Identifying a scalable use strategy for the world’s largest retailer’s commercial properties (supercenter lots)
End-to-end CX innovation: services, environment, partnerships
Creating the future of post-retail environments
CHALLENGE: Reimagine the entire customer experience in and around our client’s commercial real estate properties (big box store lots) across the United States, and identify scalable future use strategies for the spaces, from 3 to 10 years out.
PROCESS & APPROACH: We approached the challenge from many angles—engaging customers in online research communities, bringing stakeholders together for alignment and scoping sessions using the Lego Serious Play method, and finally bringing customers and stakeholders together for an immersive innovation sprint. To optimize and validate the strategic visions that emerged from our workshops, we tested and improved the concepts in our research communities before final rendering in VR and large scale quantitative evaluation.
RESULTS: Keeping customers at the center of the work throughout the project enabled us to deep dive into their perspectives and identify a strategic framework that leveraged space and partnerships for future needs—a scalable strategy that allowed for localized experiences. Our work led our client to move away from their ‘highest bidder’ approach to leasing space on their lots, and toward a modular, location-specific framework for services and real estate partnerships, which optimized flexibility and maximized overall return. The winning strategy ‘Better Together’ is designed to reflect and elevate the unique character and needs of local communities. The concept is currently being prototyped in customer-facing test stores. See more on the test stores here: https://www.walmartreimagined.com/reimagined-centers/