Strategize and implement omni-channel initiatives to improve customer LTV for Walmart.

1. CLARIFY: 
   1. Are we focused on US v. international? US
   2. Are we using the existing Walmart website or mobile app v. creating a new one? Existing website or mobile app (your choice.)
   3. Do you have a specific target customer or are we focused on obtaining new ones? You choose but think about extending the lifetime value of the customer.
2. BACKGROUND: Walmart is a multinational retail chain that operates mainly in the US. It offers customers a variety of goods to meet all of their needs from clothing, home goods, groceries, etc. It has a website and mobile app and a large physical retail store presence. For this question, we are focusing on the groceries aspect. Walmart also offers a digital membership: Walmart + for $12.95/month or $98/year, which provides free shipping and delivery, cheaper prescriptions, etc. (It's a competitor to Amazon Prime.) They also offer a Walmart credit card, which offers up to 5% cash back on Walmart purchases online.
3. USER GROUPS: Based on my experience in a Walmart, I'd like to focus on family shoppers, as they purchase the most groceries / have a lot of purchasing power (i.e. spend) per individual transaction. There are also a number of families using Walmart everyday. 
   1. Single Households: Single individuals purchasing food for themselves mainly. Groceries are bought for individual portion sizes. 
   2. Couples: Couple (could be young or old) purchasing groceries for 2. 
   3. Families (3+ People): Generally parents purchasing groceries for the family home for themselves and their children. It's possible if their children are older (later teens), they may purchase groceries for home too but the shoppers are generally parents. 
4. USER JOURNEY: Because we're focusing on digital solutions, I'd like to focus on the digital journal (v. the physical store journey). 
   1. Prepare grocery list
   2. Review coupons available (may skip this step)
   3. Find items online 
   4. Compare prices to other line retail stores
   5. Check out / makes payment
   6. Receive delivery
5. USER PAIN POINTS: Let's break the pain points down by parts of the journey
   1. Prepare grocery list:
      1. Choosing Food: If parent is purchasing food for multi-person household, individuals have different tastses - likes / dislikes. They may even have different eating styles (vegetarian, vegan, pescatarian, etc.)
      2. Buying in Bulk: If parent is purchasing food for multiple people, they have to buy larger quantities of food, which can be more expensive. They may need to buy repeats of the same item to make sure there is sufficient food for everyone. 
      3. Nutrition: Parents may be health conscious and want to purchase healthier foods. Processed foods (snacks or pre-made meals) may seem unhealthy or it may be difficult for parent to understand what's in the food (i.e. the ingredients). 
   2. Review coupons:
      1. Browsing Coupons Time: It takes a lot of time to browse and digitally clip the coupons offered. 
      2. Relevant Coupons: Coupons may not be for relevant items / desired purchases.
   3. Find items:
      1. Browsing Time: It takes a lot of time to browse for items. 
      2. Items Sold Out: Items may be out of stock or there may not be enough of a certain amount of an item.
      3. Wrong Brand: Brand available may not be the one desired. 
   4. Compare prices:
      1. Better Prices Elsewhere: Shopper finds better prices at other retailers. 
      2. Other Brands: Shopper finds other brands that offer comparable item for less. 
      3. Buy Wholesale: Shopper finds it's cheaper to purchase items wholesale.
      4. Buy in Bulk: Shopper finds it's cheaper to buy in bulk elsewhere.
   5. Check out:
      1.  Card not Available: Shopper doesn't have credit card available to complete purchase / doesn't know number or CSV offhand. 
      2. Expensive Cart: Shopper realizes cart is overbudget / needs to delete items. 
      3. Delivery: Delivery for items is too slow / needs groceries faster for a specific meal.
   6. Receive delivery:
      1. Items Missing: Items not received.
      2. Items Damaged: Groceries gone bad or have been damaged (ex. cracked eggs). Will need to contact Walmart to return or receive credit.
      3. Wrong Items: Groceries have been mixed up with other items. Received wrong item or wrong brand.
6. RANK PAIN POINTS: I will focus on the high pain points. 

   1. Journey Portion	Pain Point	Influence on Customer
      Prepare grocery list	Choosing food	High
      Prepare grocery list	Buying in bulk	Medium
      Prepare grocery list	Nutrition	High
      Review coupons	Browsing coupon time	Medium
      Review coupons	Relevant coupons	High
      Find items	Browsing time	Medium
      Find items	Items sold out	High
      Find items	Wrong brand	Low
      Compare prices	Better prices elsewhere	High
      Compare prices	Other brands	Low
      Compare prices	Buy wholesale	Low
      Compare prices	Buy in bulk	High
      Check out	Card not available	Low
      Check out	Expensive cart	High
      Check out	Delivery	Medium
      Receive delivery	Items missing	Low
      Receive delivery	Items damaged	High
      Receive delivery	Wrong items	Low

7. LIST SOLUTIONS: Below are digital solutions to extend the lifetime value of the customer. These solutions can be implemented on both the existing mobile app and website. I will focus on items that address high pain points only. 
   1. Prepare grocery list:
      1. Automated Lists: Create automated grocery lists based on customer behavior. If customer has history of repeat purchases, make automatic suggestions. 
      2. Premade Lists: Have customer create dietary profile based on food presences and number of members of household. Walmart could suggest groceries based on existing customer data and research.
      3. Subscription Purchases: Have customer be able to elect to choose repeat grocery purchases in subscriptions (ex. purchase lettuce every 2 weeks). 
      4. Nutrition Tags: Create simplified nutrition tags for foods that allow customers to sort for food items - ex. vegan, low calorie, etc. 
   2. Review coupons:
      1. Suggested Coupons: Have most relevant coupons shown to customer based on purchase history. "Suggested coupons for you".
      2. Automatic Coupon Clipper: Allow customer to one click clip all coupons. (Means customer does not look at all items thoroughly / store may lose out on additional purchases.)
      3. Coupon Sorter: Add tags to coupons to allow for better filtering / sorting. For example, if someone wants to find a specific type of food item (ex. vegan options), bring up all coupons for vegan items.
   3. Compare prices:
      1. Showcase Similar Retailers: Showcase prices for same items at other retailers and prove that Walmart is cheaper (ex. this same item is on Amazon Prime and Target. Here's how the prices compare.)
   4. Check out:
      1. Cart Limits: Allow customer to make cart limits ahead of time and alert them when cart is above a threshold (ex. $15+ over). Customer could customer threshold (ex. flex allowed up to $5, $10, etc. without receiving notification). 
      2. Save for later: Allow customers to save certain items for later that / will be delivered within a certain time threshold (ex. deliver in 1 week instead).
   5. Receive delivery:
      1. Photo Damage: Allow customers to photographic damaged items and upload to mobile app or website for automatic credit or money back. (Camera could be integrated with mobile app). 
8. RANK SOLUTIONS:

   1. Journey	Solution	Value to Customer	Cost to Implement
      Prepare grocery list	Automated lists	High	Medium
      Prepare grocery list	Premade lists	High	Low
      Prepare grocery list	Subscription purchase	High	Low
      Prepare grocery list	Nutrition tags	High	Medium
      Review coupons	Suggested coupons	High	Low
      Review coupons	Automatic coupon clipper	High	Low
      Review coupons	Coupon sorter	High	Medium
      Compare prices	Showcase similar retailers	High	High
      Checks out	Cart limits	High	Medium
      Checks out	Save for later	High	Low
      Receives delivery	Photo damage	Medium	Medium

9. CHOOSING SOLUTIONS: I'd first focus on implementing the low cost solutions that have high value to the customer. I'd think consider building a roadmap for the medium cost to implement but high value to customer features as well. The only feature that may give me pause to implement is the automatic coupon clipper. Even though I think it will be fairly easy to implement, I believe that customers who use this button will likely not look at all the coupons / be inspired to purchase items they normally wouldn't purchase. Would have to run a test to see if it's valuable to Walmart to implement such features. 
10. METRICS:
    1. # of repeat purchases for customers that leverage features v. do not use them over a certain period of time (ex. every month, quarter, every year, etc.) 
    2. Average cart size for customers who use features v. do not use them
    3. Frequency of repeat purchases for customers who use features v. do not use them
11. LIMITATIONS:
    1. Features are only available to customers who use Walmart digitally. For customers that focus on in person interactions with Walmart, they will not be able to take advantage of these features. 
    2. Certain customers may only use Walmart desktop v. mobile. Certain features (ex. photo damage) may render better on a mobile app than desktop or vice versa. 

My thoughts on answering this complex product strategy question.

Mission: Walmarts mission is to provide a one-stop-shop for customers for all their household needs with affordable and quality products ranging from grocery, personal care, automotive, connectivity, and electronics to name a few. 

Clarify:

1. Is it related to a specific sub-category in groceries such as perishables, non-perishables etc. IVR: All 
2. Any specific geography that I need to focus on? IVR: USA 
3. Any user segment that I may need to focus upon? IVR: You decide 
4. Is it fair to assume that Walmart already has a web/app for shopping IVR: Yes
5. Any specific timeline that I need to be aware of - short term (3-12m), long term (1-3yrs) IVR: let's focus on a short term first. you can assume that there are no budget constraints for digitalization

1. Consumers
   1. Family of 2 adults and 2 kids - Shop grocery 2-3 times a month with an average spending around $500 per trip. Spending in a month = $1500 (approx)
   2. Young couples - Shop grocery 2 times a month with spending of $400 per trip. Spending/month = $800 
   3. Singles - Shop grocery 2-3 times a month with spending of $300 per trip. Spending/month = $600. They relatively eat out a lot
   4. Pet food - spending of $100/month
2. Businesses
   1. Restaurants - Spending depends upon size
   2. Mom and Pop small grocery joints

1. Whole family may not be able to visit the retail store together and thus mom or dad may have to make assumptions what other people may like. They can confirm only via phone or video call from grocery store. Medium Relevance
2. Mom/Dad may not have time to visit the store due to busy with kid schedules and work. They want the groceries to be delivered High Relevance
3. They may not remember what product they bought last time, and are not able to buy the product they liked earlier without remembering its brand name/type Medium Relevance 
4. They found cheaper grocery items at a competing grocery store and would have to take an additional trip to that store or may not visit walmart at all. High Relevance
5. Dont feel like going to Walmart due to covid/health care crisis (precaution) or if they are sick. High Relevance
6. As Walmart already has the app, customer not able to find all grocery products online. So they have to order from other grocery store. High Relevance

1. Shopping app (Walmart already has) on iOS, android and web portal on chrome, IE, Safari, Opera. Already exists.
   1. App must be light and not memory intensive (Already exists)
   2. App must not drain phones battery (Already exists)
   3. Must compile and display all grocery products that are available in store (Exists, but needs to be improvised)
   4. Must show inventory (Already exists)
   5. Capability to order online for delivery or pickup (Already exists)
   6. Price match capability (Does not exist on digital portal)
2. Profile system in the app not just for household but for each member in the household. So kids can also add to cart what they want thru their Walmart profiles and then mom/dad profiles are the only ones authorized to confirm the order. I-M, C-H
3. Ordering experience starting from web or app should seamless transfer to a different channel. I added 2 products on iPad and then starting shopping on my computer - I should be able to see the previously added products
   1. 1-click ordering I-M, C-M
   2. Item list ordering - uploading item list on the app and it discover products one-by-one I-H, C-M
   3. Automatic weekly customizable ordering (subscription model for repeat purchase with capped customization): similar to hellofresh or meal kits, every week Walmart will delivery set of groceries to the family I-H, C-H
4. Contact strategy: 
   1. Allow customers to set alerts when the price goes down such as seasonal fruits in season will start having low prices I-L, C-L
   2. Remind customers what they have missed in the cart via email/txt I-M, C-L
   3. In-app chat: for questions regarding grocery that they are not able to find online I-H, C-H
   4. Recommendation: Bundles that map to different recipes I-L, C-L
      1. Feature for choosing specific recipe and then recommending grocery for those products
      2. Feature for choosing specific international foods/cuisine 
5. Loyalty: Exclusive in-app promotions and discounts per their account ARPU, campaigns so they stick to Walmart. I-H, C-M
6. in-app Advertising for resonating products/cooked meals per household usage. I-M, C-H

1. Engagement: 
   1. No./% of lists uploaded - Discovery time/ order time/average cart $ value
   2. #/% loyal users (silver,gold,platinum) per spending - D/W/M
2. Revenue
   1. ARPU - online 
   2. LTV
   3. MRR for those subscription model customers
   4. Average cart $ size - online 
   5. LTV/CAC should increase better with time
   6. Total online order size #/$
3. Retention
   1. % of Repeat purchase per demographics, product sub-category