Created a Mobile App for Ukraine’s Retail Leader Ecosystem: Epicentr Case Study
- Swift
- Kotlin
- Firebase
- Xcode
- Jenkins
Epicenter BY THE NUMBERS
The “Epicenter” group of companies is an omnichannel ecosystem that unites the “Epicenter” and “Nova Liniya” retail chains, the “Intersport-Ukraine” multi-brand sports store chain, the “Epicenter-Agro” agricultural holding, and ceramic tile production plants of the Epicenter Ceramic Corporation, woodworking production — “Osmoloda” building materials center and logistics facilities.
About the client & the story behind them
Epicentr continues to develop dynamically, expanding its client base and opening new shopping centers. Thus, the loyalty program, the app design, and the user experience must also change to respond to the audience’s requests and market trends. The main requests here included:
- Implement the client’s mobile application (with the provision of integration with the consultant’s mobile application)
- Combine all activities of the “Vyhoda” (benefit) loyalty program in one place
- Provide users with relevant offers and promotions within the app
- Create a convenient tool for pre-accessing the services presented offline
- Allow for the use of an electronic loyalty card in the app
- Develop the scanning of goods on sight feature
- Improve and reduce the cost of communication with the end user via push notifications
- Simplify the process of purchasing goods in offline shopping centers
- Optimize the company’s internal workflow with the help of a convenient and modern app
Challenges and Limitation
The main challenge was to develop a single mobile application that would serve as a unifying ecosystem for the company’s internal communication and connection between the business and its customers.
Connecting the Face Recognition feature, involving integration of the third-party payment system, was another complicated task we faced. Self-service cash registers written by a Baltic company from Lithuania had to synchronize with the future application to trigger the instant check printing after an in-store purchase.
Allowing for the payment with face recognition involves communication with the cashier according to the same method, setting the base for the multilateral interaction. Here, we dealt with the challenge of adjusting the simultaneous work of the app, Epicentr’s Enterprise Resource Planning system, in-store self-service cash registers, and 27.ua — the client’s online retail partner.
How we did it — solutions, approach, methodology
The initial design sprint focus was aimed at improving the user experience of the loyalty program. After conducting market research and user interviews, we decided to change the goal and make it more global. The team decided to put an emphasis on improving the experience of using the physical retail space and online platforms of Epicentr shopping malls because this was what the visitors lacked first and foremost. The design sprint lasted 3 days and involved the following stages:
Day 1: Empathy
Empathy methods we applied included blitz reports on business goals and technological capabilities, user interviews, interacting with users in their usual environment, stakeholder mapping, and competitor analysis. Blitz reports helped in understanding tasks from multiple perspectives, including business goals, technical capabilities, and user research. Interviewing users in their environment and reviewing competitors determined user needs and problems.
Day 2: Focusing
At this stage, we chose ideas to focus on during product development. Then, the design principles were defined, which involved choosing keywords that described the product to users. The data obtained during the first sprint stage helped us form customer journeys to categorize ideas further and define strategies.
Day 3: Design
At this stage, a detailed storyboard was created with a description of the user’s movement through the product with sketches of interfaces. As a result of the design sprint, the general profile of the client and 5 main audience subgroups were formed. This approach was vital for further client targeting optimization and constructing the most convenient design.
Received design sprint results:
- The client decided to optimize the purchase process in the shopping center using mobile application opportunities;
- The team also chose to cut down on network costs for the production of plastic cards by introducing electronic loyalty cards available in the mobile application for all new users immediately after registration;
- The plan was to create and implement a system of free personalized push notifications;
- In the process of working on the project, the idea of Look and Pay was generated — the feature responsible for purchasing goods by scanning the user’s face;
- We decided to develop a mechanism for personal offers for users based on their preferences and behavioral data;
- The barcode scanning feature was discussed since it sounded reasonable to develop a tool that would provide clients with information about the current prices of goods present on the shelves offline;
- It was noted that key product metrics and product development metrics should be monitored and analyzed, so we needed to develop a quality analytics system.
Gathering and Forming the Requirements
After the Design Sprint, we moved on to the next stage — Gathering and forming the requirements. It was when we developed the product backlog, wrote user stories, and developed a BPMN process map for working with the order.
A User Study was conducted to ensure that the product would meet the needs. User interviews with various employees of the company, from sales consultants and cashiers to shopping mall administration employees, were a part of the research. More than 20 interviews were carried out in total. In the process, we obtained a list of major insights based on different stages of work with the order. This helped us to identify processes that could be simplified, eliminated, or automated.
Later on, we created a top-level concept of the product/products, updated the BPMN process map based on the formed concept of the product/products, and provided an updated Story Map based on the formed concept of the product/products. The detailed product prototype was also prepared during this stage. It was later used to carry out the API audit and choose the actual design of the API methods.
Customer journey map — a map of the user’s journey from the moment of acquaintance with our product to the moment when they cannot imagine life without it, was another tool we applied to visualize our expectations from the future product better.
Product Development
The next stage was product development, starting with the creation of the system design, designing the actual product, and the mobile application development as such.
Testing
Product testing was carried out in iterations throughout the whole development process. The method we chose was regression testing — a sort of testing used in the software development life cycle to check for unintended breaks after each change. Regression testing solves a problem that developers frequently run into — the reappearance of previous bugs after implementing fresh modifications.
It is challenging to identify which modification caused a bug if a project does not use tight version control systems. Therefore, including strong regression testing is a good idea to prevent massive bug fixes. The testing results were backed up with the next procedures:
Preparing test results documents
All files, including details about the testing team’s strategy, development, metrics, and results, are considered test documentation. In the case of iterative testing carried out by the Devlight team, the synthesis of all accessible data was used to monitor upcoming project requirements, control test coverage, and quantify testing efforts.
Forming product safety report
We test mobile apps for security using techniques that a hostile user would use to attack them. Understanding the application’s business function and the types of data it processes is the first step in doing effective security testing. From then, an effective holistic assessment is produced by combining static analysis, dynamic analysis, and penetration testing to uncover vulnerabilities that would be missed if the approaches were not used effectively in conjunction. The results of security testing are described in the product safety report.
Conducting beta testing
Real users had the chance to test a product in a real-world setting before it was released to the public to find any defects or problems. This was the last round of testing before making a product widely available, that is, releasing it to the market.
Product Release
The process of giving customers a new product experience is called a product release. However, a release is much more than just the introduction of new features. It represents a promise of additional value for the clients. Our release was the culmination of all the cross-functional work done by internal teams to bring the product to market and support every consumer interaction related to it. This almost final product development stage included:
Publication of the application in marketplaces
This time period marked the official release of the product. This covered the actual day of release as well as the ensuing marketing initiatives to feed the public interest over the next weeks. Data on the product and marketing were gathered during this period to be used to assess the launch’s performance eventually.
Collection of analytics
As the product moved from the “launch” stage into the “growth stage” of its life cycle, marketing activities eventually waned, and we focused on collecting and analyzing data. Product teams assessed whether KPIs and other objectives were accomplished as a result of the launch by comparing data gathered throughout the release window.
Collecting feedback
Numerous product metrics place a strong emphasis on quantity, such as how many users were added or how many items were purchased. We at Devlight also focus on measuring how well the users treat our message and goods by directly asking them for feedback. Obtaining customer feedback typically involves:
- Customer interviews
- Focus groups
- Surveys
Additionally, during the product launch, customer service had substantial interactions with customers that we used to obtain particular knowledge of user problems. The issues that surfaced as a result of the development of support tickets or direct consumer inquiries always carry a high value.
Product Support and Development
Since the mobile application market is developing very quickly, the product needs to be constantly developed and improved to keep up with the trends and competitors. In fact, the launch of a new product is merely the beginning of the process; it is not the final destination. It is the perfect time to take advantage of possibilities, prevent quick failures, and raise the likelihood of long-term growth. Product Support and Development stage carried out by Devlight for the Epicentr app case included the next procedures:
A/B testing
A/B testing, also referred to as split testing, is a randomized market experiment process in which two or more variations of a variable (app page, element, feature.) are displayed to various groups of app users at the same time to see which version has the greatest impact and influences business metrics.
Building user funnels
Being a widely-used marketing technique, a user funnel helps to engage new users to the app and keep it growing. Funnels show how potential consumers move through the different user journey stages and keep track of our efforts to draw them in, keep them interested, and persuade them to buy our goods or use our product.
Marketing funnels produce leads, whereas sales funnels generate sales by recording the customer journey through a succession of micro-conversions, such as subscribing to a list, completing a form, or making a purchase. This implies that they monitor the entire customer journey for potential clients, from learning about your goods through considering the purchase to deciding to make a purchase.
Building a new user engagement model
A user engagement model is the strategy used by businesses to interact with and develop connections with their app users. Building new effective user engagement models based on the data analyzed via feedback collection and A/B testing significantly enhances trial conversions, user satisfaction, revenue per user, and user retention.
Expectations
An increase in the sales conversion of app users and offline customers was one of the main effects Epicentr expected to receive as a result of our cooperation. In addition, they desired to increase customer satisfaction by providing users with relevant offers and promotions within the app and combining all activities of the “Vyhoda” loyalty program in one place. This was expected to boost sales and motivate users to engage in the shopping process.
Creating a convenient tool for pre-accessing the services presented offline, developing the scanning of goods on sight feature, and simplifying the process of purchasing goods in offline shopping centers were all expected to broaden the target demographic and inspire more trust in the brand. After doing some research, the client also came to the opinion that increasing consumer communication through applications should be one of their goals in terms of expected outcomes.
Results and outcomes
Our team’s work has improved sales indicators and engaged users in downloading the new app. New customers can now shop in a safe, effective, and more convenient way. The “Vyhoda” loyalty program combining all activities in one place has inspired users to make purchases more eagerly and pre-plan shopping before visiting the offline store. The project’s team has conquered every challenge met during the development process.
KEY FEATURES AND VALUE
Final design
Here are some of the final design screens that we want to share with you.
Customer feedbacks
The basis of a successful project is the experience of the team that’s why we chose Devlight. They are an enthusiastic team with a professional approach in the implementation of large-scale projects from the beginning and development strategy. The main thing is to be on the same wave of understanding the value of the product and create a unique product for users step by step!
Epicenter BY THE NUMBERS
The result of our development process was launching an MVP to get to market as quickly as possible and start bringing value to businesses and users. In this way, the main problems of customers have been solved, while additional features are launched as they are ready. A system for monitoring and collecting program analytics was also designed and implemented, which made it possible to quickly obtain data on the use of the functionality and make corrections.
Here are some pieces of statistics necessary to understand the tangible results we achieved:
