theme parks, and customers will visit frequently.
Because nostalgia is a powerful emotion.
To create a memorable store experience where product interactivity feels fun and customers feel the need to revisit.
Lack of methods to ensure purchase without pressure
If there are no staffs involved.
Then personal communication would not be necessary.
Because customers would be able to make purchase decisions on their own.
To create a store experience where customers feel confident in making purchases on their own.
Because customers would be able to make purchase decisions of their own
If brands could communicate their values clearly.
Then it can build trust and loyalty amongst users.
Because brand values establish long term relationships with customers.
To effectively communicate brand values such that long term consumer relations are established .
Enhancing Experience of Customers
If an interactive experience could be seamlessly integrated into a store’s infrastructure.
Then it can aid customers in making choices.
Because livelier store experience increases customer engagement and time spent in store.
To inculcate interactive experiences while customers are viewing products throughout the store.
HMW: To design a Hypermarket Shopping Experience where Customer - Product interactions are facilitated by the Store’s Intuitive flow.
Final Solution
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Final Solution *
Our final concept is a unique hypermarket format that has never existed before! Hypermarkets are typically versatile stores where you can find almost anything. But what if you could sample just about every product? With the convenience of sampling any item you desire and innovative technology that aids in easy navigation, our hypermarket is designed to empower customers to make confident purchasing decisions while creating positive, lasting memories.
Customers entering the store pick up a shopper device at the entrance. They can input their shopping list to receive a navigation path to items. At the item sampling station, they scan products to add them to their digital cart, and the device sends the data to the checkout counter for their physical cart. Payments can be made directly through the device or customers can verify their purchases at the checkout verification zone.
We created a diorama of a convenience store, showcasing various products like food, snacks, and toiletries, along with sampling stations to illustrate the customer experience. The diorama features three different customer-product interactions, aiming to engage multiple senses. This concept allows customers to sample products, leading to better shopping decisions, enhancing the experience for window shoppers, and encouraging physical store visits over online purchases.
Professors
“Experiential retail is the future.”
User
“I’d be motivated to visit offline stores more often!”
User
“I would never forget my shopping experience at a store like this!”
User