Musgrave, Ireland’s largest grocery retailer, identified increasing competition in the baby aisles. Competitors were in a price war, battling over the best deals and cheapest prices for baby products. Musgrave wanted to compete in the baby category but, instead of lowering prices, offer an enticing shopper experience through which they could increase footfall and drive revenue in the parent-shopper segment.

Through customer research, Hellon discovered that reducing stress and offering helping hands to parents during their shopping trips would grow loyalty and increase spend. Hellon supported Musgrave in creating and prototyping a shopper experience that met the parents’ needs on an emotional level, making shopping easier and creating headspace to get their ‘big shop’ done in one go.

Hellon created the Parent VIP hour concept that consisted of 10 different parent-supporting ideas along the shopper journey from arrival to exit. The concept unlocked exclusive services only available during quieter store times, as well as permanent store functionalities such as sweet-free checkouts. In addition to supporting parents in the most stressful journey moments, the concept kept the children entertained to make more space for parents to do their shopping.

As an outcome of the project and the tested prototypes, Musgrave implemented several initiatives from the Parent VIP package such as the baby food Ambassador, free fruit for kids nationally, sweet-free checkouts, doubled the number of parent parking spaces and fitted hotel-grade baby changing rooms in all new stores.

• During the trial period, 70% of the shoppers said they felt less stressed during their experience and 90% said they would be spending more time in store and would return more often to shop as a result.

• For the stores involved in the service design project and in the commercial pilot, the total incremental revenue impact was as high as 678 000€ per year. Based on the improved customer experience and the new solutions, Musgrave estimates an incremental revenue of 4.84M€ annually to be achieved as a direct result of the work.

• The pilot also enticed parents to shop earlier in the day, shifting footfall for times between 9 am and 12 pm from 22% to 26%, which helped the store provide a better experience at quieter times and maximise their resources in store.

• The results piqued interest internally within the organization and created momentum for a shift towards more customer-centric development.

• The Parent VIP Hour concept was awarded 1st place in the Commercial category in Service Design Network awards in 2018.