QuickLook Case Study

(Most successful tile visualization software implemented by an Indian Tile Brand)

 

Objective

To create a user-friendly application for channel partners (CP) of Orient Bell Ltd. (OBL) which enables them to showcase the Orient Bell tiles in virtual rooms in less than 20 seconds. Currently, tile retail stores are equipped with wooden boards and mockups to showcase the tile beauty to the consumer. The core requirement was to bring more luxury appeal in tiles than mockups along with the ability to change them quickly.

 

The Work

VisualEz team had already up and running tile visualization software in the market before approaching Orient Bell Ltd. The product was already meeting 60% of the SoW but they wanted the following:

  1. A whole new look of the software with OBL branding
  2. Creating 3D ambiences as per OBL guidelines
  3. Making the app quicker and link it to the OBL ERP system
  4. Onboarding Coco stores and OBTB’s and retail stores on the app
  5. Designing software analytics platform to track the engagement and extract relevant data out of it
  6. Establish a relation between store-wise sales and software usage

 

Introduction

The tile visualization software, widely recognized in Orient Bell Limited as QuickLook, is currently used by 700+ users across Organization. These users include channel partners, sales team and professionals like architects as well. The deployment of software was done under the supervision of the Chief Marketing Officer (Mr Alok Agarwal). Alok has previously led the eBay India’s marketing team as the Marketing Director. The software was rolled in 3 phases as follows:

 

Phase 1: Testing at 10 OBL CoCo Stores (3 months)
Challenge: Getting the core value proposition correct in the eyes of consumer

Orient Bell Limited has 10+ boutiques across India. We started the product testing at these 10 stores simultaneously. The objective of the testing was to gauge the consumer’s interest in the initiative taken by the company and to create an MVP (minimum viable product) that can be further tested at CP stores as well. The training was done by our executive team by visiting the stores individually. There were various experiments done with respect to software and hardware both.  As the testing went deeper, OBL agreed on providing good & dedicated hardware to operate QuickLook. A good combination of a laptop and 42’’ TV worked best in finalising the tiles for the customers through QuickLook. In terms of software, we experimented on various fronts ranging from implementing QR codes across tile cassettes to developing Android application of QuickLook. There were certainly many failures but we were quite focused on scaling up the successful experiments. OBL invited some top Channel Partners to the nearest boutiques to know their opinion of the technology initiative taken. Channel Partners wanted more features that could really help them with in-store sales. When more than 80% of the CPs were convinced of the proposition, we moved into the second phase.

Take-aways:

  • MVP Ready
  • Customers valuing the product

Phase 2: Installation at Top-100 Channel Partners’ stores (8 months)
Challenge: Scaling the technology 10x and training the employees/owners of stores

Since we were collaborating with the marketing team, we figured out a strategy for product development and roll-out. Here the challenges were different as management gave us a single chance to demonstrate the product success within the given time frame. We decided to make the journey smooth for a channel partner by combining technology with the human effort. At that time, Orient Bell Limited had already implemented ERP in their organization. We linked their ERP system with the QuickLook to easily access the channel partner’s last 10 orders which helped us in knowing CP-wise inventory. All the SKUs ordered were automatically downloaded in QuickLook when the CP logs in for the first time. This was quite surprising for every channel partner as they didn’t have to make an effort for downloading all the SKUs that they have in their warehouse. Our executives were training the CPs at all the selected stores across India. Orient Bell never wanted to compromise on the getting the first impression right for any channel partner. Hence, they opted for in-store training planned out according to the zones. We opted for AWS EC2 server to host all the services for the smooth experience. Our support team closely worked with the OBL Design team to get all the SKUs uploaded on server because whatever a CP searches, it should be available on QuickLook. Since the number of users began increasing, Alok wanted us to develop an analytics platform that could the track the usage of all the users present on QuickLook. The engagement was always a primary criterion to judge the product’s success. Contrary to the traditional belief by the salespeople that technology won’t be a game-changer in the tile industry, we started getting some fantastic results by tracking the usage. We could easily see some early adopters of QuickLook in the organization. We had weekly meetings with the marketing and IT team of OBL in order to discuss and overcome the technology and engagement challenges. Our executive made sure that till the time a CP doesn’t start showing QuickLook to the customers walking into the store, he is not going to leave anytime soon. When the channel partners started reaching us individually for a variety of problems, an official WhatsApp group was created to make CPs aware about the latest updates. We wanted to drill down the social proof amongst all the CPs who were not using QuickLook frequently. It took us around 8 months to complete all the trainings of the 2nd phase and then we paused a bit to check if the product’s proposition is still clear to more than 50% of users. We did numerous training sessions for salespeople as well. OBL wanted enterprise team dealing in projects to use QuickLook. When more than 50% users started getting active monthly, we decided to move into the third phase.

Take-aways:

  • Successful installation at 100 CPs
  • Strong Feedback from CPs & Customers

Phase 3: Installation at next 400 Channel Partners’ stores (8 months & running)

Challenge: Create a word-of-mouth amongst the channel partners for QuickLook

Seeing the success of QuickLook at the 100 CP stores, the management decided to roll out the product to the bigger set. Here it was more about getting a request from channel partners to check if the word of mouth has started working or not. Here the biggest challenge was to make OBL salespeople as QuickLook evangelist because they could only convince the channel partners to try this technology and get out of the comfort zone. For this, we needed to drill down the core value proposition in their mind. As we started planning for their trainings, the whole business went on temporary halt due to COVID 19. Since all the stores were closed due to the lockdown imposed by the government, the platform saw a huge decline in the active users. We strategized with the OBL marketing team and started online training sessions and deployments for all the channel partners and sales team. One would definitely get bemused with the fact of keeping training sessions when businesses got closed. But as mentioned earlier, we were quite flexible with the experiments and to our amazement, we saw channel partners taking more interest in knowing how can they reach their customers virtually. The construction started happening in the rural areas and the channel partners were not able to show them tiles on QuickLook. This led to a decent hike in the QuickLook usage during COVID and made a long-lasting impact on the channel partners’ mind. We started developing content on the QuickLook success stories happening inside the organization. There were salespeople who were closing projects with the help of QuickLook. When the whole organization saw the impact of the product, the CEO (Mr Aditya Gupta) of Orient Bell Limited made sure that CPs are encouraged enough to use this selling tool. He addressed that in one of the NPD launch in Aug 2020 Video Link. To get more users active (esp. Channel Partners), we talked to inactive channel partners one-on-one and understood their issues that could be easily solved through technology. One major issue we figured out was that of render quality. We took around 3-4 months to upgrade the quality that could easily operate on an average laptop and mobile phone. That drastic change in render quality made OBL tiles look more beautiful. The core of the product is to show tiles more beautiful in software than it looks on cassettes display. This change in product saw a huge rise in the active users on the platform from 80 to 250 monthly active channel partners (Till Jan 2021). Since the whole OBL team is inclined towards the technology, they introduced a new platform (DARPAN) for co-relating QuickLook success with that of the business. When the success got visible on DARPAN, the whole organization pushed the product to a whole new level and started rolling out to architects and interior designers. Today, QuickLook is used by overall 700+ users including channel partners, salespeople and design professionals.

Take-aways:

  • 50% monthly active CPs
  • Co-relation of business with the product

Coherence of QuickLook’s data with Sales:

  • 18 SKUs out of 20 top-selling SKUs were used highest on QuickLook for creating ambiences.
  • 35 Channel Partners out of 50 who showed top growth in sales, used QuickLook Daily.
  • OBL Boutique team uses QuickLook’s region-wise data (highest used tiles & patterns) to design showroom’s display.
  • 32000+ ambiences designed on QuickLook have been shared to customers by the OBL channel partners.
  • Quotations worth INR 30 cr. Created on QuickLook have been shared by channel partners to customers/clients.
  • Highest used tile sizes on QuickLook include 1200×600 and 600×300 which resonates with the sales data as well.
  • Bathroom is the highest used ambience followed by Living room.