Objective

New technology in-store enabled better data around the inventory stock levels of merchandise. This created an opportunity for the digital team to leverage this new data to surface inventory information to customers when placing delivery orders. This project required an in-depth understanding of the service logic for all fulfillment options and collaboration with a cross-functional team to align on a solution.

Challenges

• Simplify complex details related to fulfillment and item data

• Facilitate remote discovery with 17+ stakeholders and experts

• Communicate changes to interdependent teams to define requirements for the work

Achievements

Within 3 months we went from idea to solution and began the rollout of inventory awareness for delivery services across the enterprise (nearly 3000 stores). These changes helped realize a cost reduction for the business by improving checkout conversion rate by 2% and delivery fill rates by 2%.

Stakeholder Interviews

A cross-functional team was brought together for a series of workshops to build alignment on the solution for inventory visibility within delivery fulfillment options.

Inventory visibility was not a new concept for the business as our ship fulfillment was already doing this. The difference is that store inventory levels are much more difficult to control with the customer foot traffic compared to the warehouses that are largely automated.

The other complexity of the work is the geography of the customer. Depending on your location and nearby stores, you may be within a radius of up to 5 stores that could potentially fulfill your order based on a number of factors.

Additionally, we also offer multiple sources of delivery fulfillment through Kroger Delivery, Instacart, and Shipt.

Customer Research

To validate assumptions brought early into this discovery it was important for us to understand how valuable inventory information is to customers. We tested this through a quantitative survey with 100 participants and some light A/B testing with our ship inventory logic.

We found it unnecessary to define the exact number of available units remaining, which was helpful when we may be looking at multiple sources with an hour-long snapshot for data. Customers do value low stock flags but explained that out-of-stock is more critical to know when shopping.

Customer Journey

Communication was critical with so many interdependent teams aligning on these solutions to collaborate. Mapping the customer journey with the future state expected changes helped stakeholders process the complex details in a simple way. This exercise also helped us account for the various scenarios we may encounter and need to be handled within the service logic.

Visualize Service Logic

UI solutions were already in place for this work, it was simply a matter of creating new service logic to account for the data being processed on the back-end of the experience. Defining the multiple use cases for in-stock, low-stock, and out-of-stock helped stakeholders and developers understand what work needed to take place.