PCR Tech and IT retail, distribution and vendor news
As the date of Best Buy’s UK offensive edges ever closer, the first stage of DSGi’s long planned regrouping is beginning to take shape, with 25 PC World and ten Currys/Currys.digital stores scheduled to be refitted, retrained and rebranded in time for Christmas – alongside the opening of a trial ‘hypermarket’.
So far, the Enfield, Brentford and Coldfield PC Worlds have been refitted with the new layout and new branding, while the Chelmsford Curry.digital and Swindon Currys stores have also been reformatted.
"There’s essentially four new formats here – PC World, Currys.digital, Currys and a huge trial hypermarket. All these will emerge before Christmas," DSGi’s Mark Webb told PC Retail.
The new layouts are designed to be more easily navigated, while the product ranges will be bolstered with an increased number of higher end products. A renewed wave of marketing will be put in place to support the rebranding. DSGi is also investing more into its staff knowledge, with a companywide training program.
Meanwhile, new zones dedicated to convergence are designed to boost customer awareness of how to use technology in the home, and more opportunities will exist for vendors to brand certain areas with their product ranges.
"Everything is designed so that PC Worlds are destination stores for computing, new technology, digital products and service with the Tech Guys," continued Webb.
"What you’d see as a customer would be grid layout of the store as opposed to the old herring bone, so when you walk in you will immediately have clear line of sight right to the other end of the store, we have much better clarity with the signage and the look of the stores. It’s not just a physical change, there’s a huge amount of work going into retraining and training our store teams."
