Sam’s Club Rapid Ideation
Project Overview
Duration: Jan 15th – March 15th
Role: Design Strategist + Researcher
Situation
My team and I were tasked with creating “the Next Big Idea” for the Wine Department. Of the forty-two ideas I came up with, seven were chosen by my group to review internally and two were picked to present to the Director of Innovation at Sam’s Club, Jonathan Saffian.
Tasks
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13 Online Survey Responses
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Created 7 Who, What Wow statements
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Lead Stakeholder Map Exercise
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Found 4 major pain points within the wine shopping experience
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Lack of educated employees
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Decision fatigue due to too many options
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Costumers lack confidence in their wine knowledge
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Customers find the description on the wine bottle to be overly complicated
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Actions
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Used Journey Map to evaluate pain points
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Conducted weekly 30-minute meetings to generate and evaluate ideas
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Researched other industries to find points of innovation
Results
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My teammates liked my ideas, but all agreed that they could be expanded upon
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Johnathan liked my two ideas, but he found both unfavorable for Sam’s Club
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If I were to continue this, I would focus on getting more customer validation through surveys and interviews
Top Idea
1. Mystery Wine Boxes to Promote Exploration
Pain Point:
Customers are experiencing decision fatigue due to too many options and overcomplicated descriptions.
Insights:
The ‘Mystery Marketing’ strategy can easily be applied to wine to boost sales.
1. 61.55% of people surveyed agreed that in some way they feel overwhelmed by the number of options available when they are shopping for wine.
2. 50% of people surveyed agreed that in some way they would purchase wine if the packaging looked enticing.
3. 5 Surprise: Mini Brands is a children's surprise toy by the company Zuru. Each toy contains 5 random plastic mini models of everyday items. With over 300 mini models to collect and the toy’s massive presence on social media, it makes sense why Zuru saw a 500% increase in sales in the year 2020.
Solution:
Create Mystery Wine Boxes to Reduce Design Fatigue
Mystery Wine Boxes would work similarly to other Mystery Box products. The only information that will be available to the customer would be the price and a brief description describing the wine type and flavor profile. In theory, this should reduce the stress that comes with deciding on what wine to purchase.
Who, What, Wow:
Customers that purchase Mystery Wine Boxes will have an exciting experience exploring wine while reducing decision fatigue and potentially increasing sales by upwards of 500%.
Results:
Can this idea be made into something bigger and better?
Jonathan was a fan of the idea as it would keep customers coming back to try another Mystery Wine. While he did appreciate that the concept would be easy to implement, it would unfortunately allow other companies to catch on and do the exact same thing. Something needs to be added to make it more innovative.
Black Hat: Other companies can easily implement it thus removing the novelty.
Green Hat: Create an Ai that chooses a Mystery Wine based on buying habits.
Yellow Hat: Aids in creating repeat customers.
Executive Summaries for Ideas 2-7
2. Info Bottle:
A ‘Scent-story' way to Understand Wine
Pain Point:
Customers do not feel knowledgeable about wine and have trouble choosing the right wine for them.
Insights:
91.66% of people surveyed agreed that in some way the aroma of the wine is just as important as the taste.
Who, What, Wow:
Info Bottle is a paper pamphlet that provides the customer with infographic information about the wine along with providing an accurate aroma of the wine potentially increasing interest by 19%
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3. Wines Stored in Fridges that use the “Cooler Screen” Technology
Pain Point:
Customers do not feel knowledgeable about wine and have trouble choosing the right wine for them.
Insights:
“Cooler Screens” is a product that replaces the clear door found on retail fridges with a digital screen. This screen cycles from showing the items in the fridge and their prices to showing product-specific advertisements. As of now, Cooler Screens can only be found at some Walgreen stores and those who have implemented this technology have seen anywhere from a 50% to 100% sales increase in the products advertised on the screens.
Who, What, Wow:
By using a “Cooler Screens” like technology, Sam’s Club would be able to provide customers with chilled wines while also providing in-store education and advertising potentially boosting wine sales by upwards of 100%.
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4. Autonomous Robot Sommeliers to Educate and Help Customers Shopping for Wine
Pain Point:
Lack of available employees at are educated in wine that can provide personalized recommendations.
Insights:
Autonomous robots are becoming increasingly common within retail space with the most common being autonomous floor scrubbers. Looking at the median of all stores that have integrated autonomous floor scrubbers, collectively they have gained 2.4 million hours of productivity that were used for higher-value tasks.
Who, What, Wow:
Autonomous Robot Sommeliers create an interactive and engaging wine shopping experience that will be appealing to up to 75% of Sam’s Club customers.
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5. Recommended Wine Pairings when Produce is Scanned in the Scan & Go App.
Pain Point:
Customers have challenges figuring out what wine they should pair with their meals.
Insights:
30.77% of people surveyed disagreed that in some way they know exactly what wine they are going to buy when they enter the store.
Who, What, Wow:
Using pop-up wine recommendations in the Scan & Go app whenever a customer scans a produce item, will improve their confidence about their food and wine pairing and potentially increase sales by 7%.
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6. Single Serving Wine Bottles: Less Wine, Less Commitment
Pain Point:
People feel overwhelmed by the number of wine options that are available
Insights:
66.67% of people surveyed agreed that in some way they would purchase a sample of wine before purchasing an entire bottle.
Who, What, Wow:
Customers that purchase single-serving wine bottles will feel less overwhelmed about choosing a wine due to the lesser commitment, potentially leading up to a 450% increase in sales.
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7. Wine Recommendations on the Bottles to Encourage Future Purchases.
Pain Point:
Lack of available employees at are educated in wine that can provide personalized recommendations.
Insights:
Several major companies have seen an increase in sales when they curate personalized ads for their customers. For instance, on Amazon, 35% of purchases are from curated recommendations.
Who, What, Wow:
Customers that use the wine recommendations found on the purchased bottle of wine will likely find a new wine they like potentially increasing sales by 35%.
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