Industry overview
What is shaping retail
Retailers and D2C brands compete across stores, apps and marketplaces. Store experience, availability and convenience decide where shoppers go next.
- Shoppers move freely between online and offline
- Store experience is a key differentiator
- Loyalty programmes and personalisation drive repeat
Client background
A consumer electronics and appliances retailer, working in Saudi Arabia, UAE & Qatar. Client identity is withheld to protect confidentiality.
- Organisation
- A consumer electronics and appliances retailer
- Sector
- Retail
- Team engaged
- Market Research
- Services
- Offline data collection, Data analytics & dashboards, Reporting & insights
Client challenge
The retailer had introduced service standards and staff training, yet complaints about pushy selling, poor product knowledge and slow checkout persisted. Area managers had no consistent way to compare stores or measure progress.
Research objectives
- Deliver on the brief: mystery shopping service quality across a retail chain.
- Produce results that can be compared across groups and locations.
- Set up a repeatable measure the client can track over time.
Target audience
Scope: 140 stores, 560 visits per wave.
Audiences we typically reach in retail
ShoppersStore staff and managersOnline customersLoyalty membersFranchisees
Geographic coverage
Coverage: Saudi Arabia, UAE & Qatar. Markets: Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Qatar. 140 stores covered.
- Saudi Arabia
- United Arab Emirates
- Qatar
Research methodology
A structured quantitative design, so results could be compared across groups, locations and time.
- 1Brief
- 2In-store and phone mystery shopping
- 3Store scorecards
- 4Insight
Mystery shoppers, matched to the retailer’s customer mix of nationals and expatriates, visited stores and made phone enquiries in Arabic and English. They followed scenarios such as buying a laptop for a student or a washing machine for a family, scoring greeting, needs discovery, product knowledge, warranty explanation and checkout. Results were shared as store scorecards with comparisons over time.
Offline data collectionData analytics & dashboardsReporting & insights
Sampling strategy
- Respondents were selected across Saudi Arabia, UAE & Qatar using quotas set in advance for each location and respondent type, so no single area or group dominated.
- Telephone contacts were dialled from verified lists, with quotas tracked live by the field team.
Data collection
- visits
- 560
- Trained local-language interviewers conducted interviews in person, supervised in the field.
- Telephone interviews were run from our CATI centre, with calls monitored for quality.
- Auditors and mystery shoppers followed a standard checklist, recording evidence at each visit.
Data quality & validation
- Back-checks on a share of completed interviews
- Time and location checks on field interviews
- Supervisor accompaniment in the field
- Live call monitoring and recording review
- Call-back verification
- Photo or document evidence for audit points
- Second-reviewer checks on scores
- Logic and range checks on the final data
- Work carried out under our ISO 20252 quality procedures
Data analysis
- Cross-tabulation by key groups and locations
- Significance testing on the differences that mattered
- Interactive dashboard for ongoing tracking
Key findings
- Product knowledge was strong, but staff rarely asked about customers’ needs before recommending products, and warranty explanations were inconsistent.
Scenario-based visits showed exactly which steps of the sale needed attention.
Recommendations
- Build on the core insight: scenario-based visits showed exactly which steps of the sale needed attention.
- Focus effort where the evidence was strongest: product knowledge was strong, but staff rarely asked about customers’ needs before recommending products, and warranty explanations were inconsistent.
- Re-measure after the changes to confirm the effect.
Business impact
- The retailer introduced a simple needs-first selling guide and refresher training, and scores for needs discovery rose noticeably over the next two waves.
What changed in the business as a result of the work. Impact is described qualitatively.
Deliverables & next steps
- Insight report and management presentation
- Cleaned data file and data tables
- Interactive dashboard
- Continue the routine and review results every period.
- A natural follow-on question: are stores delivering the brand standard?
Client identity is withheld to protect confidentiality.