AO’s Danny Emmett: ‘Pitting online and in-store against each other is a false fight’

The accelerated move to online shopping during the pandemic has transformed retail, and given us at AO an unprecedented year of challenge and progress. 

We’re delivering to more customers than ever and have seen huge expansion in people, infrastructure and demand.  However, as ‘non-essential’ stores reopen this week, pitting online and in-store experiences against each other is a false fight. That’s not how customers see it, and neither do we. 

Customers vote for great retailers, and great retailers understand their customers – wherever and however they shop, now and in the future. Customer behaviour is always changing and our industry needs to recognise and, most importantly, drive this change.

That’s why in October 2020 we launched a trial of the AO experience in five Tesco stores, which we’re now restarting after pressing the pause button due to Covid-19. 

In our store-within-a-store, customers can browse and order larger electricals, such as washing machines and fridges, for home delivery, as well as take away a variety of smaller products. 

At its core, we want to bring customers even more convenient access to our full range of electricals, delivered with the same AO quality and dedication to service we’re known for online.

Data from the limited opening period showed that tech was the most popular category with TVs, laptops and iPads proving to be bestsellers. We’re expecting a spike in TV sales ahead of the much-anticipated appearance of Scotland (as well as England and Wales, of course) at Euro 2021. 

So while customers are stocking up on drinks and snacks ahead of match day, they can also visit the AO store, speak to one of our team and buy a new television for next-day or even same-day delivery. 

Getting one step ahead of customers and solving their problems is what great retailing is all about. As an industry we did this brilliantly during Covid: online businesses stepped up as a lifeline as soon as the first lockdown hit, while others upgraded their digital offer to serve customers unable to shop in-store.

The pandemic has without doubt changed our behaviour permanently and in ways we don’t yet know. But we have to remember that the way we shop has never stopped evolving. Catalogue shopping was a part of my childhood – circling a favourite shellsuit from Kay’s or my Christmas present wishlist from Index. The last of Argos’s printed catalogues in 2020 was the end of an era.

“The age of dial-up internet, pre-Google and years before the now famous £1 bet”

And in the 1990s, when Scotland – my team – last qualified for the Euros, the potential of buying and selling online was not even on the agenda. That was the age of dial-up internet, pre-Google, and years before our chief executive John Roberts was challenged to start AO in the now-famous £1 bet. 

Technology has facilitated much of this change over the past two decades, and that is where our partnership with Tesco is so complementary. 

The challenge of raising the bar

The trial will explore what happens when we deliver our exceptional online content, product expertise and customer service in a store environment. We can explain who we are and what we do to even more customers, and in an uncertain climate we want customers to feel that AO is a better and easier way to get their electricals.

So we’re focused on finding solutions for customers, innovating and challenging ourselves to raise the bar again and again. 

AO is a business that thrives on innovation. And, just like my hopes for the Tartan Army at the Euros, we’re powering on to achieve new heights for the people who matter most - the punters.

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