BRIEF:

Shopping and purchasing items, whether it be online or in person, can be considered as a slow and tedious process at its current state (CNN). This can be seen through innovations such as the Amazon Go in person store that cut out the checkout process altogether in order to allow for a seamless shopping experience (Amazon) We wanted to create a system that would increase the speed of the checkout process, and even possibly bypassing the checkout process altogether. While following these guidelines, we also wanted to increase the security of these payments.

PROBLEM STATEMENT:

How can we promote efficiency and security through a new form of commerce?

Questions to consider:
How will we increase the security of the current purchasing methods?

How can we combat identity theft and fraud?

How can we improve efficiency of the current standard of shopping.

Stats:

“An estimated 17.6 million persons, or about 7 percent of U.S. residents age 16 or older, were victims of at least one incident of identity theft in 2014” – the Bureau of Justice Statistics

“In the past six years identity thieves have stolen over $107 billion.”

-2017 Identity Fraud Study

User Journey:

Consumer Journey:

INITIAL

• Go shopping
• Go to a vendor and pick out all the items you want
• Walk out of store (no lines)
• The systems lets you know your amount before you leave so you can cancel or return items if you feel you are spending to much
• If you feel the amount is within budget, proceed to leave
• If desired set daily caps so you know exactly what your allocated for the day
• Feedback from the system provides relevant information

Work

• If job is on an hourly base you can use system as a form of identification
• Tracks the exact amount of time a worker is working, (must be placed on the host for it to work)
• If salaried, Tracks if employees are coming in on time

Sources:

Amazon Go: https://www.amazon.com/b?node=16008589011

Security Flaws: http://money.cnn.com/2011/04/13/technology/ecommerce_security_flaw/index.htm

Identity theft stats:

https://www.iii.org/fact-statistic/facts-statistics-identity-theft-and-cybercrime

-Jake Tessier, Jacob Heuman, Alan Liu, Greg Borbon

Problem Statement:

A 2015 Consumer Reports study shows 12 of the most common grocery store shopper complaints include:

• Confusing Layout
• Out of stock on basic, non-sale items
• Out of stock on advertised items

https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2015/04/12-reasons-americans-hate-grocery-shopping/index.htm

Design Consideration: 

How can the experience in a grocery store be more informative about the state of the store to assist customers and employees?

Stakeholders:

Why are they at the store and what do they need to accomplish?

Customers

• Making shopping list, finding deals, locating items

Employees

• Restocking, helping customers, cleaning/organizing, checking out

User Journeys:

Customer:

Before going to the store:

Planning shopping list, recipe/item recommendation, check for sales/coupons, look up nearby stores

At the store:

Map locations for list (perishables last), find specific items, ping employee for problems, notify item needs restocking, notified of sales walking by, something to distract child?

After the store:

Found everything?, alerted when unstocked item is restocked, recommended recipes based on what bought?

Employee:

Before going to the store:

Knowing about promotions or sales in the store, communicating with managers and other employees, suggest items to customers (weekly employee recommendation to encourage customers to try new products or recipes gives you a connection to the people working there)

At the store:

Getting called to different areas of the store (are the checking lines full?), restocking items, helping customers find/reach things, cleaning up messes (mopping floors, cleaning shelves and fridges), returning shopping carts, rearranging the store (moving sale items to the front), tracking breaks

After the store:

Track hours, employee incentives, they also are probably customers at the store and use the app in that way

Further Research:

Problems with retail:

According to statistics in 2017, 69% percent 1 of customers still prefer to shop in-store rather than online when buying products such as automobiles, phones, apparel, toys, kitchen appliances, tools etc. Since the interest in in-store shopping is still significantly high, it is important for retailers to create value in the experience of shopping to draw customers in their stores. The Vice President of Apple, Ron Johnson explains Apple Store’s success by pointing out to their improved customer journey and mentioning how retail shopping isn’t what is broken but “It’s their lack of imagination—about the products they carry, their store environments, the way they engage customers, how they embrace the digital future.” 2 Denis Ghys, the managing director of These Days, explains the importance of customer journey by stating “You need to design the store of the (near) future, define your proposition and beat out the competition in the process. And it all starts with shaping future customer expectations and paving the way to superior service” 3

With these ideas in mind, our goal looks towards a future where in-store experience is assisted through UX design to build a relationship between the customer and the employees that reduces frustration and makes the whole experience more efficient.

1. https://www.statista.com/statistics/311459/us-online-in-person-shopping-preferences-product-category/
2. https://hbr.org/2011/12/retail-isnt-broken-stores-are
3. https://nexxworks.com/blog/the-5-biggest-challenges-in-retail-how-to-approach-them

Grocery stores are an important retail situation considering everyone needs food. With this in mind, we decided it would be important to focus our efforts. Here are the main problems we hope discovered regarding the shopping experience:

• According to the Time Use Institute, the average shopping trip takes 41 minutes. If you multiply that by the 1.5-trip per week average, that’s over 53 hours per year you’re spending in the grocery store.

http://timeuseinstitute.org/Grocery%20White%20Paper%202008.pdf

• 75% of supermarket shoppers do tend to visit the most conveniently located store, but 25% will go further to get to a store that offers better quality and variety, lower prices, better sales, and a clean location.

http://couponsinthenews.com/2012/10/22/ten-things-we-hate-about-grocery-stores/

• In 2014, grocery stores offered more than 42,200 items on average.

https://www.fmi.org/our-research/supermarket-facts

• When asked, 30% of shoppers complained of uninformed or indifferent staff

https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2015/04/12-reasons-americans-hate-grocery-shopping/index.htm

• 80% of shoppers make between 1 and 10  trips to the grocery store within two weeks. Only 39% of shoppers say they know the employees at the store they shop at.

https://sites.ucfilespace.uc.edu/studentwork/content/do-grocery-stores-support-social-interactions

• 59% of consumers are motivated to shop at a new grocery because of in-store events and social media engagements. The majority would like the app to include coupons and 73% want current pricing to be available. Additionally shoppers want notifications for special events, product assortment, samples and recommendations from store associates.

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20171012005140/en/Interactions-Releases-%E2%80%9CFrom-Location-Destination-Grocery%E2%80%9D-Survey

Presentation: Problem statement

Sensing Infrastructure

• A blanket that senses the temperature of your skin while you sleep and then automatically turns off if you get too hot and vice versa.
• Smart toaster that senses when your bread is starting to burn
• Microwave that turns off at a certain temperature

Retail 2.0

• An AmazonGo type of store revolution for all sotres (using Greg and Alan’s future wallet)
• A way to online shop for clothes/shoes and to ensure that they will fit well without of course having the ability to try on what you’re directly buying
• Next Generation valet parking
• waiting time for restaurants in your area based off people eating at restaurants

Disability’s

• Sensors around the house for elderly who need to get up in the middle of the night
• Removing social stigmas from what it’s like to be “old” or “disabled” and make it something more fun/cool/enjoyable/etc. (physically disabled)

Sharing Transaction’s

• Mobile I.D’s. Like apple pay, but for your I.D.
• dating like cooking app
• a kayak like AI that sees what u want to buy and compares it for similar products on the stores competition

List curated By Greg Borbon, Jacob Heuman, Alan Liu, Jake Tessier

Group Members: Kylie, Defne, Vince, Ganesh

Sensing Infrastructure:

• Wake-up sound system
• Air refreshment / light systems
• Water waste / general waste diminishing
• Parking lot availability detection and prediction, with mobile app
• Wait-time approximation sensor & predictor for dining halls

Retail 2.0:

• People get paid for delivering groceries
• Virtual dress rooms for size/ups – trial
  • Mixed Reality app that lets you see shoes for sale with 360 degrees, and next to your foot for size (could apply to other apparel as well)
• System where you can scan as you shop and check out with a tab
• Mixed Reality real-time text translations for international travelers or foreigners
• Mixed Reality grocery store item locator

Sharing Transaction Economies:

• Restaurant split payment
• A better coupon app/deals etc.
• Public Transportation Bitcoin
• Mobile app instead of Facebook page for rides back home