The Challenge
Pets at Home is a specialist pet and accessories retailer owned by private equity firm Bridgepoint captial. Its main competitors are supermarkets, whose move into the pet market prompted Pets at Home to pilot a new design. In order to retain its share of the market, Pets at Home needed to create a community of pet owners and confirm its place as the pet experts in the UK.
The Brief
20|20 was commissioned to develop the existing Pets at Home store in an out-of-town retail park in Romford into a destination store where pet lovers can enjoy, learn about and buy everything they need for a happy and healthy pet, reinforcing Pets at Home as an authority in the market. The brief asked 20|20 to transform the store, which was already out-performing the company in overall like-for-like sales, while retaining product space and density. Objectives included encouraging customers to visit more often, increasing basket size by one item per visit, and improving the performance of specific areas including Aquatics, Small Animal, Dog and Wildlife.
The Design The original Romford Pets at Home store, a large warehouse, looked too much like a supermarket. The redesigned store is divided into distinct areas and uses landscaping, large, vibrant graphics of pets having fun, and warm, distinctive colours to break up the space and make Pets at Home’s branded products stand out. Customers are guided around the store via two circulation routes – a fast track ‘spine’ to the bestselling Dog area, placed at the back of the store, and a slower route to encourage browsing. Aquatics and Wildlife, identified as key growth areas, were turned into specialist departments.
The Results After the re-fit, the Romford store’s sales increased to 13.94% above the Pets at Home company average and profit margins increased by 2.36% to 50.66%. The number of transactions per week rose from 3,251 to 3,769, and average basket size increased by £1.04 (Euro1.530 to £17.13 (Euro 25.20). Sales of pet fish rose by 57.9% and of small animals by 18.37%. Levels of stock loss have reduced since the refit, and cash margins have increased by £82,000 (Euro120,600) per annum, with an expected payback period of three years.
