Some of our respondents had the opportunity to live a mystery client experience in a chain of clothing stores for children in Paris.
Why our respondents have been invited to visit a Superstore in Paris?
Because the client company, owner of one of the most important chain of children’s clothing stores present in France and in other European countries, now intends to open up to the Italian market.
How to meet the needs of a demanding market like Italian one? All you need is to ask mothers who go shopping for their children in similar stores in Italy, make them go shopping directly in the city where the stores are already present (in this case in Paris) and collect their feedback about how they would like those stores to be made in Italy.
How were respondents selected?
For this mystery shopping survey, we recruited 20 moms of children aged 0 to 5, who usually go shopping in chains of children’s clothing stores and were interested in participating in this mystery client action.
The survey was carried out in Paris, where the store chain is located, where the ladies arrived after a direct flight. The whole trip lasted 4 days. And it was obviously entirely paid by the client company.
What was the purpose of the test?
The objective of this market research was to investigate the tastes and needs of Italian mothers in terms of children’s clothing.
It was a mystery shopping, that is, the ladies were incognito and had to behave according to their normal buying habits. All were offered a voucher to buy clothes for their children. At the end of the shopping session the ladies participated in a focus group, that is a meeting with a moderator, during which they showed their purchases and explained the reasons for their choices, focusing in particular on the items that they would never have bought in Italy.
A truly stimulating experience: let’s listen to the story of one of the participants
Of course, living an experience of this kind does not happen every day, so we decided to interview one of the ladies who participated: it is Miriam, 35 years old, from Sicily, mother of a 5 year old girl. Let’s read what she told us:
“Taking part in this market research, I discovered an unknown world and I got to realize how much work is behind the scenes of something that is apparently obvious and normal like opening a new store in Italy.
All of us were welcomed in Paris and pampered and we had the feeling that our opinions were taken into great consideration because really very important for the subsequent choices of the company. We felt not only important but also very responsible because our words and opinions could be decisive. We talked about everything, honestly. Not only about the items of clothing that we liked but also about those not suitable for us as well as about the organization of the store, the layout of the stands and the window dressing.
I must also say that we stayed in a beautiful hotel and our stay was prepared with attention to the smallest detail: this also gave me the feeling that our contribution was really important for the company.
Of course, in the days spent together there has been a climate of nice harmony, we have lived these days away from home with joy and carefreeness, we made friends, so that back home, I knew that some ladies from the same city who have lived with me this experience, met to eat a pizza together and still stay in touch.
Three words to describe this experience? Stimulating, dynamic, fun.”
