Clario : making smart carts affordable
Reducing shopping time by nearly 30%, making every grocery run stress-free and efficient.
Timeline
4 weeks
Hats worn
Ux Researcher, Product Designer & strategist.
Client
Personal Project
Collaborators
3 Designers
Tools Used
Overiew
Clario is a smart shopping guide, designed to transform your in-store grocery shopping experience. Making every shopping trip organized, quick and stress free.
Impact
With Clario, the average 40-minute grocery trip drops to about 28 minutes - saving nearly 30% of shopping time by reducing backtracking and making navigation effortless.
Context
While we can order almost anything online with just a few clicks, nothing quite matches the experience of shopping in-store. However, navigating stores today has become increasingly difficult. The lack of clear guidance often leaves shoppers wandering aisles, wasting time searching for products and sometimes leaving without finding what they came for.
Clario helps shoppers find what they need faster and skip long queues with mobile self-checkout, turning grocery trips into a quick and easy experience.
The Challenge
Shoppers often wander between aisles, forgetting items they wanted to buy or giving up on products they cannot find, leaving them feeling frustrated and dissatisfied.
The Goal
To empower shoppers to find items effortlessly and navigate through a store with confidence, turning an everyday chore into a quick and stress-free experience
The Research
To understand where shoppers struggle most, I conducted ethnographic research to observe in-store user behaviors and patterns which uncovered issues such as buying more than intended, struggling to find items, and frustration with long checkout queues.
To validate my findings, I interviewed 6 in-store shoppers, and ran a quick digital survey with 24 participants to uncover the pain points that slow people down while shopping and learned :
“I get distracted easily in grocery store and end up buying more”
How might we
“Finding items is exhausting, and I hate asking for help.”
" I hate standing in long checkout queues for hours"
The Insights
Through interviews and observations, I uncovered the core problems people face while shopping in-store. Shoppers knew what they wanted to buy but struggled to locate products efficiently, leading to wasted time and frustration.
Insight
People don't struggle with what to buy, they struggle with where to find them.
Competitor Analysis
I looked at how other smart carts are trying to solve similar shopping challenges. Most of them focus only on self-checkout and require heavy infrastructure changes, but none really help shoppers navigate the store.
How might we design a simple, low cost smart shopping cart that helps shoppers navigate through stores faster, stay focused and enjoy smooth checkout.
Defining Solution
Based on these insights, we identified key opportunities to improve in-store navigation, help shoppers stay focused with smart list-making, while making a low-cost efficient solution.
In-store Navigation
Guiding shoppers through aisles to find items quickly.
Smart List Creation
Organize lists based on your past purchases
Low Cost Solution
Making it affordable and easy to adopt
Behind the scene
To envision how Clario could work in real-world retail environments, I explored how a standard shopping cart could be transformed into a smart one, without the high infrastructure costs that existing smart carts demand.
The goal was to make technology integration simple, scalable, and retailer-friendly, ensuring that any grocery store could adapt this solution with minimal changes.
Benchmarking
I started looking at how other players in the industry had setup their grocery-shopping experiences on mobile devices .
I liked the representation of every item with clarity
Option to edit is nice and very accessible
Map view helping user find places with ease
Reminders seem very helpful to stay organized & prepared
Information Architecture
Before starting wireframes, I created a detailed sitemap to prioritize key content and define what was essential
Wireframes
After mapping the information architecture and analyzing competitor apps, I was able to outline the key components that would shape the Clario experience.
Smart List Creation
Store Selection
Guided Navigation
Self Scanner
Self Checkout
Design Direction 1.0
Following an agile design approach, I built a functional prototype with all the essential features to validate the concept early. Through multiple rounds of user testing, I gathered insightful feedback on usability and navigation, which informed key improvements and guided the design refinements for Version 2.
User Testing
To ensure Clario truly improved the in-store shopping experience, we conducted multiple rounds of user testing with participants simulating real grocery trips. Each session focused on task completion, navigation flow, and ease of use. The feedback helped identify what worked well, highlight areas for improvement.
What worked
Clean & intuitive interface
Smooth navigation flow
Helps people show up with purpose and ease
What didn't worked
Error prevention and accessibility
Language refinement
Button visibility
Version 2.0
Guided by early user testing and prior research, I refined the concept into polished high-fidelity designs, addressing all shopper needs
Impact
Clario not only helps shoppers complete their grocery trips faster, but also enables store staff to work more efficiently with fewer interruptions.
A typical shopping trip of 45-50 mins reduced 25-30% with guided in-store navigation.
With fewer shopper interruptions, staff stay focused on their tasks, allowing the store to run efficiently.
Future Considerations
Looking ahead, I see Clario evolving with AI to build smarter lists, support healthier choices, and add rewards that make grocery shopping fun.
