In Store — a space for the physical store
I suggested giving the physical store its own space in the Perekrestok app. When the business made it a priority, I designed the MVP with the product manager.
Perekrestok
A large grocery chain in Russia, part of X5 Group. The app handles delivery and pickup for 5M+ people a month.
Different tasks in the same app
Someone ordering delivery and someone standing in a store need different things. Before, the in-store part of the app was mostly a switch to the store catalog and a loyalty card.
Earlier, I had suggested a separate entry point with store information, promotions, scanning and other things useful during a visit. It wasn’t a priority then. A few years later the business came back to the same need, and I worked on the MVP.
In the MVP
Left out
Discounts and promotions
Finding a product on a shelf
Store information
Indoor navigation
Store catalog
Calling a staff member
Barcode scanning
Shopping lists
What we could test with the resources we had
We listed the tasks people have in a store, then cut the scope down. Promotions and discounts were the business priority. Store information, the catalog and scanning could use existing data and components.
Finding a product on a shelf, indoor navigation and calling a staff member needed more data, backend work or changes in how stores operate. Shopping lists were also left out of the MVP. The product manager made the final call on scope.
Where the first version stopped
Scanning showed the price, details and discount. It didn’t let people add the item to a list or cart, so the flow ended there.
We kept the interface simple and used existing components to ship it as a demand test. I moved to the catalog team soon after launch, so I didn’t follow the metrics after that.
The team that took over kept developing the section and added personal promotions, purchase history and new arrivals.
What I would change. When I first had the idea, I’d push for discovery and a test of the in-store space, instead of letting it go and waiting for the business to get there. The product managers were on my side, so I could probably have pushed it through, but I left the decision to the business.
For the MVP itself, I’d test it in a real store, with one hand on a trolley, a patchy signal, different lighting and people around. I’d also agree on a success metric before development and give barcode scanning a useful next step.
Next case
Grocery app redesign
I led the redesign of a grocery app with 5M+ monthly users. We changed it in parts over three years, alongside regular feature releases.