Currently, Sprocket and Stone’s online presence is limited to a home page, a gallery of photos, and a page devoted to brands carried in the store. For much of its existence this hasn’t hampered business, which has been based on in-store, return customers. However, since the pandemic, many of Sprocket and Stone’s customers have gravitated towards online shopping, causing Angela to rethink the store’s business model.

Angela came to us to with a dilemma. She wants to expand her store’s online profile, beginning with a e-commerce store. At the same time, she wants to the new website to retain its local appeal, retaining Hyde Park customers as its target audience. The question that drove our inquiry was (a) how to reshape Sprocket and Stone’s online presence to compete with larger, more generic stores, while also (b) retaining a local character that will appeal to, and retain the loyalty of, its main clientele?

Field Study

Given Sprocket and Stone’s current brick-and-mortar business model, it was important that we understood the in-person appeal of the store and how customers’ relationships with Angela influenced their purchasing decisions.

With Angela and her customers’ permission, we took shifts observing shopping experiences over a 3-day period from 10pm-5pm. We chose a Thursday-Saturday block, as these were the store’s busiest days.

Our observations provided 4 main insights:

1. 39 of the 47 customers who visited the store were return customers. The other 8 were either new pet owners or new members of the Hyde Park community.

2. Of the 39 returning customers, there was almost an even split between dog owners (22 customers, 57 %) and cat owners (17 customers, 43 %) who frequent Sprocket and Stone.

3. The average shopping time was 24 minutes - quite a bit longer than we had expected. This was due in part to conversations that customers would have with Angela either during or after their shopping experience.

4. 36 customers spoke with Angela prior to finalizing a purchase. In 27 cases, her feedback resulted in a modification in customers’ initial item selections.

Affinity Mapping

By synthesizing our interview feedback through an affinity mapping process, we arrived at three main factors motivating Sprocket and Stone’s customer base.

First, customers valued Angela’s personal investment into her customers. It was clear that her individualized attention to customer needs was a major factor contributing to customer loyalty.

Second, customers drew attention to the community involvement that directly or indirectly stemmed from their patronage of the store.

Third, customers emphasized the value of seeing community-based businesses succeed as a driving factor in their support of Sprocket and Stone.

Card Sorting

Having acquired a picture of the competitive landscape, it was time to start thinking about Sprocket and Stone’s own website, in particular, its informational architecture. We conducted 6 open card sort tasks to test how users’ mental models of infographic categories mapped onto the store’s current inventory. Our users created main navigation categories ranging from from 3-5, and secondary categories ranging from 5-8. This helped us to establish a baseline on which to model our e-commerce feature.

Our research shed 3 central insights into how to develop Sprocket and Stone’s online presence.

An In-Store Experience - Online

First and foremost, Sprocket and Stone’s customers want from an online store the same types of information they can get in person: product pictures, information about food ingredients or item compositions, and veterinarian recommendations. The list of customer’s expectations for online shopping is even more expansive, including such features as customer product reviews as well.

Keeping it Personal

One of the biggest drivers of Sprocket and Stone’s business is the personalized, in-store service that Angela offers. Her subject matter expertise, and her familiarity with her patrons’ pets, play a large part in keeping her customers loyal. For her new e-commerce store to have a similar appeal and thus be able to compete against larger chains, there must be a way to extend this type of personalization online.

Community Creation

The other big driver of Sprocket and Stone’s business is the community engagement that customers receive through their patronage. Whether it be socialization events or dog-walking groups, Sprocket and Stone is a community watering hole for all things pet related. For its online profile to be faithful to its brick-and-mortar presence, it will have to build upon and incorporate these community-building practices.

We tested our initial prototype on 6 users, resulting in several modifications to our design that reinforced our research insights.

In line with best practices, testers emphasized the importance of product picture selection and the ability to easily access product ingredients or composition. We subsequently added more pictures to our individual product page, including one with product ingredients.

Supporting the recommendation for individual customization, users also emphasized the importance of integrating veterinarian recommendations and consultations into their purchasing decisions. We made this a central aspect of our customer account page.

Impact & Implications

Our biggest challenge in this project was creating a design that reflected both the best practices for online shopping and the individual character of of a neighborhood business. The project offered a valuable lesson in design discretion. We were forced to draw upon the best practices of larger, competing models while trying to preserve and emphasize what is unique about Sprocket and Stone.

While our design reflects a future state of the store’s offerings (one that includes an expanded inventory and store-sponsored events), this was welcomed by Angela and her team, who are currently incorporating our design into their post-pandemic remodeling efforts.