Kroger Associate Facing Applicaton
Financial Cost Billing
Financial Cost Billing is a Android application that exists in the Kroger Instock app. It aids kroger department leads to count backroom products for their yearly inventory count.
My Role
User Experience Designer, Researcher
Duration
8 Months
Tools
Figma, Mural
theOverview
As part of Kroger’s commitment to RF deprecation, how might we improve and simplify the Financial Cost Billing process while transitioning it over onto the Zebra TC-52 device.
As with most major retailers, Kroger conducts an annual inventory count across all stores to ensure accurate product tracking and financial reporting. This process, known as Financial Cost Billing (FCB), specifically applied to the "Grocery" departments—non-perishable items such as dry goods and general merchandise. Since a foundational process was already in place, our role was to deeply understand the existing end-to-end workflow in order to identify opportunities for improvement.
For store associates—the primary users of this product—the process included several key steps:
Department Preparation: Associates began by cleaning and organizing their department to ensure accurate counts.
Shelf Stocking: All shelves were restocked to reflect the full inventory available on the sales floor.
Backroom Counting: Associates then counted all inventory stored in the backroom for their respective departments.
Packaging and Labeling: Given that most items were stored on carts or rolling shelves, associates would manually count each product, wrap the carts or pallets in plastic, and attach a printed label marked "Counted."
Handoff to Third-Party Auditors: Once completed, the wrapped and labeled items were handed over to third-party inventory auditors, who conducted a full count of the sales floor within a few hours.
By thoroughly analyzing this workflow, we aimed to identify pain points and design a solution that streamlined the process. With the FCB (Financial Cost Billing) process, associates previously relied on a fragmented set of resources, including emails, printed documents posted in store offices, and informal word-of-mouth communication. This lack of centralized information made the process inefficient and significantly increased the risk of human error. The new solution aimed to consolidate these resources into a single, intuitive platform to ensure consistency, accuracy, and ease of use for store associates.
User-Centered Research & Testing
Conducted field research across multiple divisions, gathering first-hand insights from store associates and managers.
Partnered with UX Research to establish structured feedback loops, enabling continuous iteration and user-informed design decisions.
Discovery Workshop
Facilitated a comprehensive three-day discovery session with cross-functional teams, including designers, project managers, developers, and stakeholders.
Focused on problem framing and gaining a deep understanding of existing workflows using various LUMA Institute design methods.
Led sketching sessions and solution prioritization exercises to define the Minimum Viable Product (MVP).
Prototyping & Iteration
Designed and tested a range of prototypes—from low- to high-fidelity—refining user workflows based on usability testing and direct feedback.
Kroger's primary objective was to transition all existing applications from the legacy RF gun scanner—used for over 25 years—to the modern Zebra TC52 handheld device. Leveraging Kroger Design System standards, I designed an enhanced FCB audit experience aimed at streamlining inventory counting for store associates on the Zebra handheld device.
Enhancing Visibility in the Review Process
Historically, during FCB counts conducted with the legacy RF gun, associates lacked visibility into previously counted items—both at the product and department levels. To confirm whether an item had already been counted, they were required to rescan, recount, and resubmit, leading to duplicated effort and associate frustration.
Today, the enhanced application enables associates to view a clearly organized list of products grouped by department directly within the app. They can search by product name, UPC, or location number, providing instant access to real-time count data and significantly reducing unnecessary recounts.
Streamlining Location Tagging
Previously, location tagging required associates to manually reference paper lists of department numbers—an error-prone and time-consuming process. The updated system eliminates this burden by automatically assigning the next available location number based on the selected department. This removes guesswork and reduces the risk of duplicate or incorrect entries.
Additionally, products are now grouped electronically by location number, enabling easy review. For example, if a store manager wants to view all products associated with location #7004, they can simply search that location number to access the relevant data.
Simplifying 3rd Party Handoff
The prior process of transferring count data to third-party counters involved retrieving totals on a flash drive from the office computer—an inefficient, multi-step task. With the new system, associates can now email the count totals directly to the third party from the Zebra device, eliminating redundant steps and streamlining the handoff process.
