Sales Floor App Enhancements
Research to decide what to do about the in-store kiosks (improve them or replace them with something else).
Impact
Influenced business strategy with recommendations:​
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​Cut maintenance costs and floor space by removing kiosks and replacing them with an improved Sales Floor app.
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Train and motivate associates to use these tools for saving the sale and promoting "extended isle".
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Improve the app UX and functionality. (This may build trust among associates and improve adoption)
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Enhance Store Mode to better lead the customer to order out of stock products online. Spread awareness that Store Mode exists to both JDFNL employees and customers.
Insights
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The Sales Floor app and how associates use it could be improved and replace kiosks
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Technical malfunctions cause associates to skip using the app
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Incorrect inventory in the app is also a deterrent
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The function most used in the app is the Products tab, the other functions aren't used for their intended purposes by the majority of associates
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Not all stores are set up for success with new and functioning hardware
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Store Mode is another option, but it is not socialized.
Problem
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Kiosks (for shoe look-up/ordering = "extended isle") in stores in the USA are not used often, not making the company money, taking up floor space, and are expensive to maintain. But they are successful in the UK. We were asked to improve the kiosks and increase usage.
But....
The problem isn't how do we make people use kiosks, it's how do we sell more shoes when we don't have inventory in stores. The solution could be kiosks, apps, or something else.
Objectives
Research Goals & Questions
Understand the kiosk experience
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How often do customers use the kiosks? (why/why not)
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How often do associates bring customers to the kiosks? (why/why not)
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What makes kiosks successful in the UK and not in the USA.
How are Associates currently helping customers find/order shoes?
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Do they use the Sales Floor app, how often?
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How do they use the Sales Floor app and do they use all functionality?
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Are there certain times they use the app?
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Do they use the app for other purposes than what's intended?
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How often do customers use Store Mode in their personal app?
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Understand the problem space
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Are kiosks the right solution?
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Is there another solution that would make more sense? (i.e. Sales Floor app or Store Mode)
Business Goals
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Need a more cost effective solution to promote "extended isle" and increase customer engagement to save the sale on products that are out of stock in store.
User Goals
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Customers can benefit from more help from associates on the shoe floor and being able to purchase or order their shoes faster.
Methods
Part 1: Research
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​Internal Interviews: the kiosk experience
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Why this method: We wanted to understand what makes kiosks successful in the UK, and not successful in the USA, to decide if kiosks were the right problem and solution.​
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Internal Interviews: the Associate on floor experience
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Why this method: We wanted to understand the associates' experience with the "Sales Floor" app and store mode, and if these could be potential kiosk replacements.
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Survey
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Why this method: From the interviews we had a good understanding of the "Sales Floor" app and Store Mode experience, but we wanted to know if a larger percentage of our internal user base was experiencing the same thing, and if there were different problems depending on the size of the store. ​
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Part 2: Action
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Facilitated a Workshop​
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Why this method: To inform the team of insights learned from the interviews and surveys, and move them to action.​
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Internal Interviews: Why are Kiosks Successful in the UK?
We were told to improve the kiosks, but we questioned if this was the right problem to solve. We wanted to first understand what makes kiosks successful in the UK and not successful in the USA. I interviewed employees in the UK and the USA to understand the difference.
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Findings
Kiosk Use Cases in the UK:
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To build an online or in-store bag to be checked out at the kiosk by an associate, or pay at the register.
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To order shoes from the back room to try on.
What Makes Kiosks a Success in the UK:
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They're used the most in remote areas that don't have as much in-store product available.
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The staff is trained to lead customers to the kiosk to order shoes online, when they don't have them in stock in-store.
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Since covid, kiosks in the UK have not been as successful and they're thinking about removing them and moving functionality to the Sales Floor app instead.
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Kiosks in the USA:
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Rarely used by customers, and associates do not lead customers to the kiosks because it isn't part of their KPIs and associates would rather use the Sales Floor app or the register.
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The kiosks often are broken and they cost more money to maintain than they're bringing in.
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It's easier and faster to just help a customer with the handheld devices that power the Sales Floor app or bring them to the register.
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Impact:
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Because of these findings, we decided to focus on the "Sales Floor" app and see if we could include some of the key functionality needed to recreate the success the UK once saw in the kiosks. Moving away from kiosks and improving the way associates use the Sales Floor app would be more cost effective to maintain, and it would take up less space.
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We also wanted to explore the current experience and potential of Store Mode.
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If we could enhance the Sales Floor app and/or Store Mode, we could then propose to remove kiosks.
What is the Sales Floor App?
An app used by in-store JD Finish Line associates, for looking up product for customers, requesting shoes for try-on, checking the status of those requests, and creating online orders when the product is out of stock or not in the right size.
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Associates order shoes for the customer to try on through the app, the shoe order then goes to a tablet in the back room for the back room associates, and the shoe order will appear on a screen for the customer to see (the screens are available to customers in large stores only).
At the NYC flagship, the back room associates will get the shoe try-on order ready and put it on this shoe lift, then a runner will bring the shoes out on the floor to the designated area for the customer.
What is Store Mode
Store Mode activates when a customer who has the JD or Finish Line app approaches a JD or Finish Line store. They are then able to order shoes to try-on right from their app without having to talk to an associate first, similar to the Sales Floor app, just customer facing.
Associate In-Store Interviews
Since the focus of the research shifted to improving the Sales Floor app instead of kiosks, we then wanted to learn more about what associates are currently using this app to do, how often they are using it, and if they have any pain points around app usage. So I conducted interviews with a few tasks to see how they use the app and if they struggle.
3 Stores:
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Park Meadows (low volume)
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Aurora (medium volume)
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NYC - TSQ Flagship (high volume)
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Participants:
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4 sales associates and 1 manager from each store
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Interview Questions/Tasks:
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What do you do when a customer wants to try on shoes?
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If a customer needs a size that you don’t have, what do you do?
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How do you help a customer who is looking for and wanting to purchase multiple items?
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Do you use the Sales Floor app?
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What do you use it for the most?
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What else do you use it for?
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Describe your experience.
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Show me how you would use the app to get the shoes I’m trying on.
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How often do you use the app to help a customer find shoes? (and why)
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Show me how you would create a bag for me so I can buy multiple pairs of shoes.
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Why might you create a bag in the app vs. just doing it at the register?
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How often do you use this function? Why or why not?
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What do you think about this function?
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In the app, show me what products are available in-store vs. online
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On a scale of 1-10 how easy is it to figure out if a shoe is in-stock in the store using the app? (What would make it a 10)
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On a scale of 1-10 how easy is it to figure out if a shoe is available online using the app? (What would make it a 10)
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How often do customers use Store Mode (if at all)? ​​​​
In this video clip, an associate shows a few pain points that seem like they're small, but these small pain points added to long load times, prevents associates from wanting to take the time to use these devices.
Insights & Recommendations
Survey
We wanted to validate some of the findings from the interviews and see if a larger percentage of our internal user base was experiencing the same pain points. So we surveyed associates from small to large stores.
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Participants:
50 Sales Associates from 24 stores
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High Volume - 17 stores
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Medium Volume - 5 stores
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Low Volume - 2 stores
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Survey Goals:
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Do Sales Associates use the Sales Floor App?
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Do they use all 3 functions as intended? ​
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Do they use any of the functions for other reasons not intended?
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Is all functionality working? (If no, what are the blockers for adoption)
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Do Sales Associates know about Store Mode?
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Do they receive and see the try-on requests from customers in store mode? ​
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Is all functionality working? (if no, what are the blockers for adoption)
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Results
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Question: How often do you use the function of the Sales Floor app labeled....
"Products"
"Bags"
We can see that in the Sales Floor app, the main function is looking up "Products", which was also confirmed by an open ended question. And that main function is also not used or sometimes used, by 44% of participants in this study. The Sales Floor app is likely not being as often as it should be.
Why Is Sales Floor Not Always Used?
For the main function "Products", 46% of participants said it works properly most of the time, but 52% said "sometimes", "rarely", or "never". If associates perceive the app as sometimes, rarely, or never working, it is likely they wouldn't use it often.
The "Bags" function works most of the time according to 42% of participants, but 30% said N/A suggesting that these associates don't use the Bags function at all. We can also see from the comments that Bags is either not used, it's used to order from online, or it's used for an unintended purpose like product replenishment.
55% of participants answered N/A to the question below about Store Mode. This suggests they either don't know or they aren't familiar with Store Mode. And 26.5% said customers never use it.
Recommendations
Our biggest opportunities are:
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Remove kiosks and improve "extended isle" capabilities through design and development of the Sales Floor app.
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Train and motivate associates to use these tools for saving the sale and promoting "extended isle".
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Improve the app UX and functionality. (To build trust among associates and improve adoption)
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Enhance Store Mode to better lead the customer to order out of stock products online. Spread awareness that Store Mode exists to both JDFNL employees and customers.
Workshop
Who: I facilitated a workshop of the Store Management Team, Designers, Engineers, and PMs
Goals: Present insights, align the team, get buy-in to move forward
Discussed who our users are, insights, and pain points
Visualized the current flow together and marked pain points from the research
Defined the problems with "How Might We" statements and aligned on themes.
Sketched and presented ideas
Design Team Ideation:
With just the design team, further discussed and ideated, considering the information we captured from the entire team.
Designs
A lot of the issues we found with the Sales Floor app were technical, so we devised a plan for engineering to troubleshoot the app in stores and work on the loading, scanning, and inventory receiving issues. And we had a few ideas from the workshop that the Design team brought to life with a new design.
Features for the MVP:
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Information Architecture changes: the flow now allows the Associate to save the sale if shoes are not in stock from the same screen, instead of having to go to a new tab
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Associate can use the app to help the customer find another store nearby or order online if the product isn't in stock
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Ability to request shoes anyway (for when the associate knows the shoe is in stock but the system hasn't updated yet)
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Add a replenishment function
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QR code for an order- an easier way for the customer to work with a sales associate to create an order and then pay at the register (a future release would include the ability to pay from the handheld device on the floor)
Next Steps
From here we would implement design changes and test and survey the app again, 3 and 6 months after implementation to determine success rate:
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Did usage increase?
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How many sales are made through the Sales Floor app?
If success = remove kiosks