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Notcutts Case Study Vision One Research

Notcutts Garden Centres Research Study

The Challenge

Founded in 1867, Notcutts is a long-established, family-owned garden centre business operating across England. As part of a planned refresh of its branding and marketing, Notcutts trialled a new in-store experience within one location. Before rolling this out more widely, the business needed to understand how the new branding, signage and point-of-sale communications were performing in a real shopping environment.

The challenge was to evaluate whether these changes improved visibility, engagement and clarity throughout the customer journey, and to identify where refinements were needed to maximise impact.

Vision One Research Notcutts Case Study

Research Objectives

The retail and shopper research was designed to assess the effectiveness of Notcutts’ new in-store branding and communications before wider rollout. The key objectives were to:

  • Evaluate how customers navigated the store environment following the refresh
  • Understand engagement with directional signage and point-of-sale materials
  • Identify which brand touchpoints attracted attention and which were overlooked
  • Compare responses from existing customers and non-users of Notcutts
  • Assess memorability and perception of new branding elements within a live retail context

Together, these objectives aimed to ensure the refreshed in-store experience delivered clarity, impact and consistency across the customer journey.

Research Approach

Vision One implemented a mixed-method research programme combining behavioural and attitudinal techniques. The approach included:

  • A series of focus groups to explore perceptions of the brand and in-store experience
  • In-store eye-tracking research using wearable eye-tracking glasses
  • Realistic shopping scenarios, with participants spending 40–45 minutes navigating the store
  • Measurement of visual attention, fixation points and content engagement
  • Inclusion of garden centre visitors, both users and non-users of the Notcutts brand

This approach allowed Vision One to observe real-world behaviour alongside reported attitudes.

Findings

The research revealed clear patterns in how customers visually engaged with the refreshed store environment. Key areas of fixation emerged along the customer journey, highlighting where branding and communications performed strongly and where they underperformed.

Pricing and product information consistently attracted high engagement, confirming their importance in purchase decision making. In contrast, other elements such as roadside signage delivered lower engagement than expected. These findings provided a detailed understanding of how customers actually experienced the space, rather than how it was intended to function.

Action & Recommendations

The insights enabled Notcutts to refine and optimise its refreshed branding before wider rollout. Findings on memorability, attention, and perception informed decisions about where to strengthen communication and simplify messaging.

By focusing on high-impact touchpoints and improving underperforming areas, Notcutts was able to shape a more effective, intuitive, and engaging in-store experience that better supported customer navigation and decision-making.

Shopper Insight Agency - Vision One
Kendra Furey, Head of Brands (Vision One)

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