B&Q has launched a new smaller store concept to offer its customers a more convenient way to shop for home and DIY products.
The GoodHome format in Wallington, just outside Croydon, marks a departure from the DIY chain’s larger sheds and its only other smaller shop, on London’s Holloway Road.
The 5,400 sq ft site has a sales area of just 1,615 sq ft and offers around 6,000 products. A typical B&Q store is around 100,000 sq ft and stocks 40,000 SKUs.
Unlike in its larger sheds, products are not stocked on the shop floor in the traditional way. Instead, customers either purchase items by using in-store digital screens, or by clicking and collecting through the B&Q app.
The shift to opening smaller stores situated closer to its customers marks a key part of outgoing Kingfisher boss Véronique Laury’s One Kingfisher plan.
City centre switch
Its launch comes after homewares rival Ikea lifted the lid on smaller formats of its own, including order and collection points and its first Planning Studio on Tottenham Court Road.
Kingfisher chief trading officer John Colley, who is responsible for the group’s format development said that one more GoodHome store is planned for the Croydon area, with two in the pipeline in France, as the retailer seeks to test the format before committing to a wider roll out.
