Sam's Club Innovation Jam
Client
Sam's Club
Year
Fall 2021
Location
Dallas, TX
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Overview
I worked with the Sam’s Club innovation team to help iterate a more personalized shopping experience for the user when it comes to product recommendations. The Innovation Jam submission, Sam’s Personalized Shopping, gave users the ability to create unique profiles for multiple family members from within the Sam’s Club website and app.
Situation
Personalized recommendations for different users within the same family did not accurately meet user needs and preferences.
Task
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Reverse Engineer the 6 Step Problem Solving Model
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Restate the Problem Statement
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Ideate Potential Iterations for Sam’s Personalized Shopping
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Analyze Competitors on the Use of Similar Personalization Methods
Action
After performing thorough research over the opportunities that solving the problem statement can create and analyzing the potential impacts of our ideations, I organized a proposal with visualized iterations for the Sam’s Club Director of Innovation, Jonathan Saffian.
Results
Johnathan provided another perspective on where we could take our ideations and stated some pain points to improve upon. When implemented, our iteration could increase customer engagement, create a stronger customer base and encourage more purchases from members.
Insights
Reverse Engineering the 5 Step Problem Solving Model
Did the Proposed Solution Accurately Solve the Problem Identified?
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In order to have a better understanding over the original Sam’s Personalized Shopping Idea, I needed to understand how exactly they reached that solution. To do this, I needed to work through the problem solving process backwards to understand how each step contributes to the final ideation that Sam’s Personalized Shopping created and if their solution truly solved their problem statement. I started from the last step of their proposed solution, and worked my way down to the problem they identified.
5. Proposed Solution
4. Develop Alternate Solutions
3. Clarify the Problem
2. Validate the Problem
1. Clarify the Problem
Proposed Solution
Sam’s Personalized Shopping allows members to create multiple profiles under a single account.
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Original Problem Statement
Irrelevant product recommendations are being shown to different users.
Product recommendations do not meet user needs/preferences.
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Rewriting the Problem Statement
Rewritten Problem: Shared memberships between two or more people can reduce the personalization for each individual’s preferences.
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After working our way down towards the original problem statement, my team and I rewrote the problem to better suit our alternative solutions. We found that depersonalization occurs because product recommendations are gathered from search histories, previous purchases, and favorites from all users and is not able to differentiate each user’s individual actions.
Gathering Data Over Competitors
How Can We Improve User Personalization?
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After determining what our problem was, I gathered insights on how other companies, and essentially competitors, provided a personalized shopping experience for their consumers.
“The top streaming services lets [users] segment viewing between four to five other family members or housemates” to create a more personalized watch history and recommendations for the user. -Wired
To increase personalization, companies use:
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email and text personalization
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personalize sale follow ups
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chat boxes
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use data to enhance UX.
Iteration of Potential Solutions
How could we improve the current solution of user profiles to increase personalization?
Learning Stage #1
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I had the role of ideating potential ways to improve user personalization. By gathering data over our competitors, I learned that the big idea does not have to be something that has never been thought of, and instead, can be influenced by successful ideas that have already being created and implemented. This way, you can iterate upon their solution and create an even more stable prototype than before by analyzing what went well and what didn’t go well.
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My Ideation: Physical Membership Cards Tied to Each User Profile
Each user will receive a membership card that ties back to a user profile. Each card can track the individual’s previous purchases both in store and online, provide recommendations, and overall become more personalized for each user.
StoryBoard
Shopping is NOT personalized for either user because they both use the same card.
Each user has personalized recommenda-tions because their own card tracks the user's purchases
Learning Stage #2
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During my ideation stage, we had to visualize our iterations into storyboards. My first storyboards that showcased the individual membership cards were overloaded with too many sketches and words to the point to where it was information overload for the viewer.
I learned how to convey the same story with less icons and words. Additionally, I learned to identify and highlight what words were valuable for the storyboard and which were unnecessary.
Potential Impacts of Solutions
Why is Personalization Important?
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I gathered research to enforce our iteration and showcase some of the benefits of increasing user personalization. My data proves that an increase in personalization can have a direct impact on increasing consumer engagement and improving user experience.
A study looked into the retail consumer base and found 66% of customers prefer personalized shopping experiences.
-source​
A study looked into the retail consumer base and found 66% of customers prefer personalized shopping experiences.
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A study looked into the retail consumer base and found 66% of customers prefer personalized shopping experiences.
-source​
Who, What, Wow
The digital card option for Sam’s Personalized Shopping app could increase user interaction by 80% for families that shop separately but under the same membership account.
Feedback/Next Steps
After presenting our ideas to Jonathan Saffian, he gave up some feedback on his thoughts for our iterations and provided comments in order to guide us into the right directions for our next steps in improving our own ideas. Mr. Saffian mentioned how it was important for companies to let their consumers look around the store for their products instead of knowing exactly where they were because it allowed those consumers to have more exposure to other products they might usually not buy. He advised us to incorporate a “treasure hunt” aspect to our interactive map idea where it takes a member through different parts of the store to encourage them to buy more.
For our next steps, we want to incorporate the treasure hunt idea into our recommendations in order to increase the exposure of products for more consumers while also giving them the personalization they need.
Thank You for Reading! Any Questions? Contact Me