Aldi's famous 'Special Buys' is a favourite amongst Aussie grocery shoppers looking for a bargain. However with great deals comes long waiting lines and the disappointment that somebody beat you to the product you were looking forward to buy.
(PROBLEM)
My approach was to try and get into the customer shoes and shadow buyers around the store to get a better understanding of what they liked and disliked about shopping at ALDI. This followed by many customer interviews to help develop the key pain points and insights needed in order to kick start the project.
(SUMMARY OF OPPORTUNITIES)
My vision was to completely overhaul the special buys process and rethink how shoppers can take full advantage of the ALDI special buys. With ALDI not having a big digital presence, this was where I was confident we I could make a big impact for both the business and the customers.
The key pain point I was trying to solve was how to increase customer satisfaction as customers were arriving in store to find out the product they wanted was out of stock. These concerns resulted in ALDI having long shopping lines before opening and a lot of frustration amongst the buyers.
(OBJECTIVES)
There were 2 key challengers during this project. The first being that special buys is ingrained in many shoppers lifestyle and changing their shopping behaviour could have some impacts.
Secondly, the ALDI website has many limitation on what we can and can't do due. Whilst this added some frustration, it didn't impact me to much.
(USABLITY TESTING)
The cornerstone of my approach is my unwavering commitment to understanding the needs of my users. The key customer pain point was frustration as the product they wanted to purchase was always out of stock when they arrived in store. The digital solution I designed to overcome this allowed customers to go online and search for the product of interest and the closest store is was available at.
We also surfaced other products that may be of interest to help sell products that may not have had as much traction before.
(RESULTS)
Since launching Phase 1 of the Special Buys Stock Checker, we have since gone on to make updates and optimisations. It has received rave reviews from news outlets and more important ALDI shoppers "“Letting you all know that Aldi have a new website just to check on the availability of Special Buys! Finally no more waiting in line for a sold out product” they wrote in an Facebook group.
