University Assignment
November 2017
The experience of shopping in a physical grocery store is difficult to replicate online, with the design of an online store requiring a different approach to the design of a physical store. Woolworths is the largest supermarket chain and one of the most innovative retailers in Australia, and even they are experiencing vast differences with their in store and online experiences. They understand that their customers are looking for new, simple ways to shop, and they are finding it particularly difficult to develop ways to enable their customers to find exactly what they want from within their large product range.
Online retail is about to change forever in Australia with the arrival of the highly innovative Amazon, who are set to disrupt the market with their experience in fast online ordering, history of upselling and recommending products, and very fast delivery times. Woolworths don’t just want to innovate to keep up with Amazon, they want to redefine the online retail space so that they can leapfrog them and maintain their currently strong market hold. Ultimately, Woolworths would like to provide their customers with an online shopping experience that they will not only be confident in using, but also look forward to using.
The research for this project involved:
Using the Internet of Things and cognitive computing to develop a system within the interface that interacts with the user and learns to understand them better. A massive link that Woolworths are missing in their convergence between their online and physical stores is the ability for customers to be able to interact with team members. Currently users are left by themselves when they come across an issue when they are shopping online, with no live support available. This is where a chat bot could be used to interact with the user and help them instantaneously. This system could have the ability to learn from the user’s actions and analyse trends to improve the experience for customers in the future.
Below is a mockup of the proposed solution: