The engagement at a glance
From a traffic problem to a better store experience.
The work brought together performance analysis, consumer surveys, and economic context to understand declining traffic. Those insights informed store design, product selection, a simpler lease approval process, staff training, and the “Rediscover Aaron’s” campaign.
Reported outcomes
The original case study reports that lease approval time fell from 45 minutes to 7 minutes. The prototype results described below relate to that historical rollout.
Sudden Traffic Decline
Aaron’s had experienced 44 consecutive quarters of double digit revenue growth. Then, in early 2013, there was a sudden and dramatic fall off in traffic and sales. Many retailers experienced similar declines due to the consumers’ increasing preference for the convenience of online shopping. In Aaron’s case there was no such shift. There were no national-scale online lease to own retailers. The assumption at the time was that it was a store ops poor execution-driven problem. Two years later the problem persisted and the operations hypothesis could not account for the continued decline.
We Looked at Everything
We had to answer the question of where did all the business go. The hypothesis was that there were many factors that converged to create the change in business patterns. So, we set out to put a lot of fresh information on the table. We dissected the company performance by geography, customer demo, and product category. We revisited the customer path to purchase. We did a national quant survey to ask low income consumers (experienced and inexperienced in the category) what they value most in the retail shopping experience, and another survey to define their perception of and use of consumer credit. We analyzed census data and other third party data to identify macroeconomic trends that were connected to our business, the product categories and low income consumers.
The Answer(s)
We quantified the problem and the opportunity moving forward. Low income consumers incomes and credit scores were up, which removed 2+ million prospects from the market. Millennials were uninformed about rent to own and were choosing to do without some durable goods purchases - and they were turned off by the shopping experience of RTO - representing another 1 million out of the market.
The Opportunity
If we retool the shopping experience, we can grow the market and share... significantly. Be more relevant with Millennials. If they love it, everyone else will, too. Make the Aaron’s customer experience simpler and easier Revise the product selection - brands, features and fashions Stay true to Aaron’s DNA as a RTO retailer, but interject the feelings and experiences of traditional retailers into the Aaron’s experience
The New Store Experience
We designed a new, beautiful, well lit store. We automated the lease approval process and shortened it from 45 minutes down to 7 minutes. We retrained the store staff to segment how they help people based upon generation. We launched a new ad campaign setting new expectation, called "Rediscover Aaron's"
Stellar Results
120 days after the re-grand opening of the prototype remodel the store was experiencing 130% comps. Additional prototypes of varying sizes and markets experienced 120% to 200% comps. 13 months later, average 130% comps continued. At the time of the case study, the company was rolling out value-engineered versions of the prototype nationwide.
NEW TV SPOT "Rediscover Aaron's" :60
Drone tour of the San Marcos Store
Drone tour #1
Grand Opening New Store #1 San Marcos, TX
Grand Opening #1 - 90 Second Recap
What this case demonstrates
The response to declining traffic extended beyond advertising. Research and performance analysis informed the store experience, product selection, lease approval process, staff training, and campaign message.
Applying the approach today
Explore customer insights and research strategy and brand strategy consulting. Prototype performance described above relates to that historical rollout, not a forecast for future engagements.