Here's the definition from qualtrics.com:
Customer Intent is often understood as buyer intent or the purpose or reason behind a statement or action as part of a customer’s journey toward a purchase.
Understanding a user’s intent on a website or app early on helps guide them into the right workflow. The longer it takes to get them to their goal, the lower the chances of converting them into a customer. Within Mercatus’ white-label e-commerce platform, we had four main user workflows.
Users clipping coupons or browsing flyers were usually planning to shop in-store, making their conversion to online shoppers a separate challenge. Our focus here is ensuring that online shoppers see relevant products as quickly as possible.
Most grocery retailers don’t operate through warehouses, meaning orders are picked, staged, and handed off at individual stores. Delivery orders follow the same process, with the last mile typically handled by third-party services like Instacart or DoorDash.
Since inventory, pricing, and deals can vary by store and region, switching fulfillment locations in the middle of shopping can negatively impact the experience—prices may change, and items in the cart could become unavailable. Ensuring the correct store handles the order is crucial for a smooth shopping experience.
It’s all about collecting high-confidence data points. The less confidence in the data, the greater the chance the fulfillment store will need to be swapped.
When users first visit the site or app, they’re automatically assigned a store based on their browser location. While this is often accurate, it’s not foolproof. If a user denies location services, we default to their IP location—but since ISPs aren’t always nearby, this can be even less precise. On mobile, IP location isn’t useful at all.
Once a store is assigned, users can easily update it via a dropdown, though it’s designed to be unobtrusive to avoid disrupting the experience. The selection is stored in a cookie, and they’re ready to go.
So, how do we place users into one of the four main workflows? More specifically, how do we know when a user is serious about placing an online order? Simple—they find a product they want and click “Add to Cart.” This creates a natural break in the workflow, making it the perfect time to gather more details about their shopping preferences. That’s where the Customer Intent modal comes in.
This modal has four main purposes (plus a few edge cases). First, we need to confirm how the shopper wants to receive their order—pickup or delivery. Second, we need to make sure they’re shopping at the right location.
The fulfillment method is handled with a simple tabbed selection that’s easy to spot. For pickup orders, the store stays the same as the one assigned when they first arrived. We display it again to ensure the shopper sees it and confirms it’s correct. If it's incorrect, they can easily change it here.
Since distance is a key factor in selecting a store for delivery, users don’t get to choose. Just like food delivery apps, they’ll be prompted to enter their address, allowing the system to find the nearest store that delivers to their area.
At this point, the shopper confirms their fulfillment method, and we’ve now verified their location twice—boosting confidence in the selection and reducing the chances of a store swap later.