Staying ahead in the world of online retailing requires continual research and analysis into customer shopping behaviours. As part of their annual brand strategy review, one of the UK's leading retailers commissioned Flow Interactive to carry-out to a research study with key online customers to help evaluate user needs and desires with regard to grocery shopping. The purpose of the study was to gather customer perceptions of several grocery retailing websites and to identify what user needs are currently being satisfied or dissatisfied. There was also a focus on assessing the proposition of aggregated grocery shopping sites (like mysupermarket.com) and investigating perceptions of grocery shopping through mobile devices.

Flow carried out a set-of contextual interviews with customers of varying shopping frequencies alongside an expert review. Key shopping journeys and tasks were identified in order to focus research on business priorities. During the user research sessions participants were asked to carryout a couple of key tasks across multiple online retailing platforms and were probed to answer questions regarding their expectations and habits of shopping online. The expert review was competitor focused and allowed for several retailing platforms to be assessed from a heuristics perspective. The research and analysis was completed over a couple of weeks and led to strategic findings in relation to how to support different customer mindsets along their shopping journeys.

The insights were shaped into a set of strategic recommendations that will be used by the client to drive the future direction of their multi-channel retailing offer.