On one level, scraping your e-commerce site into an iPhone app makes all the sense in the world. It’s clean, easy, and a milestone that retailers can achieve without much introspection. But that’s only scratching the surface of the lifestyle utility that mobile devices like the iPad will offer to consumers, particularly Millennials (people born 1982 – 2000). To figure out how to create a unified experience that is seamless across physical locations, web sites, mobile devices, kiosks, digital signage, interactive TV, etc., retailers need to take a harder look at themselves and their customers. This type of introspection does not come naturally to many retail executives. Why? Because they have typically come up through the ranks in stores, and have become outstanding merchandisers. Stocking the right items at the right price is a science and an art that they have mastered.

However, to really excel in the mobile and multichannel arena, retailers will need to take a more holistic look at HOW and WHY customers are shopping their categories of merchandise in the first place, and to deconstruct that experience to find the types of decisions that are being made before, during, and after purchase. Formulating a  comprehensive purchase decision model that takes into account variation among different behavioral/psychographic segments will allow retailers to design a more seamless and successful multichannel experience.

In the next post I’ll talk about how retail ethnography can be applied to the design strategy of major retailers’ mobile apps.

Copyright 2010, Paul Bryan, Usography Corporation (http://www.usography.com)

Linked In: http://www.linkedin.com/in/uxexperts

As I typed in a number of product types, it struck me that the top retailers who previously needed to fight for visual relevance in the search results that took some mental labor to scan, are now appearing before the user’s thought has been completely entered. I haven’t had a chance to test this with retail customers, but I expect that a significant amount of traffic will be diverted from the user’s original consideration set of retailers, to the ones who are very prominently displayed in their immediate perception zone as they type. The big will get bigger, and the small will have to fight for relevance.

Many of the searches I did only listed two retailers and 3 more generic terms. This means that retailers not only need to fight for space on page 1 of search results, but falling into position 2, 3, 4, or 5 in Google Instant will have a direct impact on sales. Obviously the algorithm will be as mysterious as previous search algorithms, i.e. difficult to crack, but it is very simple to see how this plays out in any particular category of merchandise. Number 1 or 2, you’re probably okay, but 3, 4, or 5 may drop down below the tip of the tip of the iceberg of awareness into the sea of millions of results.

The first release of the app, developed by shopkick, works only on iPhone, but an Andriod version is not far behind. The app uses a proprietary hardware recognition system rather than GPS, so Best Buy is investing heavily in this technology. The app can be used for scanning barcodes, so many more potential applications can be developed to enhance the shopping experience.

Since my main interest is in enhancing the shopping experience rather than persuading shoppers to buy things they didn’t know they wanted (i.e. Pull vs. Push), I’m thinking about the kinds of in-store purchase intelligence the app could deliver. For example, when buying a home theater system, I would like to be able to scan a receiver and see:

• Related items that I need to make the receiver function properly
• Video about installation
• Table of comparative features with special attention to moving one notch up or down in price and seeing the corresponding items which are in-stock and their feature sets
• Discount coupon based on bundling options
• Financing options
• Add to cart and checkout in the aisle

I would also like a big red “Hide Me” button to turn off Best Buy’s awareness of my whereabouts.

Retailers are just beginning to scratch the surface of digital shopping design. It’s an exciting time to be in the multichannel design strategy business, other than all this talk about a double dip recession.

Pottery Barn has an excellent e-commerce web site that I frequently use in competitive assessments to illustrate clean simplicity of product showcase that lets you fall in love with the product (well, not me, but other people). However, they released a mobile catalog app, and here’s what users of the app have to say. “I don’t understand what this is supposed to be… It is pointless. I’m surprised PB isn’t a little more saavy with their app.” Another user of the app said, “Pottery Barn can usually be counted on as a source for quality and style; unfortunately this clunky app has neither of those things.” Walmart’s app got better reviews, but customers are quick to point out gaps that would cause the app to meet what they expect of Walmart. One user said, “The whole point of getting a store’s app is to view their weekly ad. Duh…” Another Walmart app user said, “Please add an option to upload pictures, request prints and pick them up at the store… please?” A user of Home Depot’s app said, “You can’t create shopping lists unless the product is in a project or ad! Fix the list feature and it may make sense!!!”

Of course, reviewers clearly expect a lot from these free apps, and to be fair, these apps also had very positive reviews. But as a multichannel design strategist, I can’t ignore the fact that these tech-savvy customers have a clear picture in mind of how mobile technology could improve their interactions with retailers. It seems to me that retailers would be wise to expend some effort to get an equally clear idea of how their customers expect to interact with them in this relatively new channel, and to focus design efforts on supporting those types of interactions where feasible. It’s striking to me that user reviews are not harping on lower prices or more coupons, which is a frequent type of feedback encountered in e-commerce forums. Instead they focus on how customers want to evolve their shopping interactions using mobile shopping tools. And notably, their expectations for different retailers are different, as illustrated by the comments above. Moreover, the variation isn’t random. It models how customers shopping expectations vary in different retail contexts, which is very valuable information for retailer’s multichannel design efforts.

When e-commerce was as new as mobile retail is today, say 1995 – 1996, when Amazon was pretty lonely in its market niche and my friend Warren Bare was in his basement inventing the first really big career web site, this depth and breadth of feedback was not to be found anywhere, and the people who knew how to catch and incorporate such feedback into new design work were few and far between. The situation is quite different today, as a perusal of social media sites quickly reveals. There is no excuse for releasing retail apps whose design concepts don’t model a deep understanding of how a specific retailer’s customers shop and make decisions in their particular category of merchandise.

I’m developing some materials on specific ways to do this type of purchase modeling for a talk I’ve proposed to SXSW 2011 entitled, “Digital Ethnography for Design Innovation.” Please vote for my talk, if you haven’t already, at:

http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/ideas/view/8232

If my panel is selected, I will present methods Usography has developed over the past couple of years for structured analysis of social media using principles from ethnography as a theoretical foundation.

The presentation will focus on identifying needs, gaps and opportunities through virtual participant observation, discourse analysis, identification and operationalization of key dimensions, audience segmentation, formulation of design concepts, and reporting results. There is a significant time element to overlay on the process, because one major benefit of social media as a data collection method is that it is real time. Emerging trends appear in social contexts long before they are surfaced to broader attention through traditional media. This has implications for designers, because there is a latent period between idea and realization, so understanding the trends in a particular product domain is an important aspect of successful innovation (unless you are designing in a market-agnostic vacuum – possible, but not widespread).

My experience with this topic stems from structured review of social media on e-commerce sites. Customers’ passion really strikes you as they express their pain and frustration to peers. But just reading through a mountain of remarks, with no benchmark as to honesty or authenticity or relevance, is not necessarily going to be a fruitful exercise. This is where ethnographic methods come in. They are especially suited to extracting key dimensions from massive amounts of discourse, leading to a deep understanding of the underlying scaffolding that drives behavior.

The trick will be finding a happy medium between tediously theoretical and plebeian pap.

Please go over and vote a thumbs up at: http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/ideas/view/8232

Copyright 2010, Paul Bryan, Usography Corporation (http://www.usography.com)

Linked In: http://www.linkedin.com/in/uxexperts

Retail Ethnography by Usography

On the university campus, which is 5 minutes from my home, I see them on their mobile devices constantly. But in the shopping process, they refer very infrequently to mobile technology, and when prompted, they do not envision a significantly larger role. They seem far more likely to use mobile technology for social contact than for shopping (duh!), but I’m surprised at the extent to which that is true. I expected some inkling of a comparison shopping usage pattern using mobile devices.

• Depth interviews
• Participant observation
• Informant debriefs
• Context mapping
• In-context interviews
• Artifact analysis
• Participant diaries and collages
• Webcam diaries

Participant observation is the method that set ethnography apart. But this method has given way in market research to observation, i.e. the researcher does not actively participate in the behavior being observed. Informant debriefs refer to conversations that the researcher has with insiders who understand the behavior being observed, and who can explain phenomena that the researcher finds puzzling. In retail ethnography, this is typically a salesperson.

We use context mapping for nearly every project. We draw a map of the area being observed, include stations at which people pause or interact, and develop codes that allow us to quickly note behaviors and timeframes. Overlaying context maps helps us understand frequently observed patterns.

I enjoy the diary and collage methodologies. They provide a lot of insight into the mindset of participants, although that insight is sometimes difficult to translate into design recommendations.

Copyright 2010, Paul Bryan, Usography Corporation (http://www.usography.com)

Linked In: http://www.linkedin.com/in/uxexperts

For example, suppose you are responsible for a web site that sells women’s shoes. An ethnographic approach to researching the needs of women buying shoes online could be to visit the shoe closets of a sample of women in the target demographic, asking them about their current shoes, why and how they purchased the shoes they have, their total spend, their tendencies in terms of style, materials, cost, etc. If there are retail stores associated with the web site, you would probably want to conduct observation and shop-alongs in stores. This research could be conducted more easily in a lab or meeting room setting, but the data captured on site is likely to be much richer in terms of emotions, decision-making criteria, and purchase case histories, giving the work contextual authenticity that is difficult to generate from interview data alone.

It is usually a straightforward process to determine the best location for ethnographic research. Admittedly, it is not always easy or financially feasible to set up a study in that location.

Copyright 2010, Paul Bryan, Usography Corporation (http://www.usography.com)

Linked In: http://www.linkedin.com/in/uxexperts

• How long do people typically spend at each of the resort’s amenities?
• How is length of time for an activity influenced by age? By psychographic type? By total spend?
• Which guest types tend to eat on-site at the resort vs. eating out every night?
• What are the typical traffic patterns through the resort of a young family?
• Where do guests appear to have the most needs for small products that could be delivered instantly by staff?
• What attributes are observed in guests that tend to require the most attention by staff?
• How could better information resources play a role in satisfying guests?