Boots on the Ground: A Retail Research Sprint to Reach the Unconverted Guest

The Gig

An Exploration of Barriers To conversion for the In-store Shopping Journey

A popular athleisure brand struggled with retail guest conversion—a large number of shoppers were leaving the store without making a purchase. The Band met this challenge by ensuring the most authentic moment for data quality: meeting the targeted customer as they left the store.

Approach

We created a fully-customized retail intercept strategy at eight retail locations in three urban and suburban markets. The success of this project thrived as a result of The Band’s agile strategy: our recruiters’ training and warm, natural approach allowed us to intercept 1,300 people, collect 600 survey completes, and conduct hour long IDIs with 24 diverse consumers across 3 different markets-all in 15 business days.

We engaged guests as they entered and exited the store, providing them with a survey link, and inviting them to give an “in the moment” video reflection. This strategy allowed us to drive authentic behavior, ensuring we captured the highest level of data quality.

Impact

It’s no surprise that the ability to touch and try-on is one of the major drivers to shop in-store-or that inventory issues were a top cause of retail churn. To remain valuable, stores must offer something new from the retail experience beyond product. Winning examples include digital integrations to navigate stock issues, personalized shopping experiences for loyalists, and re-imagined roles for sales personnel.

Alongside our full report, we delivered a video highlight reel and custom-illustrated journey map—distilling key insights and some “best in class” role models into easily digestible outputs for maximum shareability across the organization.