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DIY retailers in the United Kingdom are opening up the internet for online trading, thereby confirming its great potential as a channel of distribution
Contained on the internet pages provided by DIY multiples in the UK for some time now are store locators, DIY hints and tips, and details of the latest in-store offers. This is a helpful add-on to the companies’ marketing activities, but scarcely anything in the way of user interactivity is available.
Within the past few months this has all changed: B&Q, Focus Do It All and Homebase all now have e-commerce operations. The retailers comment that internet sales represent incremental business, that through the internet they can reach new customers who have not previously shopped in their stores.
In the UK, home internet access remains relatively low compared to some parts of Europe, but it is growing very rapidly. Every new hook-up increases the size of the potential market.
The UK’s biggest DIY online offer is available from Homebase, with a range of more than 5 000 products.
B&Q has clearly seen the importance of the internet, opening an online advice service (www.diy.com) just a year ago. Consumers could send their queries by email to a team of advisors. This received such an overwhelming response that it had to be temporarily shut down soon after opening, to enable additional advisors and upgraded equipment to be taken on. But at least it proved that there was a demand for information, and possibly also for purchasing products, online.
A year ago B&Q purchased the company Screwfix Direct – an online tools distributor (www.screwfix. com) – to capitalise on internet sales and to act as a focus for the development of internet business within parent company Kingfisher. It is claimed that Screwfix Direct is Britain’s fastest growing DIY retailer (with sales up 87 per cent to £ 28.2 mio according to the latest available figures). B&Q has also bought a stake in the German company Virtueller Bau-Markt, which operates the www.heimwerker. de website and is working with sister company Castorama on the launch of Screwfix in France.
Screwfix Direct is claimed to be Britain’s fastest growing DIY retailer in cyberspace.
In May B&Q established www.improveline.com, an online service which aims to help homeowners locate approved building contractors. Then in June parent company Kingfisher formally established an internet division called e-Kingfisher. The new division will oversee the development of e-commerce across all the Kingfisher businesses.
At present visitors to the B&Q website can order a small number of products online, but the company aims to have a website early in the new year which “will become a benchmark for online DIY retailing, attracting new customers and growing profits.”
Focus Do It All was actually the first group to get its transactional website up and running early in the summer (www.focusdoitall. co.uk). The site is in pilot form, offering less than 30 products at the present time, but retail development director Colin Ball is happy with its performance so far: “We wanted to gauge customer reaction, and it is going very well indeed. Trade is increasing all the time, which is great for such a limited offer. We are learning from it – that is the key success.” Mr Ball believes that ultimately this could work even better for DIY retailers than it does for the grocery stores, “Because of the logic of creating a project online and then being able to order it from the comfort of your own home. The products that we sell in future will not just be DIY purchases but also a range of services linked to the home. We already sell home and pet insurance.”
Focus Do It All is happy with the results of its pilot range.
Homebase has invested £ 10 mio in its website (www.homebase.co.uk), which was launched during the summer. The company aims to become the leading online DIY retailer within the next year. It has certainly got off to a good start, with an online offer of around 5 000 products which it intends to increase by 50 per cent in the coming months. The spread of products is broad, although the emphasis for the time being is on decorative lines for the living room and bedroom.
Whether Homebase has secured an unassailable advantage by being the first to put such a comprehensive range of products on the Net, or whether the advantage will remain with the market leader – B&Q – remains to be seen when the B&Q site gets its promised revamp in the new year.
Within the past few months this has all changed: B&Q, Focus Do It All and Homebase all now have e-commerce operations. The retailers comment that internet sales represent incremental business, that through the internet they can reach new customers who have not previously shopped in their stores.
In the UK, home internet access remains relatively low compared to some parts of Europe, but it is growing very rapidly. Every new hook-up increases the size of the potential market.
The UK’s biggest DIY online offer is available from Homebase, with a range of more than 5 000 products.
B&Q has clearly seen the importance of the internet, opening an online advice service (www.diy.com) just a year ago. Consumers could send their queries by email to a team of advisors. This received such an overwhelming response that it had to be temporarily shut down soon after opening, to enable additional advisors and upgraded equipment to be taken on. But at least it proved that there was a demand for information, and possibly also for purchasing products, online.
A year ago B&Q purchased the company Screwfix Direct – an online tools distributor (www.screwfix. com) – to capitalise on internet sales and to act as a focus for the development of internet business within parent company Kingfisher. It is claimed that Screwfix Direct is Britain’s fastest growing DIY retailer (with sales up 87 per cent to £ 28.2 mio according to the latest available figures). B&Q has also bought a stake in the German company Virtueller Bau-Markt, which operates the www.heimwerker. de website and is working with sister company Castorama on the launch of Screwfix in France.
Screwfix Direct is claimed to be Britain’s fastest growing DIY retailer in cyberspace.
In May B&Q established www.improveline.com, an online service which aims to help homeowners locate approved building contractors. Then in June parent company Kingfisher formally established an internet division called e-Kingfisher. The new division will oversee the development of e-commerce across all the Kingfisher businesses.
At present visitors to the B&Q website can order a small number of products online, but the company aims to have a website early in the new year which “will become a benchmark for online DIY retailing, attracting new customers and growing profits.”
Focus Do It All was actually the first group to get its transactional website up and running early in the summer (www.focusdoitall. co.uk). The site is in pilot form, offering less than 30 products at the present time, but retail development director Colin Ball is happy with its performance so far: “We wanted to gauge customer reaction, and it is going very well indeed. Trade is increasing all the time, which is great for such a limited offer. We are learning from it – that is the key success.” Mr Ball believes that ultimately this could work even better for DIY retailers than it does for the grocery stores, “Because of the logic of creating a project online and then being able to order it from the comfort of your own home. The products that we sell in future will not just be DIY purchases but also a range of services linked to the home. We already sell home and pet insurance.”
Focus Do It All is happy with the results of its pilot range.
Homebase has invested £ 10 mio in its website (www.homebase.co.uk), which was launched during the summer. The company aims to become the leading online DIY retailer within the next year. It has certainly got off to a good start, with an online offer of around 5 000 products which it intends to increase by 50 per cent in the coming months. The spread of products is broad, although the emphasis for the time being is on decorative lines for the living room and bedroom.
Whether Homebase has secured an unassailable advantage by being the first to put such a comprehensive range of products on the Net, or whether the advantage will remain with the market leader – B&Q – remains to be seen when the B&Q site gets its promised revamp in the new year.
