When insider panels deliver true voice of the customer insights for a national department store

THE SITUATION:
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Retail is a tough business. Margins are thin, and with dying malls, department stores are particularly suffering. Retailers are faced with many challenges – not the least of which is balancing a digital offering plus, often, a physical presence, and staying on top of trends and inventory needs.

MAGID APPROACH:
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Crafted a solution that allowed for multi-year, voice of the customer feedback

Working with a national department store retailer, we began with a full evaluation of the brand’s health to assess retail spend, current perceptions, and barriers to shopping. We used this to identify strengths and opportunities for the brand, including a full competitive assessment.

We then recruited and established an insider panel of fashion enthusiasts across the country and met with them in-person multiple times during the year.

We used insights gained from the brand tracker to identify key opportunity areas to explore and used the fashion panel to execute secret shopper missions, review store layout ideas, ideate around fashion and shopping strategy ideas, and stay on top of what the latest trends and expectations are and how they are shifting over time.

The depth of this engagement and this method of continuous feedback, discovery, and ideation meant that our client was able to implement ideas with much less lag time and approval time. The research was ongoing, the insights creation happened in real time, and stakeholders from all of business areas were engaged in the process and hearing feedback directly from consumers, allowing for immediate validation and refining of new ideas.

PROJECT DELIVERABLES:
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» Macro trends assessment
» Retail spend analysis
» Voice of the customer – attitudes and usage
» Competitive market assessment
» Fashion panel ideation sessions (multiple in-person sessions)
» Secret shopper experience reports
» Product and store experience enhancement planning