Unlocking opportunity for Eataly
By identifying the elements that make Eataly unique and beloved by its biggest fans, Basis unlocked a powerful suite of opportunity areas for further innovation.
The challenge: Elevating experience, store by store
Every Eataly store is unique, curated with its own identity and characteristics – as mixed-use retail and dining spaces. To sustain and better support this vision, Eataly needed insight into customer experience across three of its North American stores: in L.A., NYC Downtown and NYC Flatiron.
We were challenged with exploring brand perceptions and store performance, to develop recommendations which would drive footfall, repeat visits, and ongoing loyalty.
Services used
The solution: Immersive research rooted in the real experience
We conducted a program of in-store immersions, extended accompanied store visits and group discussions with both regular and less familiar customers – a mix of those living local to the store, nearby workers and tourists.
We tailored our lines of enquiry accordingly, to capture visitor motivations and drivers as well as barriers to visiting. We explored comparative performance vs. competitors and evaluated marketing messages to convert consideration to custom.
Eataly is a unique concept, like nothing else in the food, retail or hospitality industry and Basis managed to quickly develop the correct strategy with fieldwork that gave us precious insights and actionable inputs to keep growing our business and developing our brand.
The impact: A roadmap to amplify what customers love most
For Eataly, maintaining competitive advantage meant leveraging the brand’s ability to deliver an experience without equal. This research has been instrumental in ensuring continued brand energy, health and customer excitement.
We defined what makes Eataly such an enriching and rewarding experience among its devotees. More specifically, for each target store, we defined the specific attributes and features compelling to customers, as well as identifying opportunity platforms for different audiences, moments and shopper missions.
The results have informed and influenced Eataly’s customer retention and attraction strategy per store, and unlocked opportunities for driving greater basket size, spend and advocacy.
Local Eataly ShopperIt’s upscale & clean, it’s fresh & urbane – it’s very Century City but has brought something entirely different.
Looking ahead: Curated spaces, continuously evolving
As Eataly evolves, so does its audience. That’s why we’re helping them stay attuned to real customer needs—ensuring that the brand stays as fresh, vibrant, and loved as the food it serves.
