Finding PMF

Through the use of data mining, surveys, interviews and non-interactive observations, I was able to compile key insights on how we can improve the overall experience to increase repeat utilization of the Caper Cart.

Shopper Insights

• Repeat shoppers average less than 25 number of items in basket

• Majority of Caper Cart abandonments occur when a shopper experiences 4 or more item errors

• First-time use requires far more onboarding and education, especially in retraining themselves of a task they have done a certain way for a long time

• Overall sense of hesitation is due to the lack of real-time, at-location support, especially when encountering an issue in a big grocery store

Store Insights

• Area to pickup carts can be congested and experiences constant traffic

• Store associates aren’t available to help shoppers with questions related to the Caper Cart

• Special cases around age-restricted items requires intervention from a store associate

• Carts experienced weather damage when left outside for over 1 hour

• Network connectivity can be spotty near the edges of the stores, especially at the produce section, which generally is where most stores have their entrances

Product Strategy

With a solid set of learnings from our initial field testing period, we identified several shopper personas that require different themes and initiatives to help cross the “chasm”. As a result of these initiatives, we observed an 18% increase in first-time users and a 22% increase in completed sessions within a quarter.

Theme 1: Anxiety / Hesitancy

Brand Ambassadors: Shoppers that were new to the Caper Cart did not feel overly comfortable to try something new. By deploying product evangelist to encourage and educate new shoppers, shoppers felt more at ease and more open to engage.

Clear Value: The value proposition was not fully understood by shoppers at first, but updated signage and a new onboarding video was launched to emphasize the faster checkout experience.

Incentive: Gamification was added to the onboard tablet, giving people a chance to receive an instant discount on their complete cart total, as long as they completed certain activities.

Remote Management: As shoppers would encounter issues, to resolve them, there needed to be some sort of associate intervention, burdening them to find someone for help in a large store. Caper Cloud was introduced to give shoppers a quick way to reach out for real-time help, where associates could remotely remedy the issue. In addition to assisting shoppers, the Caper Cloud guided operators with out-of-stock alerts, Caper Cart maintenance tasks and shopper analytics.

Theme 2: Core Shopper Experience

Enhanced AI: Tremendous amount of compute became necessary to add an item, since it required a series of checks, such as item detection, price for logged in shopper and weight validation. This sometimes resulted in a jerky experience due the movement of the cart and the items within it causing additional processing time. Improvements were made to our AI models dramatically increasing the speed and creating a smoother experience.

Running Total: Shoppers wanted to see their discounts applied as they scanned items, giving them assurance of that they are getting the right price.

Personalized Ads: With the use of the cart’s precise location and basket contents, a new opportunity was created for shoppers, brands and operators. When the cart detects certain events, a custom offer is presented to the shopper via the tablet.

Theme 3: Design for Scale

Scan-less: The original Caper Cart was equipped with 1 camera and 1 barcode scanner. This required the shopper to scan the barcode of each item, which seemed unnatural. By fitting the next generation of the Caper Cart with 4 computer-vision cameras, the Caper Cart was capable of instantly detecting an item being added to the basket without the need of a barcode scan. This was especially helpful for bulky items with oddly placed barcodes.

Durability: Being in a grocery store environment and being exposed to the elements, the Caper Cart’s weatherproofing was improved, decreasing the number of hardware failures.

Maneuverability: Having to deal with tight corners with the Caper Cart, which included several heavy components such as a battery, the Caper Cart’s material and wheel positioning were adjusted to create a more nimble feel.

22%

not happy with the time it takes to process an item