A totally different Praktiker

Four new openings in just one month, not an everyday challenge even for the Praktiker team in Romania. But it was a challenge that the team met in grand style, as is proved by the new store in Vitan, Bucharest, that opened for business on 13 December. It is the third Praktiker store in the capital of Romania, a city with more than 2.3 mio inhabitants. This latest store, which is 6 840 m² in size and includes a garden centre, is the second largest Praktiker in the country. A range of more than 40 000 articles is available in six departments and 40 product categories. The employment of more than 120 members of staff reflects the fact that Romanian customers have a great need for advisory services. Praktiker has especially trained its sales staff in terms of advice for undertaking entire projects.
Customer orientation begins right in the entrance of the new Praktiker in Vitan, Bucharest: visitors can get their first overview of the different departments or product categories from a large display panel here in the vestibule. Once inside the store itself, the most striking aspect is the open style of presentation that features low-level shelving. When still in the vestibule, customers have a view into several departments: tools, lighting, décor with textiles and wall coverings, and bathrooms with a luxury tiled floor.
One glance at the range of sanitary fittings makes it quite clear that not every range is aimed at ordinary wage-earners. For example, there is an outdoor jacuzzi on offer for € 5 000. The demand for luxury items of this kind comes from so-called BIYers (buy-it-yourselfers). Such products are usually purchased in collaboration with the contractors doing the installation. Praktiker achieves 30 per cent of the sales in its 16 Romanian DIY stores through these BIY customers, as Günter Vosskämper, country manager at Praktiker Romania, explains. Around 50 per cent of customers are DIYers and 20 per cent are tradesmen.
The area allocated to the individual product categories is influenced by their share of the sales volume. This has led to Praktiker expanding the furniture department. Which contrasts with the garden centres, where the floorspace has been reduced and the product assortment thinned out. Shredders are less in demand, for instance, and there is only a limited demand for wallpaper in Romania, where the walls tend to be plastered and painted more in Mediterranean style. Where paint is concerned, the choice of five suppliers and three mixing…