Store profile design

Abstract

With 848 neighborhood supermarkets, Albert Heijn is the leading food retailer in the Netherlands. Albert Heijn reached this market position by building standardized supermarkets, one-size-fits all. Albert Heijn is now in a transition from good standardized supermarkets to good unique supermarket, to develop supermarkets that better match with individual needs. Albert Heijn started with differentiation by creating six store profiles: Premium, City Premium, Modern Family, Mainstream, Traditional and City Budget. These store profiles are clusters of supermarkets with similar customer characteristics. Albert Heijn needs more information about its customers. The store profiles form a solid qualitative foundation, but do not explain the real story of the customer. The assignment is to use customer journey maps to enrich the store profiles with insights about the grocery trips of customers and to use those insights to give practical solutions that will aid the development of differentiated supermarkets. The store profiles are improved by prototypical persona. The prototypical persona provide a collective image of the fictional representative of the common customers of a store profile. This prototypical persona is used a leading figure in customer journey maps for the different store profiles. These customer journey maps are based on shop along research with customers in Albert Heijn supermarkets. The customer journey maps improve the store profiles by giving insights in the routing through the supermarket, the touch points, the attitudes and the emotional journey. The conclusions are a Premium supermarket that has a specific assortment, an exploring format, personal service and an exclusive experience. A City Premium supermarket that has new products, a compact format, self service and a trendy experience. A Modern Family supermarket that has inspirational products, a guiding format, service at the background and a neat experience. A Traditional supermarket has familiar products, a clear format, social service and options to taste products. A City Budget supermarket that has large pack sized products, a direct format, friendly service and the option to touch products. The prototypical persona and customer journey maps help to develop supermarkets that better match with the needs of the customers in Albert Heijn supermarkets.