This blog serves as an up-to-date collection of my thoughts and reflections, as well as a chronicle of what I am doing in terms of projects, activities, and other undertakings in my life.
Discovering new service opportunities in large-scale retail environments.
Over the years, it has become a common understanding that volume of sales and profitability in large scale retail environments is closely tied to efficiency and being able to get customers in and out as fast as possible. I recently experienced one such initiative on my recent trip to France during a visit to one of the main hypermarket chains in the country.
Carrefour has put in place a self-scanning service called Scan-lib with which customers scan items themselves as they put them inside the cart. For those who buy lots of items at once, the idea of being able to leave everything in the cart instead of unloading it at checkout must surely sound appealing.
I found this nice service blueprint, that describes the Scan Lib’s user’s journey over time:
In theory, this idea improves the customer’s shopping experience and I must give credit to the effort made. However, as with many similar large scale initiatives and services, implementation is difficult, hence in this case, the execution is not great. This is a perfect example of introducing digital technology in a space that isn’t ready for it yet, thus resulting in a lackluster solution.
I don’t how this system will evolve, but one question come to mind. Do we really want to be tagging our lettuce and carrots with RFID? I vote no.
It seems like this service was designed by Designit Madrid. I’d say a good execution of the design brief, with an unfortunate poor execution on the client side.
I’ve been here for 3 weeks and I’m loving it so far! Having moved here from Los Angeles, this feels much more like a city (at least the ones I’m used to). Everything here feels very refined and tasteful, with an overall good sense of style. I’ve met many smart and creative people so far, who are making things happen, and I am super excited to be a part of this!
Looking forward to new adventures and memories in this city!