Canary Wharf is the number 1 performing store for Waitrose, taking £1.3million a week – so ensuring its relevance to todays’ customers was key. Ten years since the award-winning store opened, the time was ripe to make the changes needed to better appeal to both the time-pressured weekday city worker, and the more leisurely weekend shopper. Household were brought in to ensure the journey throughout the Food, Home and Fashion floors had clarity and appeal to both shopper mindsets through navigational signage and creation of key touchpoints.
The journey needed to be both easy and enjoyable, appealing to two very different shopper types: the time-pressed affluent city worker (predominantly male) where lunch and after work missions dominate; then at weekends the customer profile changes as the store becomes a destination for the ‘trolley’ shopper, often arriving by car. To maximise sales, the proposition had to support the needs of both customer types without compromising on the quality of their individual experience.
Our communications system forged clarity and appeal through the principles of ‘Guide me’, ‘Show me’, ‘Inspire me’, and ‘More ideas for me’ and ensured the store had the right balance of visual anchors to punctuate the space and orientate across floors; iconic illuminated signage totems highlighted discovery of more; and scale of communication captured and celebrated the store as a lifestyle destination beyond food. Each floor took on slightly different mood personality to engage the customer with the varied offer, with the fashion floor taking on a more boutique, serviced feel to slow customers down further.
The first day of trading saw sales up by nearly 46% with total sales rising 10.7% for the group.
John Ryan of Retail Week says “the combination of equipment manufacturer and shopfitter Schweitzer/Interstore, the in-house store design team and navigational signage created by Household, made this a store that impressed”.
Retail Week, 09.09.11
A look at our involvement in the Waitrose 'department store' - Food, Fashion and Home
