Reitan Convenience holds a strong position in the kiosk and convenience market in the Nordics. With more than 370 7‑Eleven shops, and 330 Pressbyrå shops – there is always a time to grab coffee whenever, and wherever you are.
As a Service Design consultant I managed a holistic research approach which provided valuable insights into customer behavior and attitudes, understanding of the market and gaps and opportunities in the current business model. My responsibilities also covered the early stages of the ideation and testing phase with the development of a design concept.
As sales numbers dropped drastically and people stayed indoors to prevent the spread of Covid-19, the current business model of 7-Eleven and Pressbyrån in Sweden was not meeting the new demands effectively.
We set out to understand the new experience customers were faced with, what opportunities and gaps existed within the current business model and spying outwards on trends connected to convenience.
In the end we delivered a concept for a new digital service for Pressbyrån and 7-Eleven. An offering that would be a digital extension of their already current and much appreciated brick-and-mortar store locations.
The final delivery were made up of 4 concepts, each of which answered several different needs from customers, the business and external factors. To ensure our concepts were feasible, we selected 1 concept for each company that would be a first step towards introducing a new business model as well as proceeding with iterative testing.
Our approach was divided into three separate research phases, and a co-creative ideation phase for both 7-Eleven and Pressbyrån. The research phase aimed at understanding the context that customers experienced by visiting the physical stores, understanding how the current business faired and lastly explore trends and innovations in and outside of the convenience experience.
The first part of our research involved conducting an ethnographic study with six different store locations for both 7-Eleven and Pressbyrån throughout Stockholm. Our goal was to understand the context of people visiting the physical stores and identify drivers of motivations. I used the AEIOU-framework for observing, and an interview guide that was conducted with both customers and front-line staff.
Alongside the qualitative research, we explored trends in and outside of the convenience store experience. In short, we saw brands already expanding their service reach by leveraging the major delivery platforms — and they do so without the traditional retail footprint and its associated overhead. An example of this was the successful implementation of data-driven dark kitchens.
In order to understand the customer and business better, we looked at existing data within both Pressbyrån and 7-Eleven. We covered common purchase behaviors, most bought products, uses of self-checkouts and redeeming coupons – pursuing more data points to add to our qualitative and desktop research.
From our research, we developed "How might we" questions to help fuel ideation on potential ideas together with the client. After a successful ideation workshop, we developed several concepts which answered several key needs from customers, as well as strengths within the organisation.
I learned a lot about using mixed methods research to enhance insights for a large project such as this. Our internal consultant team also discussed the importance of understanding each other's work styles, especially since many of us were collaborating for the first time.
