Project Brief
Senior leadership noticed key competitors growing their Buy-Online-Pickup-In-Store (BOPIS) service while Bass Pro's own solution stalled, drawing negative feedback both online and in-store. Leadership commissioned a two-week rapid research sprint to evaluate the current solution, identify friction points and gaps, and develop recommendations.
Research Goals
- Understand the current customer journey for BOPIS users, identifying key pain points and drop-off moments from online purchase through in-store pickup
- Evaluate competitive BOPIS offerings to identify features and service elements customers perceive as superior
- Investigate customer expectations for timing, notifications, and in-store pickup, to establish clear metrics for improvement
My Role
- Gathered requirements directly from senior product leadership
- Collaborated with the data team to extract current BOPIS performance data
- Conducted hands-on field research at 6 competing retailers
- Ran secondary research on customer sentiment and peer BOPIS services
- Facilitated synthesis workshops with design partners
- Built a service blueprint of Bass Pro's current solution and its friction points, plus a future-state version
- Presented findings directly to senior leadership as data came in
Methodology
Field research: I selected 6 retailers within 5 miles of my office that offered a BOPIS solution, purchased an item online from each, and picked it up in person, timing every step of the process along the way.
Survey: Distributed to Bass Pro customers and to people who use BOPIS services at least once a month across a variety of retailers.
Key Findings
The single biggest friction point was analog: staff had to physically answer a phone line when customers arrived for curbside pickup, while every one of the 5 peer retailers studied used a fully automated system with prompts and notifications.
Target rated highest among peers for both ease of use and the ability to make pickup changes directly in-app, with no phone call required.
60% of peer retailers used dedicated staff to carry products directly out to the customer's vehicle, rather than requiring the customer to come inside.
Final Deliverable
I built a detailed service blueprint mapping every customer touchpoint in Bass Pro's current BOPIS solution alongside its known friction points, plus a future-state blueprint showing the reduced number of steps an automated system would require. Bass Pro has since implemented an automated system to improve the omni-channel pickup experience.
Current-State: In-Store Pickup
Customer journey
Browses items
Selects store
Buys & selects pickup
Gets "ready" alert
Arrives, calls posted phone line
Receives order
Frontstage: Employee
N/A
N/A
N/A
Prepares order
Answers phone, locates order
Hands off order
Frontstage: Tech
App browsing
Store locator
Payment processing
Push notification
No system support
N/A
Backstage
N/A
N/A
N/A
Pick & stage order
Retrieve staged order
Log completion
Support process
N/A
N/A
N/A
Inventory update
N/A
Order closed
Recreated diagram: the "Arrive on-site" column is where the phone-line friction lived.
Future-State: In-Store Pickup
Customer journey
Browses items
Selects store
Buys & selects pickup
Gets "ready" alert
Taps "I'm here" in app
Receives order
Frontstage: Employee
N/A
N/A
N/A
Prepares order
Auto-notified, brings order out
Hands off order
Frontstage: Tech
App browsing
Store locator
Payment processing
Push notification
Geofenced arrival trigger
N/A
Backstage
N/A
N/A
N/A
Pick & stage order
N/A
Log completion
Support process
N/A
N/A
N/A
Inventory update
N/A
Order closed
Recreated diagram: the phone call and manual retrieval step are replaced by one automated trigger.
What I'd Do Differently
Reflection
Looking back, I'd have brought frontline store staff into the ideation sessions earlier. They lived the phone-line friction every shift and likely could have surfaced the automation fix even faster than the two-week desk research sprint did on its own.