Page 32 - HW December 2019

global eyes
GoodHome brings B&Q kitchen offering up to date
Kingfisher unveiled its first completely new range of kitchens for B&Q in a decade last month.
The range was unveiled at at its 160,000ft2 flagship New Malden store (which boasts no less than 14 show kitchens in various styles), along with a new in-store experience and digital tools to help customers create their kitchen simply and affordably.
Following the launches of its GoodHome Bathrooms and GoodHome Interiors ranges, the new kitchen offer is also branded GoodHome and comprises no less than 26 new kitchen door ranges, in nine different styles, along with new Bamia branded appliances (including a smart combi oven/microwave, induction hob and extractor for under £1,000!), worktops, taps, sinks, storage solutions and accessories from handles to under cabinet lighting.
The new kitchens also come with a longer guarantee – 25 years (up from 10) – and a range of finance options, including 0% finance and buy now pay later.
The GoodHome kitchen offering includes a new in-store experience, updated kitchen displays and Project Advice zones for “ideas showing the best use of spaces”.
As well as personalised planning help in the form of B&Q kitchen experts in-store, there are new digital tools online, including one to help visualise how the new ranges will look in their own kitchen.
Some 13 B&Q stores have been fitted out with the new kitchen centres so far, and B&Q plans to have rolled the offer out to 50-odd stores by the end of year, and all 249 stores by Easter 2020.
https://www.diy.com/
John Lewis goes experiential in search for new directions
HAVING MADE ITS first ever half year loss this year, amongst other action plans,
the John Lewis Partnership (JLP) is experimenting with customer experience.
As a trial, it has redesigned its John Lewis department store in Southampton as “a customer-centric concept shop”, as it sets about “reinventing the department store of the future to ... stand out from the competition”.
On each of the shop’s four floors
are multiple “experience playgrounds”, contained areas or hubs manned by impartial expert staff where visitors
can attend workshops or try out a personalised selection of products, some of which are free, some bookable, some drop-in.
“‘The Style Studio” offers free style- advice appointments and specially selected clothes; “The Download”
is where shoppers can test out new technology or learn how to take decent selfies (etc); and along with room sets, the “The World of Design” offers house and garden tips.
Pop-up workshops will include calligraphy, photography and wreath- making (Xmas wreaths we presume!), as
well as holiday workshops like Christmas tree styling etc.
Peter Cross, Customer Experience Director at John Lewis & Partners, says: “Our goal is to offer customers unrivalled access to expertise and impartial advice in as many areas of their lives as we possibly can – in a way that is uplifting and inspiring.
“We know that shopping for a new gadget or beauty product can be a daunting experience, with so much choice on offer. We want to help navigate customers through that.”
The Southampton store is also important because it will bring together services from JLP stablemates Waitrose and John Lewis under one roof for the first time in the form of the Waitrose Cookery School.
There’s also a farm shop and café on the John Lewis store’s roof, in partnership with the JLP-owned Leckford Estate in Hampshire, “the Waitrose farm” whose produce is supplied to Waitrose stores.
Designed in-house, if successful, these hubs and this sort of cross-polination of services could be rolled out across the department store’s national network.
https://experiences.johnlewis.com
30 NZHJ | DECEMBER 2019
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