John Lewis at Home: At home on the Purley Way

Success is, more often than not, built upon success and the opening of the second John Lewis at home, in Croydon, is a case in point. But hang on a minute. John Lewis, Croydon? These are names that, a few years back, might not have been readily mentioned in the same sentence.

The plain fact about central Croydon was that many had tried - think Habitat and Heals, for instance - but decided ultimately that the demographic just wasn’t up to supporting an aspirational mid-market homewares brand. Things have changed, however, at least on the town’s Purley Way, the ribbon development series of retail parks that runs from Ikea, at one end, for about half a mile to the newly opened John Lewis at home store at the other.

Kim Morris, head of retail design at the Partnership, says: “We would actually love to open a full-line department store in the middle of the town, but for the moment this is a stepping stone that gets us into the area.” She observes that there are 95,000 click-and-collect customers within a 30-minute drive of the new store and that research undertaken by the retailer shows that about 28% of these would drive to a store if it were available.

This must surely mean that Croydon, for all the image problems that it suffers from, is a place in which retailers must reckon they can turn a penny. And the second John Lewis at home store follows in the footsteps of the pilot store that is located roughly at that point in Dorset where Bournemouth ends and Poole begins.

By any reckoning, the Bournemouth/Poole conurbation is a well-heeled area, but then so is the area immediately to the south of Croydon and the through traffic is almost exponentially greater. The decision to take a unit that has lain empty for years (the previous tenant was a furniture retailer called Uno, long since defunct) was not taken lightly. But on opening day, a couple of weeks ago, the car park for the new store was full and there were crowds around the block an hour before the 10am opening. What must have been a carefully calculated risk appeared to be paying off from the outset.

The reason that shoppers were queuing to get in might have had something to do with the string quartet that was playing just inside the front door, it might have been to see the ribbon being cut, or just possibly the chance to admire the matt grey, glass and silver logoed frontage might have been involved. But the chances are good that pent-up demand normally satisfied only by a trip to London’s Oxford Street or King’s Road would have been at the heart of this.

Tweaks and changes

Walking through the doors it was easy to understand why they might want to visit and, also, to note the difference between this store and Poole. For a start, it looks much bigger than the Dorset outpost. Yet it is 40,000 sq ft against Poole’s 39,000 sq ft. The reason is simple: the Croydon store trades from a single floor, Poole is laid out on two, meaning that shoppers stare across a very long and relatively narrow floor and are asked to make sense of it.

What they are confronted with is, in almost every way that you might care to think of, a single-floor John Lewis that just happens not to have fashion and is about a third of the size of a full-line branch. The store was fitted out in record time, according to Morris: “We actually moved onto site in March and were then given two weeks to complete the layout and to stock. It’s the quickest we’ve ever done it.” Head of format development Tim Harrison says build cost control, one of the central preoccupations at Poole, has remained top of mind and like that store, the Croydon site is about a third cheaper than a normal John Lewis.

But is there a great deal of difference between the pilot and the start of a roll-out of the format that will include two further stores, in Tunbridge Wells and Swindon, later this year? Morris comments: “We’ve actually made some tweaks. So, for instance, we have brought in mirrors and made linens stronger. But the truth is that Poole was really successful, so we have tried to replicate large parts of it.”

Back to front

The real challenge in Croydon, however, is moving people from the front to the back of the shop. Stand at the front door and it is actually not that easy to see your way to the back of the shop, although the signage is good and departments are laid out in a manner that helps you to identify where you need to be.

There is also a cafe and this has been placed at the rear, as an enticement that will pull visitors through the store’s many departments.

Curiously, in view of the depth, there is no walkway. Morris says that this was the case in Poole, but when the space is arranged over two floors, having a navigational aid in the shape of a walkway is really not needed. It is a moot point whether it might have helped matters in this store, although such were the levels of excitement of those attending on opening day that almost every square inch was subject to pretty close scrutiny.

There is little point in providing an iteration of the many departments that are on view, although the technology area, complete with in-store Apple totem and fixturing does stand out. What is important is that, although there are many branded offers, they have been ‘John Lewised’ and their branded voices, in the shape of point of sale, have been muted. “We will always tend to do this,” says Morris. “It’s about giving brands the identity they need [while maintaining an overall John Lewis envelope]. There is definitely a balance to be struck.”

Another thing that has been done in Croydon is the visual merchandising has been, in effect, deskilled. Morris continues: “We’ve really simplified the visual merchandising so that in terms of cost we don’t have to have a big visual merchandising team.” She instances the small windows at the front of the shop, which carry a very simple scheme, in contrast to the complex, although frequently repetitive (ie Warholesque) nature of the windows found in a full-line store.

The cash desks are worth noting too. We are all familiar with the idea of sweets and impulse purchases now forming part of the queuing system in the run-up to paying for something. Every retailer it seems, whether it’s M&S with its Percy Pigs, to Matalan, has adopted the ploy and John Lewis is not an exception. The difference is that this is John Lewis, meaning that the boxed chocolates in view turn out to be top person’s treats Charbonnel et Walker, among other things.

Can this therefore be accounted as a progression from what was on view in Poole? The answer has to be a resounding yes and this store stands as proof that John Lewis has succeeded in creating a retail sub-brand that will enable it to be rather more nimble on its feet in terms of entering new markets and making an impact.

If you happen to be in the Croydon area and have succeeded in eschewing the blandishments of the town centre, then a visit to the Purley Way will pay dividends. It’s just under a year since the Poole store opened and in the interim, the retailer has turned this format into something that looks set to garner positive results for the Partnership.