Loblaws
Consumer Goods, E-commerce
Loblaw Companies Limited is a Canadian retailer encompassing corporate and franchise supermarkets operating under 22 regional and market-segment banners, as well as pharmacies, banking and apparel.
The Challenge
Loblaw owns and operates several well-known retail banners and brands. Some of its prominent banners include Loblaw, Real Canadian Superstore, No Frills, Shoppers Drug Mart, and T&T Supermarket. In addition to grocery retail, Loblaw has expanded its operations to include pharmaceuticals, health and wellness products, apparel, and general merchandise. Shoppers Drug Mart, is a major pharmacy chain in Canada.
With such a diverse portfolio of brands and assets, Loblaw needed a powerful research tool to quickly innovate and ship digital products. Loblaw did not want to procure multiple tools for different parts of the research journey. Additionally, the team needed a flexible seat model for its 200+ person research team.
The Outcome
For more than half a decade, the Loblaw team has utilized PlaybookUX to successfully launch numerous products into the marketplace.
The Loblaw team leverages PlaybookUX for recruiting their customers quickly – usually in less than a few hours. In addition, the team uses a wide range of features to conduct research, such as unmoderated usability testing, moderated interviews and surveys.
Surveys prove to be incredibly useful in pre-product launch concept testing. Once those concepts were refined, the team is able to quickly launch moderated and unmoderated studies.
With so much research being conducted across so many verticals, the team utilizes tags to uncover key themes.
Using PlaybookUX is an essential part of my job. It allows us to have a direct line to our millions of customers. We can seamlessly recruit, conduct and analyze research in a way that is understandable to stakeholders.
Eve Cuthbertson, Research Lead @ Loblaw Companies Ltd.
Several features have proven to be integral to the Loblaw team’s research process:
1. Diverse Panel and Session Recordings: PlaybookUX provides access to a diverse panel of users, allowing the Loblaw team to capture quick feedback from different perspectives.Â
2. Multiple Research Methodologies: PlaybookUX supports 5 types of research: unmoderated, moderated, tree test, card sort and surveys. Having a comprehensive tool stack is important for the wide range of testing that Loblaw conducts.
3. Time Tracking and Benchmarking: PlaybookUX offers features like tracking time on task and benchmarking cross-product experiences. These features help the Loblaw team understand webpage usability and messaging comprehension.
4. Notes Feature for Moderated Sessions: While conducting moderated sessions, the team heavily utilizes the notes feature. Notes provide a quick way to capture important insights and streamline the analysis process.
“Notes is a huge timesaver that allows us to streamline moderated interview analysis.”
5. Clips and Highlight Reels: The Loblaw team utilizes PlaybookUX for creating video clips and highlight reels. These tools are particularly useful when the research team wants to showcase user interactions or emotions tied to specific experiences. Video clips are highly impactful in conveying user sentiments to stakeholders.
“Stakeholder communication is an important topic in our organization. We use clips & highlight reels to make sure our customers are represented in the room where decisions are being made.”
6. Efficient Reporting: PlaybookUX supports Loblaw in building comprehensive project reports. By aligning the report structure with the initial research questions, the Loblaw research team can organize and present findings in a clear and accessible manner to stakeholders.