Kawata House of Socks
Recreating the
shopping experience
from the inside-out
SERVICE DISCOVERY AND ANALYSIS
With four retail outlets in Singapore, Kawata House of Socks offers a wide selection of socks in sizes, fits and designs suitable for people of all ages. To help the team from Kawata better understand how brand image and shopping experience directly impacts revenue, we set out to uncover customer perceptions of their retail stores.
Conducting field research
Our team approached walk-in customers at Kawata’s retail stores to find out how the store’s display, surroundings and staff affected their shopping experience and decision-making process. We posed a set of questions that uncovered their motivation behind entering the store, their first impressions, ease of navigation, product placement and customer service levels. We also interviewed several staff members to gather feedback on trends in customer feedback and habits.
Synthesising of information using a Customer Journey Map
Using all the information collected, we wanted to create a visual representation of customers’ and staff members’ emotional experience when shopping or working at Kawata’s stores. A Customer Journey Map helps to identify the possible needs and problems that customers may encounter throughout their entire experience. On a large canvas, we mapped out in a matrix format customers’ emotions and comments at each point of contact with the different store elements (eg, shop front, window display, product categorisation and wayfinding). We also proposed some changes to address the feedback received.
Understanding functional and emotional appeal
Building a strong correlation between a company’s functional selling points and emotional appeal is important to attract and retain consumers. For example, their unique selling point of having a wide variety could be used to invoke joyful discovery, and their high-quality products can express their company’s confidence and expertise in this market.
Brand portfolio planning
Using feedback gleaned from the field research done, we wanted to simplify customers’ choices to create a fuss-free shopping experience. Under the Kawata brand, the clients had five sub-brands, and due to overlapping product properties across these sub-brands, we suggested a reduction to three or four sub-brands for better customer clarity.
In conclusion
We presented our findings and recommendations to the client, allowing them to get a better feel of their customers’ shopping experience. Improving the way products are categorised, promoted and displayed could help to make the retail experience a smoother and fuss-free one, for the benefit of customers, staff and the business alike.
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