Smopping - Findings Month 5
Project: SMOPPING – Proof of Market
Report: End of Term Report (Month 5)
Author: Jordy van Kuijk
Introduction
The aim of this document is to produce a final report on the overall market for SMOPPING, utilising the data gleaned from the previous months of research. It will therefore build upon the four concise reports that Red Ninja LTD has produced as part of the SMOPPING – Proof of Market project.
As described in the initial Project Proposal, SMOPPING aims to research the feasibility of an all-in-one online space where travellers can link up with the retail and service industries of the region, town or city they are visiting and receive real-time information that will signpost them towards the most accessible and price-competitive fulfilment of their needs. This would involve geo-location specific offers from businesses and would feature a built-in itinerary that the user can operate to plan their time spent in the SMOPPING (Smart Shopping) zone.
For this particular project, the city of Liverpool was used as a ‘test’ zone to conduct the suggested research.
Month 5 was used to reflect upon the data collected over the past couple of months with the aim of producing a clear and grounded idea of the market potential of SMOPPING, in terms of the following parameters:
The capabilities of businesses of differing sizes and differing online presences to be able to utilise the benefits of this application and to keep as real-time or as near to real-time as possible, updating of their goods, services, locations and prices.
To come away from the project with a comprehensive understanding of what sort of design would best suit this application from the perspective of the consumer. An application of this nature could run the risk of being over-complicated, and it is vital to gain feedback about the capabilities and expectations of the end-user.
To establish a clearer picture of the market potential of the application, in terms of the amount of scenarios it could be utilised in and the willingness of users to make it a regular part of their online experience.
Market potential of SMOPPING
Interestingly, the SMOPPING idea was well received from the very first focus groups in month 1 with the Liverpool based trade organisations up to the final focus groups with the end-consumers in month 4. Clearly, SMOPPING’s market potential is very promising as it does not only address a present need to drive footfall but can also serve as a platform to which more and more mobile commerce services can be added over time. It should also be recognised that even though SMOPPING was initially focused on providing merely travellers with real-time information, it has the opportunity to be used by various other audiences as well including regular visitors and of course citizens. This changed the perception of the SMOPPING app from a tool that is merely focused at city visitors who are not familiar with the area to a tool that could become part of people’s daily online experience. As a result, it has the potential to assist various target audiences on a daily basis. Of course, when it comes to Liverpool in particular, the city currently has no ‘city planner’ or ‘tourist app’, making SMOPPING a very attractive offer.
Even though the local Liverpool high-street seems to resist the present economic challenges quite well, the growing trend and impact of mobile technology was recognised by all of the stakeholders involved, ranging from the national retail chains such as Nando’s and Pandora to the smaller independent jewellery and clothes shops. Overall, it proved to be the right decision to invite businesses of different sizes and capabilities to the focus groups as this ensured the input of wide-ranging advice. To clarify, the national chains instantly recognised the potential to expand the SMOPPING concept to include such services as travel management and loyalty cards while the independent clothes shops raised the point of guiding visitors to alternative temporary markets. Two completely different insights and both useful.
Continuing the discussion on SMOPPING’s market potential, one of the key insights produced by this study is the potential to build upon the concept of SMOPPING to develop a ‘holistic mobile commerce proposition’ that would create a compelling consumer journey by providing a ‘door-to-door experience’. As recognised in the mid-point report, consumers are increasingly using their mobile devices to bridge the online and offline worlds. Shoppers are using smartphones and tablets to look up product information, run price comparisons and make online purchases while using the bricks and mortar retailers as showrooms. Researchers found that consumers are clearly willing to engage with retailers through their mobile phones and that 60% of UK and American smartphone owners are spurred to shop at least once a week because they have received a mobile alert (Latitude, 2012). This proves that well designed mobile commerce services respond to a growing business opportunity, and can create a rich and consistent consumer experience both online and in-store, while forging a deeper relationship between merchants and their consumers.
However, as discussed during several of the focus groups, mobile commerce services to date have focused just on an individual retailer or the actual transactional experience. Such an approach is too narrow. It should support the entire consumer experience. Consumers are looking for wide ranging mobile commerce services that help them with product/service research, travel management, parking, payment, vouchers, loyalty, dining, entertainment and more of an outing to a town centre or a destination retailer. It was therefore decided that there is a need for a ‘holistic mobile commerce proposition’ that will deliver a compelling consumer journey for city visitors/travellers including planning (the process of gathering information), outward travel (the process of getting to the destination), in-store (the experience of in-store or on the high street), transacting (the exchange of value), post transaction (the opportunity to up sell and cross sell) and return travel (the return trip) through their mobile device. Coming back to the ‘amount of scenarios it could be utilised in’, there clearly are multiple.
In addition to this holistic approach, it should be stated that the national chains recognised that consumers should not need to download multiple apps on a weekend break making one app or platform that would combine all mobile commerce services (e.g. entertainment, dinner, voucher programmes, loyalty cards, travel management, mobile payment, and parking) into one app extremely useful. The national chains indentified that it is often hard to determine what apps that are currently out there add real value to their consumers. Interestingly, this point was also raised in month 4 when consulting the end-consumers. Also they identified the difficulty to select the right app for the right purpose and that one app which would combine all services within a city would be both user-friendly and time efficient. Coming back to the willingness of users to make SMOPPING a regular part of their online experience, there clearly is willingness and especially if these multiple mobile commerce services are combined into one app.
As a result, there was a clear consensus on the market potential and the need for SMOPPING which could be made even more powerful if it would evolve into a holistic mobile commerce proposition. Looking at the business opportunity that this project therefore addresses, the opportunity of mobile commerce services, SMOPPING has immense economic potential. In terms of economic benefits, mobile commerce (which includes applications such as SMOPPING) is worth £1.35 billion to the UK economy at present and between 2013 and 2016 online shoppers are predicted to spend £5.8 billion via their smartphones. Consequently, SMOPPING will contribute to a massive upward trend and through that benefit the retail and services sector.
Finally, it was mentioned that SMOPPING has the potential to not only cover a city centre (e.g. Liverpool City Centre) but to cover the whole city region (e.g. Liverpool City Region). SMOPPING should allow for a (Liverpool) City Region scale to ensure the region optimises its collective economical potential and fully utilises its tourism and commercial offerings to visitors, travellers and citizens wherever in the region they may be. Food for thought!
Design
In order to get a comprehensive understanding of what sort of design would best suit this application from the perspective of the consumer, we developed a first series of wireframes for the SMOPPING app at the start of this project and presented these in every focus group (see below). The purpose of this was of course to collect feedback on the design over a four-month period allowing us to refine and amend it towards the end of this Proof of Market study.
The first wireframe shows a homepage with a search engine (to search for real-time products/ services in the user’s vicinity) and a ‘view categories’ and ‘view my itinerary’ option. If the user would for example search for ‘Italian Restaurants’, the app would take him/her to a second screen with the available Italian restaurants in the user’s vicinity. The user can then determine the budget he/she would like to spend and the distance he/she would like to travel. This then leads to a screen with a real-time ETA and the opportunity to share their choice on social media platforms or to add it to the user’s itinerary. Alternatively, the user could select the option ‘categories’ on the home screen and access a more traditional list of several categories the user can chose off. To clarify, the See & Do category would involve theatres, museums, parks and gardens, cinemas and so on. Of course these wireframes were created to kick-start the discussion on the most suitable design.
Over the past four months, we received useful feedback on the initial design of these wireframes. Participants of the focus groups very much liked the design as it was considered to be neat and colourful and it ‘looked’ easy to navigate/use. We did however discuss several points we could improve upon. First of all, the focus groups with the trade organisations in Month 1 recognised that even though the app provided several categories under the ‘categories section’, it was advised to also include the categories of ‘Accommodation’, ‘Offers’, ‘Transport’, ‘Parking’ and a ‘Surprise Me’ section. The driving force for this was of course the holistic mobile commerce proposition that was discussed earlier which suggested that the app should provide more services. The Surprise Me section would have to literally surprise the user with suggestions to kill some spare time. Interestingly, the suggestion to include a feature that would enable SMOPPING to quickly come up with shopping/visiting/activity planning solutions to those visitors/tourists who are on their last day in the city and maybe have ‘a couple of hours to kill’ before they go to the airport/railway station was made several times during the study. This would optimise the time visitors spend within a city and would entertain visitors as well as stimulate spending in the high street. As the images below show, we have added the suggested categories to the wireframes and have added a ‘shake for surprise’ feature when users open the app. When users shake their smartphone, the app would provide random suggestions/ideas that would allow the user to ‘kill some time’.
Furthermore, the power of combining multiple mobile commerce services to develop a holistic mobile commerce proposition was of course repeatedly suggested over the past few months. Using this to create a compelling consumer journey that would consider the various stages of a door-to-door consumer experience was therefore important to consider in the design of the app. It was suggested the user should be able to plan his/her door-to-experience (including planning (the process of gathering information), outward travel (the process of getting to the destination), in-store (the experience of in-store or on the high street), transacting (the exchange of value), post transaction (the opportunity to up sell and cross sell) and return travel (the return trip) from the very start of using the app. It was therefore decided to add a button to the homepage with ‘plan my trip’ which would take the user to a second screen showing all of the mobile commerce services as discussed before (e.g. Product/Services search, Entertainment, Travel & Parking, Payment, Vouchers, Loyalty, Dining and Attractions). This would allow the user to search for the product/service he or she needs in real-time, and to select the additional services that he/she may need. For example, if the ‘yoga class’ that the user selected proves to be far away, the user could select the Travel & Parking option taking him/her to a second screen with the available options. At the end, all of the selections would be collated into one itinerary signposting the user ‘through his/her journey’ and to his/her desired situation(s).
One especially interesting part of the discussion and something we had not factored into our initial conception of SMOPPING was the mention of ‘alternative’ temporary markets (selling quirky/antique/subculture goods) in towns/cities and the difficulty experienced by vendors (and shoppers) of discovering easily accessible, well-advertised and online basic information about when these markets are occurring and what exactly one can expect to find in them. As a result, a category called ‘Alternative’ has been added to the app which would include events like these. In addition, we added a button with ‘Independent stores’ to ensure visitors are attracted to the smaller independent stores just off the beaten track. The underlying reason for doing this is simple: being visible to tourists and visitors is a concern. Please find the updated wireframes below.
Furthermore, the need was mentioned to include a ‘zoom in/out’ feature to ensure users with reading difficulties can enlarge the text within the app and to provide the app in multiple languages for foreign visitors. Especially Chinese and Spanish translations were considered to be key. In addition, it was suggested to include audio so users can be directed to the desired location not only visually but also through audio in multiple languages. As the images below show, we have included these features into the updated wireframes.
The integration of social media networks and the ability to take price into the equation when searching for the most accessible fulfilment of a user’s needs was well received and therefore not changed from the first series of wireframes.
Finally, the focus groups of month 4 with the consumers produced the following list of key factors to produce a design that would best suit the SMOPPING app:
Simplicity and clarity
Not too many different colours
In-app navigation should be simple
A clear back/home button
Avoid screaming colours
Use icons over text
Use visuals/images
Option to ‘zoom in and out’ of text
Quality of quantity
Make it fun to use!
Include the feature to invite friends to a location
As the images on the next page show, we have included all of these factors into the updated wireframes. Especially including icons in addition to text was considered to be a key factor that would enhance the user-friendliness of the app.
Finalised wireframes
Because of the significant time we spent holding those focus groups, we now have a comprehensive understanding of what sort of design would best suit this application from the perspective of the consumer. As stated in the initial project plan, these wireframes will be made available to all participants enabling them to share their final thoughts on the modifications that we have made based on their input. The wireframes are published under the following link: http://redninja.prevue.it/p/7uqum
Interestingly, the various participants ranging from trade organisations to small independent art galleries all recognised the added value of SMOPPING. At present, there is no app out there that would provide an identical (or part of the) service that SMOPPING provides and especially the independent stores off the beaten track who lack visibility and footfall would strongly benefit from this. It does need to be mentioned however that the majority of the businesses that participated in this study do not have the internal capability to develop an application like this. Of course this is not a major issue. Retailers are in the businesses of retail and not application development but it does emphasise the need of a project like this to research and implement such a solution for the benefit of multiple stakeholders.
Of course, even the smaller independent stores make extensive use of social media platforms to communicate with its clientele and try to attract them. They are therefore used to update information on their goods, services, location and prices in real-time as this is a vital factor for customer engagement. Of course, the bigger national chains and the representatives of Liverpool One shopping centre and the Liverpool City Centre BID explained to have systems in place to track inventory and price changes allowing them to quickly adapt to consumer trends and competitor moves. The capability to benefit from the SMOPPING app is therefore strong.
Conclusion
There proved to be a significant market for SMOPPING as it is a scalable platform to which more and more mobile commerce services can be added over time. As explained before, mobile commerce services address a huge business opportunity. In addition, the stakeholders that participated in this Proof of Market Study showed a strong interest into SMOPPING.
Overall, this study produced a useful insight into the potential of SMOPPING which involves both the bigger national chains as well as the independent smaller shops. As a result, it targets a massive audience. In addition, it became clear that there is a strong need for a holistic mobile commerce proposition.
The study proved to be fun and informative. The information generated has no doubt created a solid foundation for future development and implementation work.






