Business Area
E-commerce
Solution
B2C Digital Strategy & Service Design
the customer
A leader in coffee production
The client is a historic Italian company that ranks among the global leaders in the production of high-quality coffee. The company's vision blends the tradition of Neapolitan espresso with an innovative vocation, experimenting with the taste of coffee in a wide assortment of products and formats. The client's sales network today covers all distribution channels and is strengthened by important partnerships abroad and several alliances in Italy.
A new management of the B2C channel
The customer was managing the direct relationship with the end consumer through a B2B relationship with an outsourcer. There was a need to take ownership of the direct sales model and the direct relationship with the end consumer, gaining greater awareness and full control of the relationship with the end customer. They chose to partner with Mind-Mercatis relying on the digital team's expertise to identify the application architectures needed to implement a new business model and strategically evaluate the customer experience model best suited to the brand's relationship with its consumers.
The challenge
One of the client's main objectives was to internalize activities and processes in direct-to-consumer...
Our approach
The methodology adopted combines tools from design thinking and human-centered design, enabling...
The Project
The project began in October 2021, where through the application of cooperation methodologies ...
The results
In a three-month time frame, the client was given an overview of the target market, technologies...
THE CHALLENGE.
One of the client's main objectives was to internalize activities and processes in the direct-to-consumer area, in a business context in which internal competencies needed to be expanded and redefined in order to be fit with the new strategic objectives. Therefore, the organizational structure of the Marketing area also had to be able to support the natural changes that the introduction of a new business model on digital channels brings alongside the traditional sales model.
THE PROJECT.
The project began in October 2021, where through the application of Mind-Mercatis cooperation methodologies supported the redefinition of the customer's digital model, designing a new digital experience for the B2C channel. The main project moments are divided into:
- Context analysis
- Business goals map
- Touchpoints and Customer experience map As Is
These phases led to the design of a strategic project roadmap, first made possible through an understanding of the context in which the client operates; assessing the status and performance of its customer relationships, to stitch a new digital experience in line with manifested business objectives; defining the actors involved and on which touchpoints; establishing the new architectural model and application platforms to be employed.
The key step in initiating the project was to analyze the context in which the client operates, understanding the status and performance of its relationships with its customers and partners, obtaining a complete picture of the actors involved. Mind-Mercatis in addition to producing a thorough analysis of the target market, conducted multifunctional interviews with senior professionals in the client's Marketing, IT, Sales, and Logistics areas. The declination of the interviews was guided by two focal points:
- - Understand business strategies and dynamics
- - Mapping technology infrastructure, processes and data flows
Through this moment, a full understanding of the organization, dynamics and peculiarities of the business, with a focus on e-commerce, was obtained, highlighting strengths and weaknesses in the system and intercepting opportunities for improvement.
Another purpose of the interviews was to understand the end-consumer customer experience and how different business areas of the customer were contributing to its construction.
Subsequently, a co-operative process of identifying the business objectives to be pursued through the project, starting with the enhancement of the company's vision. This phase was then substantiated in a business goal map, declined into strategic goals, stakeholders and impact on the consumer experience. The outcome of the business goal mapping was shared with the constituents of the business areas involved in a series of workshops, aimed at mixing the skills of heterogeneous professionalism, increasing the comparison and exchange of ideas to design new digital strategies. The digital team of Mind-Mercatis led the workshops, providing the client with tools (such as personas and working dashboards) and knowledge to identify with the client consumers' needs e convert ideas into project proposals. Mind-Mercatis created a customer journey to be omnichannel and based on this selected the proposals that best fit the new strategic objectives. The changes envisaged required a progressive redefinition of the architectural model and application platforms involved. The Mind-Mercatis team then formulated a strategic roadmap capable of declining in detail timing, components and integrations.
our approach
The methodology adopted combines tools of design thinking and of human-centered design, enabling:
- - Access to a better knowledge of theend user and their experience along all the touchpoints they would have with the company
- - Always keep the user's point of view at the center in the realization of new services
- - Have a clear evidence of the issues the user might encounter during the experience and opportunities to improve it, through the use of practical concept visualization tools (e.g., customer journey mapping)
- - Provide the opportunity to prototype, test and learn from and with users the development of solutions
- - Anticipate critical issues of the development phase through collaboration among the different cores of the project and sharing the application perimeter on which to support the user experience (e.g., service blueprint)
In this specific case, in a preparatory phase we assisted the client in operational management and reorganization of processes and redistribution of competencies, building an ad hoc temporary management program based on the use of process management methodologies and an activity monitoring plan in the client's marketing department.
The Results
In a three-month time frame, the client had an overview of the target market, the technologies needed to implement the business evolution, internalizing new know-how with a greater understanding of both the strategic context and the roadmap to be pursued to implement the new business model:
- Defining the new omnichannel customer experience model
- Identifying the building blocks of innovation: Business + Technology
- Defining the operational plan of technological and organizational evolution
