AgVoice | Consumer experience in tech retail!

Can we really measure/quantify “consumer experience” in a large format retail store? Which of the consumer experience attributes actually drive “store choice “decision of consumers?
We often talk of consumer experience in a modern large box retail format store but what really is consumer experience? And how do we measure the same? How do we take steps to enhance the experience and thus drive store preference and business?

Consumer Experience happens at all the touch points beginning from the moment a person receives the first communication about the store till the time we deliver the product as desired by the consumer and support him in being able to get the be stout of it in its useful lifetime.

Based on extensive consumer research and consumer intimacy study being conducted at Reliance Digital and competitive stores, the following emerge as the top eight pillars of consumer experience in a large format technology / electronics /digital stores:

• assortment of products,
• pricing competitiveness,
• pre & post purchase support,
• range of brands / models,
• ambience,
• locational convenience,
• promotions &
• freedom of touch & feel

In order to enhance a shopper’s experience, a retailer needs to focus on these elements. This would more likely get the shopper to visit again as and when he chooses to shop for any electronics / technology / digital products.

Hypothesis of the Research :

Why would a customer shop at a particular store? What are the chances that he she would visit again?

The answer simply put would be ‘better consumer experience’. But what is this ‘consumer experience’ and how does one enhance it? Where are the levers and where are the pain points? Now this simple phrase is taking a complicated dimension and that is what every Marketing head of any retail chain keeps working on. We undertook a rather path breaking study to find a simplified solution on what factors affect a consumer experience in a Digital retail outlet.

The Methodology:

An extensive consumer / shopper behaviour analysis covering over 300 shoppers was carried out over a period of 2 months:

The first step was to breakdown the ‘consumer experience’ and group them in related heads. We came across more than 30 elements that constituted a shopper’s experience.

Identified elements & clusters of Consumer Experience:

The next step was to work with a ‘Focus group’ and arrive at a hypothesis for ranking for each element. The composition of focus group members – Sec A , & having shopped for a consumer durable product at least once in the past 6 months. This was so chosen as to represent the target consumers for a typical Digital retail store.

The hypothesis was then tested through a quantitative survey and weightages were given for the clusters based on the survey.

A simple mathematical model in the form of:

Ax + By + Cz = Consumer experience

was then derived where A, B, C…. are the weightages for each cluster.

Why do customers shop at a particular store?

There were 8 key parameters (clusters) that affect a consumer’s experience:

First, today’s customer is ‘spoilt for choice’ in every space. So why will he not ask for the widest and deepest range to choose from. Most shoppers attached significant weightage to be able to choose from a wide assortment. The challenge for a retailer would be to balance between making available a wide range while still ensuring that obsolescence risks are addressed.

Second, they look for competitive price. By competitive, this should not be seen as ‘lowest’ or ‘cheapest’. The shopper is willing to pay more in the context of the ‘overall’ experience being good – what was my experience when I enquired for more product information or was I made to stand in a long queue or was the unit delivered and installed as promised? Therefore competitive price is not just with reference to competition outlets but also based on your own service levels; it is therefore that you see this related point of ‘pre purchase’ support occupying the third slot in order of importance. In the context of products that are ‘delivered and installed’ at site, one can include the ‘post purchase support’ to this.

How could this model be used?

1. Firstly, one can evaluate a score for consumer experience by obtaining a rating from a base of shoppers on say a 10 point scale for each of these parameters.
2. Take the weighted average score for each and that would represent ‘x’, ‘y’ or ‘z’ in the formula.
3. Now look at the opportunities in the cluster elements where the experience can be enhanced at a relatively lower cost.
4. Deploy the change and measure its effectiveness.

This is fairly path breaking research work for LARGE BOX TECHNOLOGY RETAIL format stores in India and some of these findings are applicable across category and other large box format stores. | By Peshwa Acharya, CMO, AppsDaily