Looking your best

In his blog on Friday, the editor of this magazine remarked on the progress of DSGi, as revealed by its Christmas trading statement that showed an 8% like-for-like increase against the same period last year.

He mentioned that some of this might be to do with the combined PC World and Currys stores that have been springing up ever since the first of these was unveiled in Weybridge at the beginning of last year.

This is almost certainly the case, but the real genesis of the current success (and yes, there will almost inevitably be those who say that soft comps, rather than real progress, are at the heart of the progress) has its roots a little before Weybridge.

The real issue, which DSGi has been addressing for considerably more than a year, is the nature of the experience that shoppers visiting either a branch of Currys or PC World can expect.

And that really began to change when DSGi unveiled a slick-looking series of formats, ranging from high street to edge-of-town. With the first of these being Chelmsford and Swindon, the new designs took the rather scruffy ambiance that had been the hallmark of the brand since the days in which there was a branch of Dixons on every high street, and gave it a thorough makeover.

That was in September 2008 and a little under 16 months later, the pilots have clearly proved successful. The stylish deep blue fascias with the red font logo have become almost as familiar as the red-dominated storefronts that they have replaced. Not all of the branches have had a revamp, but given the size of the estate, it’s remarkable how capably the initial design has been taken and rolled out.

Good work, you might think, for the store designers, Dalziel + Pow in this instance, and the shopfitters that have made this a reality. But the real matter at hand is change and new perspectives. It would be foolish to suppose that just changing the way a store looks can yield the kind of effect on the bottom line that was apparent last week. But it is broadly symptomatic of an organisation in which the business of selling has been subject to close scrutiny.

The real winners are shoppers. It doesn’t matter whether you head down to the Purley Way in South London, where there is an outsize version of the new format, or just drop into a shopping centre such as Bluewater, the stores are just better.

The staff seem enthused and the stock looks, well, more appealing, It’s amazing what you can do to the way in which people regard you just with a change of appearance.