An omnichannel retail experience.
Background
Sharaf DG is one of the most successful electronics retailers in UAE; until 2013 their business model was all about reducing costs: simple stores, no warehouses and competitive prices. Designit helped Sharaf shaping and implementing a new business model based on customer experience.
Scope
In 2013 Nilesh Khalkho, CEO and Co-Founder of Sharaf DG, came to Designit with a problem: electronics retailers can no longer leverage on price as their main differentiator. Sharaf wanted to create a new business model based on customer experience and asked Designit to support him shaping and implementing a new omnichannel experience, able to unify the retail experience with the digital environment.
My role
My role was to translate the vision defined by service designers into reality. I was responsible for the in-store digital touchpoints and the monetisation platform.
User stories definition
Wireframes detailing
Production of guidelines
Design support for implementation
Design Quality Assurance
Final handover facilitation.
UX Design and Service Design
Mapping and design of the multichannel shopping experience
Concept refinement
Results
The scope of the project was to deliver a fully working system able to convey the design concepts developed during the previous phase (service design blueprint and manual).
The final design covered different touchpoints both digital and physical:
architecture and interior design (store design, retail furniture system, CMF, ff&e);
in-store digital experiences (power wall, photography wall, interactive mirror, retail area screens, tv wall, check-out screens);
mobile applications (customer app and staff app);
backend (e-commerce platform, staff platform, content management and distribution platform).
The Process
The project was 18 months long and involved more than 20 people: 2 UX designers, 2 visual designers, 2 researchers, 15 developers, 1 design director, 1 project manager.
Me presenting the overall User Experience Concept to the original team (3 designers and 8 developers)
Experience Roadmap
Internal project handover to Design & Implementation team
Studying and understanding the detailed concept manual.
Identification of key features for implementation
Desk research: best practices and competitor analysis
Concept detailing: creating three user stories addressing all key concept touch-points for Sharaf's DG future retail experience
Design and Experience transfer of the store design concept for the Times Square Store
Definition of architecture scope and alignment with the scheduled building process
TEAM COORDINATION AND PROCESSES SETUP
Setup of internal communications and content coordination tools / framework (Jira, Confluence)
Creation of UI/UX specification documents
Architectural design and detailing of all digital experiences
Alignment of store design with UX/UI and Tech development
Final planning documents for store design and all digital experiences
Client presentation and scope refinement
Implementation
Aligninment of design concepts with technical feasibility and interior architecture
Final UI/UX specification documents
Implementation of the E-commerce platform (website)
Mobile app screen design and development
Digital Experiences design and development
Test-run in Munich
Troubleshooting and refinement of all touchpoints
Warehouse setup in Dubai
Status Check of Store Design planning documents
Quality Control Check and Approval of all key elements of store Design (manufacturers, suppliers, shop-fitters)
Final handover to the client (bug-fixing and staff training workshop in Dubai, design and technical documentation handover, final client demo & presentation)
What happened next?
After we delivered the proof of concept, the system was engineered and maintained by a software house able to provide constant support. The digital experiences we designed became the blueprint of the digital transformation of the company; the system was extended to all the Sharaf DG shops in Dubai.
