UK retailer Sainsbury's is launching four new Mini Habitat concession stores in its supermarkets this month.
The new outlets will be opened in Sainsbury's supermarkets in York, Manchester, Newcastle and London, taking the total number to ten.
The retailer says that the new 2,000 square foot stores will follow the same footprint as the brand's current in-store formats, featuring a range of over 600 products, including furniture, upholstery, lighting, homewares and textiles.
“We’ve learnt lots of lessons from our six trial Mini stores in Sainsbury’s this year and these have been addressed in our upcoming store openings," said Clare Askem, managing director of Habitat.
"We’ve refined our product range based on customer feedback, while our in-store visual merchandising and service proposition has been adapted to what customers want on a ‘weekly shop’ basis.”
Multi-Channel Retail
Sainsbury's acquired Home Retail Group, the owner of Habitat and Argos, last year, and began installing Argos and Habitat concessions in its stores.
As over 60% of Habitat's sales are now made online, Sainsbury's says that its investment in concession formats is aimed at expanding brand awareness with customers, and allowing customers to see products in a convenient location.
In-store digital screens and iPads will allow customers to access Habitat's full portfolio of over 4,500 products, which can be ordered for home delivery or collection from over 2,000 Sainsbury's locations across the UK.
“Our customers increasingly want choice, flexibility and speed, and we are evolving the brand into a truly multi-channel business that allows customers to shop how and when they want – be that online, in-store or a combination of the two,” added Askem.
“We believe physical stores will remain important to Habitat which is why we are evolving our store offer and rolling it out to four further shops."
© 2017 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Sarah Harford. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
