Development of a Mobile Application to Improve Customer Experience in Shopping Centers

Abstract

With the growing advancement in technologies and customer base shopping malls have recognized the importance of a great shopping experience. They have been trying to make shopping an experience that a customer enjoys and also spend as much time as possible in the shopping center. Iso Omena shopping center is one of the biggest shopping centers in Finland with a huge customer base. In order to stay connected with its customers, Iso Omena has been using web technologies, digital screens and mobile application. The focus of these services is to help the customer out while shopping. Mobile application of Iso Omena provides information about every facility available in the shopping center. They have introduced a loyalty program in the mobile application so that shopping center can reward customers and keep them happy. The purpose of this thesis work is to evaluate the overall user experience of the Iso Omena mobile application and get to know most used features and how they can be improved to provide a better user experience. Various data collection methods such as semi-structured thematic interviews and observation were utilized to collect overall feedback about the mobile application. We incorporated this feedback in order to improve the overall user experience. We also analyzed mobile applications of other shopping centers and based on our findings did improvements in the existing Iso Omena application.