Builders Warehouse has opened its latest store in Boksburg, which replaces its former store.
The new 15 170-m2 box-format store’s design entailed a new layout
and look and feel, to align with Builders’ digitalisation and counter-driven
strategy.
“The store delivers a retail experience through the combination
of online integration, departmental adjacencies
and new services that deliver seamless
shopping for contractors and building professionals, as well
as home and do-it-yourself customers,” CEO Llewellyn Walters said during a site
visit on Tuesday.
These retail experience features include a
“smart home” section that showcases the solutions that are possible to
link devices and other smart technologies within a home,
self-help screens that feature around 12
000 additional lines of products that can be browsed or
ordered online and help desks that offer advice in all departments, for example
insecticide guidance in the gardening section.
Walters explained that customers receive information about assembly or
recommended installers once they buy an associated product. He added that
customers can check out their purchases themselves, at any pay point in store
or at the exit door – as well as at the exit outside when buying bulk items
from the yard.
Builders is rolling out devices to facilitate purchases in-store, but
with delivery to the customer within days. Walters noted that a virtual card is
used at paypoints to give the customer an electronic receipt, which is also how
the company facilitates the self check-out process.
There is also a contractors’ counter that specifically aids building professionals with
their required products and services.
The Boksburg store is one of a few that
Builders has designated to offer 3D printing capabilities. The services include prototyping,
printing domestic replacement parts and modelling.
Some of the new features include a Vida e Caffè, adjacent to a meeting
hub, making it convenient to host one-on-one or group meetings; key cutting which offers a new full
service that will provide any type
of key; and a first for Builders, the incorporation of a filtered water offering from Oasis Water giving customers choice
from a range of water solutions such as bottled water, filtration systems and in-store refills.
Contractors and trade personnel will be able to hire tools from Talisman
in-store.
Free WiFi and 44
high-definition screens gives customers the
opportunity to shop and place orders as well as view promotions and search
for information or
do-it-yourself content.
A full-service “smart home” hub will
allow customers to tailor-make the digital integration that meets their
residential requirements and budget.
The cut shop now meets all cutting needs including board cutting and edging. Rounding off the
new and enhanced service offering is the design and installation hub that provides an
in-store design team to assist customers with
the design of kitchens, bathrooms and roof
trusses, as well as installation of air-conditioners,
ceiling fans and doors.
A new product innovation is the
introduction of flatpack modular furniture. Builders
offers a comprehensive range of complete furniture solutions. Displays in store show
customers videos on the how-to assembly of the furniture.
Builders has also started offering in-store credit, enabling the
smallest of budgets tackle home improvement.
The Boksburg store is between 30% and 40%
cheaper to operate, as it uses direct sunlight and light emitting diodes
for lighting in-store, harvests
rainwater for re-use, and has an efficient air-conditioning system that is not energy intensive.
Retrofitting of older stores will happen in order of priority and economic feasibility, with the Fourways and Gesina stores next in line for upgrades. https://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/builders-warehouse-unveils-new-boksburg-store-2019-04-30
