Artist rendering of the renovated Maple Leaf Gardens

When Ryerson University announced plans to convert Maple Leaf Gardens into a sports and recreation facility, Delvinia helped the institution identify opportunities to incorporate digital media into the physical space.

We also collaborated with Loblaws, a partner in the redevelopment, to suggest a range of ways for the retailer to enhance the customer experience at its new Carlton and Church location, which opened today.

 

Using our AskingCanadians™ online panel, we examined the shopping behaviours of consumers who will frequent Loblaws at Maple Leaf Gardens. We asked questions like, who is responsible for shopping? How often do you shop? And, do you use mobile apps to facilitate your grocery shopping?

We discovered that 15 per cent of Canadians already use apps to help them with their shopping and the remaining market is primed to adopt a well-designed mobile app.

In terms of preferences, we found that close to 70 per cent use apps to access coupons, followed by scanning barcodes and sorting the shopping list by aisle.

Given the survey results and our analysis of the types of experiences customers are looking for when shopping, we recommended a number of mobile-friendly apps, including the development of a mobile-friendly site/app with a range of features like a store locator, meal planning ideas/recipes, in-home meal replacement specials, shopping lists with the route mapped out, an aisle locator, digital flyers and coupons, the ability to check parking space availability and a quick link to call a cab.

We also recommended the creation a ‘Going to Loblaws’ app that would enable users to sign-up and invite friends. When the user decided to make a trip to Loblaws, they could send an alert to ‘friends’ within their app network to take orders. Friends could then choose items from the menu, making it more convenient for the runner to pick up groceries.

For the Joe Fresh store, we recommended the installation of a virtual mirror—a touch-screen application with the latest Joe Fresh collection available. The app would enable users to ‘try on’ outfits and send instant pictures to their friends. The application could also increase awareness of the collection and add a fresh and viral element to the retail experience.

Overall, the consultation process achieved the objective of identifying multiple means to enhance the customer experience through the use of digital media.