Responsible for the experience definition of a self service sales tool developed front eh ground up over the course of 5 years. Deployed across 1400 locations in 50 states for 100K+ Best Buy employees - “Blueshirts”.
Outcomes include 3x growth in revenue/transaction; 2X growth in units/transaction, and 8% increase in close rate among active users not to mention elimination of paper processes through design of applications and foundation of design patterns for all retail applications.
Best Buy runs its brick and mortar stores relying completely on the expertise of its store employees - blueshirts, inventory data and understanding what their customers need. As part of a corporate program - store leaders were brought into technology on stretch assignments.
Retail Ops leadership was made aware of technology challenges in the sales cycle and an opportunity to increase sales and democratize information
Challenges
Inconsistent customer experience - dependent on the knowledge of the blue shirt
Disparate “basket” sizes with no way to track conversion - everything was done on paper
Employees depended on several systems for a single transaction and data was inaccurate
Research and Insights
Conducted field research and guerila testing
Findings included:
Inaccurate inventory - Data matching bestbuy.com was unavailable; blue shirts wanted to know at minimum what a customer knows about a product
Too many sources of information, mostly pen and paper - no digital integration or tracking or reporting
Mobile sales make the most money
Recommendations and basket size depended on the expertise of the blueshirt
Blue shirt using Workstation, recommendation sheet , and personal device simultaneously to make a sale.
Blueshirt explaining instalment billing during contextual inquiry
Minimum number of touch points per transaction for a blue shirt to complete a sale
There is a need to enable digital access to accurate product information and recommendations at the speed of a conversation.
MVP Definition
Partnered with product and engineering to define MVP. Given this was a net new premise, optimizing cost to outcome was a priority
MVP included
Product Search, Customer and Mobile Lookup
MVP - Android
The MVP was primarily centred around an Android APK given that employees already used android handheld devices for other purposes, adoption and learning curves would be gentle.
MVP - Desktop
This was implemented in a phased manner to allow the absorption of existing applications into the MVP, so first pass included mobile lookup.
As observed from the screenshot, this was not on brand but allowed significant buy in from leadership on the concept and allowed us to make significant progress.
This was a tradeoff that we arrived upon to allow us to move faster.
Lessons learnt
Mobile plan and product sales were the biggest business driver but the most complicated to enable from an experience and tech POV.
This key function was inhibiting adoption in the field.
Additionally business models shifted from contracts to instalments
Designs for the work flow were put through multiple quick iterations and testing to match vendor timelines
Launch
In the first year, the application was deployed over 6500 tablets and was recorded to have highest number of product lookups over 5 million in a single holiday period.
“The use of CoreBlue increases my store’s profitability”
- Store Leaders
“I don’t know why you would want to use anything else, it’s so easy”
-Home Theater associate store 208
Impact
Increase in Revenue
3x growth in revenue/transaction; 2X growth in units/transaction, and 8% increase in close rate among active users
Elimination of Paper Processes
Paper process elimination of Best Buy retail and Geek Squad through human centered design of retail applications
Reduction in Employee Training
Reduction or elimination of employee software training through human centered design of retail applications
J.D. Power Appliances Award
Contributor to industry leading Home Delivery Experience - 50-70% reduction in employee task time.
Established design patterns
Design patterns and services established were re-enforced through other retail applications
Product Evolution
We worked on this product for the next 2 years and crafted the experience over several sprints. As a result the application grew from a 3 screen MVP to a full fledged one with order management capability,
Continuous Progression
