B&Q retail, property and technology director Paddy Earnshaw takes Retail Week on a tour of one of its newest B&Q Local stores.
For its first location outside of London, B&Q has chosen the pebbled shores of Brighton for the latest opening of its urban format store B&Q Local.
Brighton was on the retailer’s radar for being a vibrant and densely populated area, and the new shop sits in a former Poundland unit on North Street – one of the city’s busiest shopping areas.
“Brighton works brilliantly,” says Earnshaw. “There’s a high-density populace, lots of footfall and lots of different types of customers. You’ve got homeowners, tenants, landlords, and they’ve all got different needs and this store is right in the heart of where people are.”
B&Q has been steadily adding these high-street locations to its portfolio since it launched the format at the beginning of 2023. It has now identified 50 key areas across the UK where it wants to set them up.
Earnshaw says: “We have been trying a number of new activities over the years, ultimately, to suit the requirements of convenience. As an example of that, diy.com has significantly increased its share of transactions within the DIY market over the past ten years and that’s why we now have B&Q Marketplace. B&Q Local stores are a further extension of that. Being in the right place at the right time for customers is pivotal and we’re also trying to attract different audiences as well.”
The side of the store is emblazoned with a seaside-themed custom mural by artist Dave Pop!, created with a heavy dose of B&Q orange.
Inside, customers first come to a flexible space, which is currently kitted out with essentials for students like storage and cardboard boxes, as well as an attractive houseplants section and a smattering of home accessories to catch the eye of passers-by.
“These stores are really interesting to walk through because when you’re at a big store, there will be aisles and aisles of timber cladding or plasterboard, but at these densities you have to be much more thoughtful,” says Earnshaw.
“You need a bit of takeaway for the people who need it. For example, if you’ve got a builder who has just run out of something on the job, or someone who needs an emergency fix. But we also have people who will come to Connor our store manager here and ask if they can order in more of whatever it is they might need – and that’s how you get to be a proper multichannel retailer, by working in locations like this.”
And being more thoughtful when ranging these smaller format stores has given the retailer food for thought with its larger locations too, says B&Q concept design manager Rob Bearfield.
“Because of the kind of fast and easy journey that’s expected by customers on the go, we’ve tried to merchandise product categories together. So maybe in a larger store, for example, the strimmers may be aisles away from the accessories, but here we’ve brought it together. So a whole project is in one place in much smaller racking, so you can really densify fixtures for maximum final return and that might change the way we lay out a store.”
As shoppers move further into the store, that’s where the ranging is geared toward more serious home-improvement projects, with paint aisles – including a Lick section – timber, hardware, tools and a service area.
“We’ve consolidated all of our services together,” says Earnshaw.
“So we’ve combined paint mixing, collection and tool hire, and we’ve oriented the racking so colleagues can look down the aisles from that area and still interact with the shoppers. It’s very much a personal experience that we’re creating.”
Scaled-down showrooms
Upstairs is geared towards more aesthetically oriented products, with home accessories, flooring, wallpaper, lighting, and a compact kitchen and bathroom section.
Although it only takes up a few square metres and is significantly smaller than what can be found in a bigger store, the mini showroom still packs a punch – allowing shoppers to get a feel for three different kitchen styles and two bathrooms as well as get a closer look at all of the door and counter options on offer.
It seems less is more as even though the section is designed to be a jumping-off point and encourage shoppers to visit the retailer’s bigger showrooms, the shop has sold roughly a kitchen a week since it opened.
But, according to the team, the masterstroke has been the success of the store as a click-and-collect hub. The store brings in three times the number of orders than the average large B&Q store.
“That shows us two things,” says Earnshaw. ”It shows us that customers are prepared to come back more frequently, and that is magic. And then we see around a fifth of those shoppers who come in to collect buying something else. So that incremental sales value for us is fantastic, and it’s all driven by the convenience of being able to walk to the store as part of your Saturday shop – as old school as it sounds.
“High street shopping is actually in rude health. It just depends which brands are out there, and we think there’s an opportunity to keep putting ourselves in the way of customers in good locations.”
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