SCO case study: Kaufland

Our challange was to redesign a better self-checkout experience for the existing customers of a Romanian retail brand so that it serves the specific needs of the customers as well as the business needs. The project was divided in two phases, first a reserch phase that was done in groups of four and a Iteration phase, where we needed to draw our own conclusions in order to design a digital product.

K-scan is the product that resulted from our reserch and my conclusions, it'is an app that allows you to:

Find items in-store
Make a shopping list
Generate an in-store map based on your shopping list
Check availability of items before going shopping
Control your shopping experience.

Phase I:

Empathize

At the begining of the project we tried to empathize with the customers and we have done some trial runs with diferent SCO systems from diferent retail brands. We quickly found the diferent aproaches that those brands took and the flaws in UI and design choices for the SCO terminal.

We found out that some retail brands are more advanced with what SCO system they offer to the customers, that became a factor to determine what retail to choose for our study.

Kaufland became our top pick because they offer diferent types of SCO:

Fixed SCO
MSAG
Scan Gun

Desk Research

After narrowing down our brand that we were going to study, me and my colleagues started serching for academic studies about the SCO systems, the bussines needs and the looses that they are facing with new SCO systems and how they tackeled the problems. This part helped us in the implementation phase too, knowing the global problems of every type of SCO system.

This part helped us with mapping our facts, our blind spots and get some direction in what to look for in order to develop assumptions.

User Interviews

In order to test our assumptions we needed the users' input, so we started making a first draft of the interview questionnaire with my colleagues and brainstormed how we can phrase questions so are not perceived as closed questions and some possible follow-up questions.

After finishing the questionnaire we opted for guerrilla interviews, we went in Kaufland stores and interviewed SCO users in order to find their needs, their pain points and to uncover insights

Afinity Diagram

After the interviews we started doing the transcripts and extract the key findings in order to make an affinity diagram. This helped us identify our persona , our users needs and pain points.

We found out that the most important aspects for our users are the time( that they loose while making shopping, under the speed cathegory), that they would love more control over the shopping experience, a way to bypass the age restrictions for alcohol and to have minimum human interaction.

Journey mapping

After phase 1 we started working on our own solution but I felt I needed more information. Based on our prior research I had some basic understanding of the users core needs and frustrations but our retail brand had multiple systems of SCO and I needed a reserch to know which one to tackle in order to give the users a product that would answer their needs. So I wanted to do a journey map in order to see what were the exact friction points of our users.

During the Journey mapping I got a shift in perspective, while concentrating on the check out part of the journey I found out that users spend more time looking for their items and browsing the store than scanning and paying for them.

Key Insights

With the Journey maping done I had all the informations I needed to draw some conclusions:

Users value time and wanted the shopping experience to be fast
Users wanted less help from store employees
A more adaptive way to store their shopping list
A way to bypass age verifications
A faster way to navigate the store

Audit

After having some strong conclusions I started to look at the Kaufland mobile app, a mobile scan and go aplication that is limited to Bucharest stores only. I wanted to see its flaws and I quicly discoverd that it wasn't meant to be viewed as a shopping tool but more as an advertising app for in-store products with unneeded features.

Phase II:

Ideate

With the flaws of the Kaufland app in mind I started doing my flow diagram followed by wireframing the screens while adding the features that the users need so it could make their experience more enjoyable.

After drawing some initial pen and paper wireframes, I went ahead and design a first interactive prototype to test with users. I considered three main tasks for a potetial customer. After the initial testing I found out that the "Journey to be" screen needed some more context so I added the "Next item"

The final product!

K- scan is a tool that you use before, after and during the shopping experience. It gives you the desired features and it can be used with only one hand.

Key features:

Creates an in-store map of all your items that are located in your shopping list
Adds a shopping list on the go with just a screenshot .
Scan directly with your phone, pay at any terminal and go.
Find in-store products with just one click.
Have your age confirmed just by scanning the QR code of your Kaufland card.

Journey to be.

Journey to be is a tool that will make your shopping experience Fast and make you feel in Control. It can be accessed from the shopping list tab or from the landing page.

The map is a 3d model of the store and highlights the departamets that you need to go in order to find your items.

The progress bar makes you aware of how much you advanced with your shoppings.

Next item gives you a visual aid of the product that is the closest to you and gives you the price and the number of items you need to pick up.

The Total shows you the sum of your entire shopping cart, sou you can see at any time the cost of your shopping trip so you can make changes on the go.

Find a products in-store.

No more asking employees for directions if you can't find a product.

This tool is easily accessible from the landing page. It gives you the possibity to search thru Kauflands products' database so you can find the desired item and add it to your shopping list or find it in the store.

You can easily find the search bar in the upper part of the screen; not only on the Find a product section but in the Scanning section too for a faster accessibility.

Prorotype