Grocery shopping can be hectic if overcrowding and a lack of general management exists. This is escalated on the eve of holidays or weekends when most shoppers look to check out their daily tasks. According to Navigine, customers go to stores an average of 6 times and spend 41 minutes per visit. Out of these visits, customers struggle to find and buy necessary items due to a host of reasons. These reasons can either be neglected or minimized for a better and worthwhile shopping experience.
Moreover, at certain times, retail stores opt for better sale and discounts on their products. However, the traditional advertising methods lack the immediate nature of outreach which in turn makes the retail stores suffer from lack of sales.
Challenges
- Inaccurate navigation inside stores
- Extreme congestion
- Enhanced advertising
To overcome these challenges, Navigation Solutions Company Navigine in partnership with a Finnish company-integrator laid out a four-step blueprint:
- Develop an intellectual solution for shopping carts tracking.
- Develop a complex navigation system for supermarkets that would connect carts and the shopping space.
- Install Bluetooth® LE beacons inside the shops.
- Test the performance of the suggested solution and, if necessary, introduce the required changes.
Solution
To eradicate the navigation problems, Navigine inserted tablets in shopping cart. These tablets would navigate to a selected item of the customer’s choice. Moreover, a customer can either feed a dish or the entire shopping list in it. The navigation system would then find the most compatible routes and elevate the shopping experience.
Navigine platform tracks the location of these tablets through Bluetooth® LE beacons installed inside the shop. This would also help the stores in sending push notification for promotions and sales. Furthermore, the information collected by the tablets can be analysed to curate a personalised shopping experience for any given customer.
These shopping carts helped in simplifying internal navigation, especially in supermarkets with huge foot-space. They also help in making the shopping more interactive, less frustrating, increase efficiency, and implement better advertising.
A collective heatmap of the customers is also generated thanks to the tablet. This can indicate the in-demand products and help in inventory management for the stores, giving an insight into customer behaviour. Navigine managed to solve all the above-mentioned problems by doubling the number of Bluetooth beacons, installed inside the shop, using complex algorithms, based on dozens of various parameters, and developing a traffic pattern along with the shop.
Outcome
According to Navigine, at present, the carts equipped with a highly technological navigation system are available in 98 supermarkets all around Finland.
- Increasing sales.
- Increasing the average check by 6%.
- Increasing Kesko brand awareness.
- The efficiency of marketing and advertising campaigns – half of all the users of the SmartCart application got special push notifications, 25% of buyers followed the recommended routes to the places with advertised goods. The conversion of such marketing tools reached 6%.
