Afresh is a grocery tech company specializing in digital solutions for optimizing fresh item ordering in stores, including produce, meat, seafood, and deli products. Our machine learning technology predicts ordering needs, crucial for perishable items with limited shelf life. For instance, a produce manager can use Afresh to forecast strawberry quantities to avoid overstocking and wastage.

As we scaled to grocery stores across the U.S., we realized we needed to improve our product onboarding experience. Getting users effectively onboarded was critical for setting them up for success in their stores, establishing good habits, and improving their sales whilst reducing shrink (or food waste) – two top of mind goals for our customers.

The problem

Our problem was that our current onboarding experience was pretty overwhelming for our users. It consisted of one virtual training they were supposed to take on their own time and two intense in-store trainings where a member of the Afresh team set up their store, and guided them through writing their first order on our app.

These trainings were overwhelming because users were supposed to take in a lot of information at once. Once an Afresh team member left the store (after two days of training them in-person), we saw that stores struggled remembering everything they were supposed to recall to write a good order. Below is a user journey of a new user's experience with Afresh.

We needed to reduce the overwhelming quality of our training and improve user sentiment during the first week of ordering. We wanted them to feel prepared and positive rather than overwhelmed and stressed.

Business impact

The inadequate onboarding process was harming our business, with pilot stores facing significant challenges in using Afresh during their initial 10-day trial period. This period is crucial for securing new customers. If users didn't grasp the product correctly or adhere to essential guidelines, their stores showed no improvement in sales or waste reduction. This undermined our ability to showcase Afresh's positive impact and secure deals.

Our current in-app training mode had little guidance

Our current app experience had a training mode setting where users could play around with the workflow without sending a real order, but it was under utilized and didn't provide any guidance or prompts.

Our hypothesis was that offering thorough in-app training would improve users' retention of information. Instead of expecting them to memorize everything in a short time, they could access app guides for quick walk-throughs and receive ongoing tips within the product. By sending our product to users before their training, they could familiarize themselves with it, easing the training process and reducing overwhelm.