1、IN ASSOCIATION WITH:This is the headline of the feature xxxxxxxxxxDIGITAL REPORT 2023Digital innovations building the home improvement journeyIN ASSOCIATION WITH:DIGITAL INNOVATIONS BUILDING THE HOME IMPROVEMENT JOURNEY2 DIGITAL INNOVATIONS BUILDING THE HOME IMPROVEMENT JOURNEY 3KINGFISHER PLCWhile

2、many retailers struggled during the COVID-19 pandemic,the home improvement sector went through something of a boom.According to research,COVID-19 restrictions drove 86%of home improvement projects in the UK in March 2020,as people were forced to stay in their homes,while figures from Kingfisher cove

3、ring the year to the end of January 2021 reported that overall web sales grew 158%year on year,to account for 18%of total group sales-more than double the 8%share pre-pandemic.An international home improvement company with approximately 1,500 stores and over 80,000 colleagues,Kingfisher operates in

4、eight countries across Europe under well-known retail banners including B&Q,Castorama,Brico Dpt,Screwfix,TradePoint and Kota.“We really help customers to improve their homes,”explains JJ Van Oosten,Kingfishers former Chief Digital and Technology Officer,who previously led Kingfishers e-commerce and

5、marketplace functions,along with its data and technology teams.“We help DIYers and tradespeople to get their job done quickly,accurately,and in an affordable way,”he adds.“We do this across all of our network of stores and different formats and brands.Whether it is a one-hour delivery service or suc

6、cessful new marketplaces,Kingfisher is implementing innovations to improve the customer experience4 KINGFISHER PLC 5“We also have a range of our own-label products,which account for 45%of Group sales,with brands like Mac Allister,Titan,Flomasta,Good Home and many others.These brands are very specifi

7、c,very precious,and customers love them.”How Kingfisher is changing The way retailers do business is ever-evolving,with innovations proving key to ensuring customer satisfaction.In 2021,one of Kingfishers brands,Screwfix,launched its rapid delivery service called Screwfix Sprint,capable of deliverin

8、g orders direct to consumers within one“We are far more agile in what were doing.Were embracing ecommerce and data in a way that was not manageable many years ago”JJ VAN OOSTENFORMER CHIEF DIGITAL AND TECHNOLOGY OFFICER,KINGFISHER PLC6 KINGFISHER PLCJJ has substantial expertise in leading digital tr

9、ansformations in consumer branded and retail companies.He is the former Chief Digital and Technology Officer at Kingfisher where he lead ecommerce,digital platforms,marketplaces,data and technology.He joined Kingfisher from Danish toy company,The LEGO Group,where as Chief Digital Officer,he led the

10、companys digital ambition to make ecommerce the largest part of the business.Prior to this he was a member of the Board of REWE Group and CEO of REWE Digital,where he oversaw all aspects of the digital agenda,including e-commerce operations,technology infrastructure and digital marketing.With his te

11、am,he designed and built a digital ecosystem which linked physical and digital channels via mobile and AI technology and launched continental Europes first automated food fulfilment centre.REWE is now the largest grocery ecommerce player with its home delivery and click and collect fulfilled from ei

12、ther stores or automated fulfilment centres.He also led the investment in Commercetools which is now the worlds leading ecommerce platform.JJ has also held leadership roles at companies including Tesco and Travis Perkins.JJ VAN OOSTENTITLE:FOUNDERCOMPANY:DIGITAL RETAILTRANSFORMATION LIMITEDLOCATION:

13、UNITED KINGDOMEXECUTIVE BIOhour.And,last year,B&Q launched its online home improvement marketplace,offering a one-stop shop for home improvement products,with the aim of driving the retailers digital growth.As Van Oosten explains,from a technology standpoint,there have been a number of changes in ho

14、w the business operates in recent years.“Being much closer to customers,we now have a lot more pace in what we do,”he explains.“We are far more agile in what were doing.Were embracing ecommerce and data in a way that was not manageable many years ago.”FLUENT ORDER MANAGEMENTSee all your inventory.Se

15、ll more.Deliver profitably.Get a unified,cross-channel view of inventory data and optimize fulfilment so you can:Reduce cancelled orders Decrease delivery costs Minimise split shipments Reduce call center volumeDigital Commerce CX:The critical role of accurate inventory dataGet Your CopyFluent Order

16、 Managements drives real-time business and customer benefits Get a unified,cross-channel view of inventory data and optimize fulfilment so you can:Reduce cancelled orders Decrease delivery costs Minimise split shipments Reduce call center volumeDigital Commerce CX:The critical role of accurate inven

17、tory dataGet Your CopyJamie Cairns,Chief Strategy Officer at Fluent Commerce,on how its order management platform enhances operational efficiency and customer experience.Fluent Commerce is a global software company focused on distributed order management.Its cloud-native platform,Fluent Order Manage

18、ment,provides accurate and near real-time inventory data visibility,order orchestration,fulfilment optimisation,in-store pick and pack,customer service,and reporting to transform fulfilment into a competitive advantage.As Jamie Cairns,Chief Strategy Officer at Fluent Commerce explains,the process of

19、 managing orders begins with inventory data.“Being able to unify a view of inventory and then syndicating that inventory data out across a range of different channels lets you improve the customer experience,”Cairns comments.That,in turn,has a range of different operational efficiency benefits,reduc

20、ing costs by reducing split shipments,cancelled orders,and customer service calls.As Cairns describes,order management represents an opportunity for retailers and B2B organisations to harness inventory data to provide real-world benefits.One of their recent innovations,Fluent Big Inventory,is about

21、unifying in near real-time those inventory sources,enabling all systems to become inventory aware.“It is not just about enhancing the order fulfilment process,which is typically what has been the domain of an order management system,”Cairns explains.“Its about making inventory data available to othe

22、r systems,like search,as well and ultimately being able to personalise search results based on inventory.”With changing customer preferences in recent years,brands have had to adapt quickly.As Cairns explains,Fluent Order Management not only provides a robust software-as-a-service platform,but at a

23、lower total cost so businesses can move quickly and meet customer expectations efficiently.During the COVID-19 pandemic when stores were closed,Fluent Order Management enabled businesses to adapt quickly.“Stores still had inventory and there were huge spikes in online demand,”Cairns explains.“Our cu

24、stomers were able to adapt in a matter of a day to completely change their fulfilment workflows.“Digital agility is essential,”he concludes.“We are not trying to predict what the future is,but to provide a toolset that allows you to adapt as the future evolves.”WATCH NOW Digital innovations building

25、 the home improvement journeyJJ VAN OOSTENFORMER CHIEF DIGITAL AND TECHNOLOGY OFFICER,KINGFISHER PLC“When you have a URL called ,customers expect a high-quality product coming from trusted merchants”For retailers,it is important to strike a balance and still provide customers with a seamless shoppin

26、g experience.As the consulting firm McKinsey says,offering a compelling omnichannel experience is no longer a luxury but a requirement for survival.Most Gen Z consumers dont even think in terms of traditional channel boundaries,research has shown,and they increasingly evaluate brands and retailers o

27、n the seamlessness of their experience.Kingfisher is in a strong position,with their extensive presence of stores meaning customers always have the best choice available to them.As Van Oosten explains,combining digital experiences with an extensive network of stores in a seamless way ensures that cu

28、stomers are satisfied.10 KINGFISHER PLCUse more image captions as often as possible“Our stores are not a liability,they are co-assets,and we are lucky to have them,”he comments.“Home improvement can be a complex journey for customers because they might have questions.Which piece of equipment do I ne

29、ed to buy?How are you going to make sure that the wood in a pack of flooring is the right one?If you have underfloor heating,how do you assemble it?How do you make sure you have the right quantity?“All of these questions require some really deep expertise,which we have in our stores,”he adds.By havi

30、ng a local presence,Kingfishers outlets can also utilise click-and-collect services,in a move towards stores becoming micro-fulfilment centres.“When you want to have access to things quite quickly,that requires a local presence by definition,”Van Oosten adds.“We are lucky to have those stores so we

31、can offer click-and-collect.In that respect,instead of it being experience-based or knowledge-based,our stores are far more like micro-fulfilment centres.And if we want to go to customers quite quickly,when they require a service from something like Screwfix Sprint where we have over 800 stores now

32、in the UK,we can do so in under one hour.And that is phenomenal.”The success of B&Qs marketplace model Since launching last March,B&Qs marketplace has been a real success story.The company reported in September 2022 11LETS TALKMirakl offers the industrys first and most advanced enterprise marketplac

33、e SaaS PlatformLighting 100,000+third-party products found/200 Curated SellersTHE WORLDS LEADING BRANDS CHOOSE MIRAKLthat it was performing ahead of expectations,with sales from partner brands representing 8%of its online sales that month.“Across the whole planet,there are around 179,000 merchants a

34、nd about 24 million SKUs(stock keeping units)in home improvement,”Van Oosten comments.“At B&Q we had about 35,000 SKUs compared to a range of four and seven million SKUs across the UK.”Developed in partnership with enterprise marketplace SaaS platform Mirakl,B&Qs marketplace offering expands existin

35、g ranges and adds new categories,utilising the brands famous website.Marketplaces are growing in popularity with consumers,with nearly half(48%)of online product searches now starting on marketplace platforms in key markets including the UK and US,according to Inriver.Within six months of launching

36、the marketplace,an extra 100,000 products via selected third-party sellers had been made available to customers.“When you have a URL called ,customers expect a high-quality product coming from trusted merchants,”Van Oosten explains.“We have a lot of traffic online and in stores,and so from a busines

37、s perspective,its logically the next step to enrich your economic model with another line of income,which is a commission-based business.And then once you have that marketplace,you can continue in that journey around monetisation.You can offer click-and-collect,and you can offer returns.“Customers d

38、ont like to wait at home for their parcels,”he adds.“They dont like the return process,which can be quite a cumbersome process by other players.So having stores is helpful,too.”Rapid delivery:courier collecting from Screwfix 13KINGFISHER PLC“In the marketplace,for example,we are thinking how can we

39、scale it faster?Which type of functionalities can we have,which type of business model can we use to evolve it even faster in the UK?”JJ VAN OOSTENFORMER CHIEF DIGITAL AND TECHNOLOGY OFFICER,KINGFISHER PLCChecking inventory at Screwfix14 KINGFISHER PLCUsing data to provide the best experience for cu

40、stomers To bring these experiences to customers,having a secure grasp on data is key.As Van Oosten explains,data can provide a number of benefits,from enabling personalisation and frequently bought together features for customers,to implementing more sophisticated planning.“With data,we can perform

41、more sophisticated demand capacity planning,”he comments.“When were buying garden furniture,which might be for next season,usually there is a 10 to 14-month lead time on that.But how do we know today what next summer will be weather-wise?Is there going to be a demand for rattan furniture or wooden f

42、urniture?Is there going to be a specific shape or colour that will be a favourite for customers?That requires the ability to use random forest analysis approaches,which build on those very fundamental pieces of data and allow you to become more and more sophisticated.”A solid understanding of data a

43、lso enables Kingfisher to more efficiently manage inventory,as Van Oosten explains.“When you are looking at inventory in the stores,perhaps you sell most of it,or you had a good buy,”he explains.“Do you mark that inventory down,or do you bring it back into your warehouses and save it for next year?T

44、hose decisions require a good understanding of data,and machine learning and artificial intelligence(AI)to help you to have a good approach around markdowns and promotions.“If you have 300 stores,as B&Q does,and you have 35,000 SKUs and you sell for over 300 days a year,you do the maths-a spreadshee

45、t and a human brain cannot cope with this.You need to be supported and enhanced by data and the internet.” 15A strong network of partnerships As with any organisation,a network of partnerships is key to success.Kingfisher is no different,and is continuing to benefit from a number of selective partne

46、rships.“This is the fifth time Ive launched a marketplace in my life,”says Van Oosten.“The last time I had to do this,I had to build a lot of it myself.So,before we launched into developing such a solution ourselves,we had a good look around and I was very pleased to see that Mirakl had a good produ

47、ct,with a very good roadmap and solid funding.”In addition to working with Mirakl for the rollout of B&Qs marketplace,Kingfisher is also partnered with Fluent Commerce whose Order Management System enables a centralised view of inventory across locations,providing improved order fulfilment,fewer can

48、celled orders and fewer customer support calls.In November 2022,Kingfisher also announced a partnership with Google Cloud to enhance the retailers digital capabilities.By capitalising on Google Clouds infrastructure,platform services,and AI solutions,Kingfisher,its retail brands and customers see a

49、number of benefits,including greater website uptime,better forecasting and improved personalisation.“With Google,the question was threefold,”comments Van Oosten.“First of all,you need to get some speed.To gain speed,its much better to port most of your applications,including SAP,to the cloud.Once yo

50、u do that,say you have automated DevOps for example,you dont need to have your own environments,which are always a bottleneck when you want to do testing,and you have better security as well.“You also end up with exposure of your data in a much easier way because of the big query nature of Google,”h

51、e adds.“You are also attracting better talent,because they want to work with these types of tools,rather than very old mainframe types of applications.”As Van Oosten explains,for Kingfisher it is hugely important to build selective partnerships,with organisations that share the same values.“Some of

52、these things do not work if you have a different value set,so if an organisation is not engineering product and customer-led.If an organisation doesnt quite understand the importance of scalability and instant availability in real-time,or if theyre not flexible in the way that the technology has bee

53、n set up with auto-scaling,there is no point in starting a conversation.Casto Express store in Paris16 KINGFISHER PLC accessed from a 17To find out more visit ,or the B&Q appCustomers will have more choice with:Third-party sellers go through a verification processProducts listed on as sold and shipp

54、ed by seller nameCustomer adds to basket and checks out as usual Customer adds to basket and pays as usualThird-party seller delivers to customerCustomers can return their orders via home collection or to any one of our UK storesA new product marketplace will offer customers a wider selection of pro

55、ducts from trusted third-party sellers all in one place at An additional 100,000 products,available within 6 monthsIn-store returns for many marketplace productsTrusted third-party sellers82%of our customers journeys start online,so the marketplace multi-channel model will make shopping with us even

56、 more convenient82%nearly half(48%)of online product searches in the US,UK&Germany started on marketplaces 48%Why is it being launched?There are many reasons for third-party sellers to join the B&Q home improvement marketplaceHow does it work?123456Access a popular and trusted retail site with signi

57、ficant traffic that is synonymous with qualityReach a significant demographic of UK consumersWork with one of the UKs most recognisable home improvement retail brandsThe marketplace will both expand existing ranges and add new categories,such as:WallpaperLightingPower toolsSmall domesticappliancesIn

58、troducing a new home improvement marketplaceJJ VAN OOSTENFORMER CHIEF DIGITAL AND TECHNOLOGY OFFICER,KINGFISHER PLC“When were buying garden furniture,which might be for next season,usually there is a 10 to 14-month lead time on that.But how do we know today what next summer will be weather-wise?”“Im

59、 not interested in companies that are not born out of the internet,”Van Oosten says.“A lot of the time they rebadge themselves as a cloud-based solution or SaaS,but actually theyre not.Its very difficult to change something which is heavy and client-based to truly become a cloud-based company.”Futur

60、e digital ambitionsWith a number of innovations delivered already,Kingfisher are in no mind to keep standing still.“The modus operandi we have in our mind,is that we are just at the start,”Van Oosten says.“Were constantly thinking about day one and that means that there is so much more we can do.“In

61、 the marketplace,for example,we are thinking how can we scale it faster?Which type of functionalities can we have,which type of business model can we use to evolve it even faster in the UK?”In a uniquely strong position of having such strong brands and local presences,what is clear is that future in

62、novations at Kingfisher will have both the digital and physical worlds at the centre.“We look at stores as a wonderful asset where customers can go quickly,”he comments.“So,when people say to me,you do click and collect in one hour,but can I do it in one minute?I say,thats what we did in Screwfix.“W

63、e look at the whole experience,we digitalise inside the stores as well to assist kitchen designers with 3D tools which are cloud-based.And then using mobile phones,customers can actually go and get a QR code and then see their own design in the store with their own pictures.It helps customers a lot,

64、because its a complex and emotional purchase in those instances.“When I look outside the stores,we have relatively large car parks,and very good yards also.Yards for me are not just yards.Of course,we do goods in,but for me,theyre also like perfect beehives where we can accept and welcome mopeds,bik

65、es,where we can have vans,where we can have trucks,where we can have trucks with a crane.“If you look at stores in that way,then suddenly you can see that those assets can actually have another lease of life,”he concludes.“And then,we are a mere custodian for the next generation of those brands.” 19KINGFISHER PLCPOWERED BY: POWERED BY: