To kick off our main portion of our capstone research, currently focused on Sur La Table, our team decided to focus on observing customer and staff interactions inside their stores. We were interested in understanding how Sur La Table staff identify customer needs and find the appropriate solution for them. Kitchen and cookware span a wide range of items, from designer goods for the counter to hundreds specialty gadgets and standard cookware.

Collectively, our team has conducted over seven hours of store visits in three Sur la Table stores and competitors, Williams-Sonoma, and Macy’s in the Puget Sound area of Washington. In pairs and individually, we observed shoppers behaviors and interactions with sales associates.

What we discovered surprised us and caused us to shift our efforts away from pure identification towards assisting customers with choice. We found that the identification of customer needs is currently being addressed in an analog form in Sur la Table stores by knowledgeable and trained sales associates who provide individualized help to customers. While identification may no longer be a focus of our interests, we realize that there may be an opportunity to design a solution to capture and transfer knowledge obtained by customers during their in-store experiences.

We also discovered that due to the overwhelming selection of products available in Sur la Table stores, shoppers may be deterred to receive help from the very people that are trained to help them find what they need. An example of this was observed and articulated by the following quote:

Sales Associate: “Is there anything I can help you with?”

Customer:“No my mind is (hand motions twirling around head).”

Our current hypothesis is that using technology to help shoppers envision products fitting into their personal context can enhance the in-store experience and give consumers the confidence they need to buy in store.

We are currently in the process of gathering more primary research through customer intercepts and sales associate interviews.