The Problem

I lived in D.C. and realized that I spent two hours grocery shopping end to end every Sunday. On average, I’d spend 30-45 minutes waiting in long lines to pay for my items. I found myself finding ways to solve this problem, such as going grocery shopping late at night after work or sacrificing my Friday and Saturday night by waking up at 8 AM to go early on the weekends. After giving up on these shortcuts and being stuck in a long line again, I asked myself, “why can’t I send a mobile payment to the grocery store for my items now that I have a supercomputer (an iPhone) in my pocket.” This led me on a journey to explore a business opportunity and the original of why the user experience problem existed so I can build a solution for it.

The Business Challenge

Identify if this is a problem worth solving. Is this a major pain point that frustrates many consumers? Should the time, effort, and resources be spent pursuing this opportunity? What is the solution, and how could it be turned into a scalable venture-backed business?

The Research

Industry

I tapped into secondary research sources like IBIS and Mintel to gain insight into what was happening at the industry level to understand what was driving the industry.

Retail Info System Reports:

• 63% of retailers say their next POS will be a unified transaction engine also used for m and e-commerce

• 30% of retailers are planning a new POS investment decision in the next 12 months

• 47% site omnichannel strategies as a key priority

• 70% growth of special IT projects will emphasis store level mobile or omnichannel strategies

Key insight: New entrants like Instacart, Google Express, and Amazon Fresh are pulling market share with the affluent, time-crunched consumer. Coupled with an industry burdened with debt and a changing dynamic in consumer lifestyles and trends, the industry sees store closures and enters a consolidation phase. Grocers are having a hard time keeping up with the consumer's technology expectations and finding the right solution for the emerging “omnichannel” experience opportunities.

Consumer Trends

Millennials, now larger than the baby boomer generation by population, place a premium on speed, ease, efficiency, and convenience in all of their transactions. They seek out brands that embrace and connect with them through technology. Millennials are willing to engage in different distribution models and are not afraid to shop for food online or outside of traditional grocers. The grocery retail industry is not meeting expectations. As a result, millennials shift to shopping for essential food at convenience stores (CVS, Walgreens, etc.) for essentials (milk, bread, cereal) and indulge by eating out. Interestingly enough, 50% of millennial males claim to be the primary grocery shopper in the home, compared to 20% from the baby boomer population.

Mapping the User Journey

I mapped out the user journey of going grocery shopping and added imagery of what we experience (see) during each step. I highlighted the areas that pose the most resistance.

User interviews

It was time to get out of the building to talk to people. I spoke to 11 grocery store customers and one Whole Food general manager. Instead of developing specific questions, I approached a topic map to help guide conversations since they’d be done infield at the grocery store. My goal with customers was to understand their views and behaviors towards grocery shopping.

Whole Foods GM Interview

All of my research was around the grocery experience in urban cities, as I lived in D.C. It was a chore to get a GM in D.C. to talk, so I drove to Whole Foods in the suburbs of Richmond, VA. My learning goals with GM’s were understanding of pain points related to in-store customer experience and learning about their in-store technology.

Key Insights: I learned that grocery stores in urban areas have smaller footprints than their suburban counterparts. With a larger population, this is what creates the unbearable lines. While grocers in the suburbs have issues with the express lanes if located near office parks. I also learned that there was no tech in-store other than a SAP database to power the registers and a simple ERP communicating sales info back to corporate. After pushing for more on technology, the GM said that Whole Foods is testing Square for their prepared foods checks to ease the express checkout lane. The largest golden nugget learned was that Square worked exceptionally well and that the only reason Whole Foods had not adopted it fully for all of their registers (store-wide) is that it only supports 50,000 SKU’s. Grocery stores, on average, have 500,000 SKU’s. This informed product design as I’d have to support an inventory database of least 500,000 SKU’s for our target grocery partners.

Empathy: Observation

After completing the 11 user interviews I spent time going to different grocers to observe people. I inconspicuously followed a few shoppers from entering store to paying.

Online Guerrilla User Research

The internet is a treasure chest of user insights. When your customer takes the time to write a blog post called, “5 Reasons I Hate The Grocery Store,” it should be a wake-up call to the industry. I searched social media, blogs, websites, and forums for a pov from the customers.

Competitive Analysis UI

This competitive analysis included UI by grocers, apps, and internet companies around all aspects of grocery shopping. I wanted to know what solutions existed, what specific problem they solved, and how they monetized them (more on this below).

Competitor Analysis

I also wanted to map out what features are being offered to see if I could identify any gaps. My competitive analysis also took me through the business models of internet companies entering the grocery space. Instacart, for example, charges a surcharge of 5 - 20% for items bought through their app while charging $3.99 - $7.99 per delivery or $99/mo for their premium service (delivery subscription).

Research Synthesis

Grocers

Grocers are not safe from the retail decline that began in 2008 and will be the last sector to collapse during the transition to e-commerce unless they act now. Once new companies like Amazon Fresh and Google Express gain traction and expand across the country, the market will begin to see a fundamental shift from traditional grocery shopping to doing it online. There is still time for grocers to get on the offensive. Grocers need to reduce grocery shopping friction and create new customer experiences that enable new habits and keep customers loyal to grocers.

Grocery Shopper

The rise of the millennial consumer creates a dynamic in which companies must adapt to meet expectations or cease to exist. Workplace and life demands are leaving consumers with less free time than they had before, and millennials place priority on seeking out new experiences and spending time with friends. Millennials also place a premium on speed, ease, efficiency, and convenience in all of their transactions. Grocery shoppers in general greatly dislike waiting in line. The grocery experience has so much friction that it is causing consumers to shift to shopping for food at convenience stores, eat out, or try companies that deliver groceries. Customers want to buy from brands that embrace technology to help make their lives easier.

Exiting Solutions

Grocers and third parties have both developed solutions that help consumers with grocery shopping (lists, coupons, item finders). If we exclude companies geared toward the affluent consumer (that eliminate grocery shopping all together), none of the existing solutions address the real pain of waiting in line. On average, it takes a customer with a medium cart size eight minutes to be checked out. Now, imagine if there are four to five people in front of you. Grocers like Giant and Walmart have developed solutions that allow users to scan items as they shop, yet they still make customers get in line to pay with a cashier. This system does not become efficient until mass adoption occurs or unless the line can be skipped altogether. Giant and Walmart are trying to solve the right problem with the wrong solution.

My solution will focus on solving the largest pain point of grocery shopping: waiting in line and checking out.

The Solution & Product

Bypass

Bypass is a mobile app that allows you to cut your grocery shopping time in half. Scan items into your virtual Bypass shopping cart as you gather grocery items, then send a mobile payment to the grocery store for those items once you're done. Think of Bypass as the “EZ” Pass of grocery shopping. Never wait in line again!

Persona

Meet Eric, a young millennial who works about 55 hours a week at a professional services firm. He sacrifices a lot so he can fit grocery shopping into his schedule. He wakes up really early on Saturdays to beat the rush into the store. If he sleeps in and goes in the afternoon, he knows that there will be too many people and that lines will be extremely long. His goal is to be in and out as quick as possible so he can spend his free time enjoying life. Eric takes one weekend off a month from grocery shopping and eats out all week. It’s more expensive but really convenient for him.

Scenario

Sitemap

User Flow (Happy Path)

Sketches & Wireframe ideas

App Design (v1) & User Acceptance Testing

I conducted user testing with 5 people. I began with the five-second test of the home screen. All thought the app was a deal or coupon app. Additionally, when tasked with adding an item to the shopping cart from the home screen, two out of five clicked the search button on the home screen instead of the bar code. All users were able to check and review their shopping cart and pay.

App Design v2

The Business Opportunity

The Industry

Target market

Business Model

Revenue Estimates

One App Across all grocers

Expansion - One App across all of retail