PCR Tech and IT retail, distribution and vendor news
UK grocers should take a leaf out of Harrods’ book and allow specialist tech retailers to run concession departments in their supermarkets, says Kantar Retail.
Tesco ‘scaled back’ from tech last year, and although the supermarket still sells tablets and components, it doesn’t offer a comprehensive repairs service and lacks experts in stores.
Harrods, however, currently allows Dixons Retail to run its tech department – a move which has seen sales rise some 80 per cent.
Speaking at the European TCG Retail Summit in Berlin, Kantar Retail’s Bryan Roberts said, as reported in the print issue of www.ERTonline.co.uk(May 23rd): "I think there’s a growing realisation that in the big store [supermarket] environment in the UK, departments like electricals have been turned into very expensive warehousing, with things getting covered in cobwebs reasonably quickly.
"Electronics and appliances is a battle that the supermarkets can’t win – they need to have them in-store, otherwise they cease to become a one-stop destination, but they’d be much better shoving most of it online and leaving it to that channel.
"Electrical specialists – like Dixons or Euronics – could be running their departments for them, because they have authority, credibility and service. Why run a department at a loss when you could pass that risk and responsibility to someone who is properly equipped to do so?"
