Bunnings business plans to launch an e-commerce platform in the next 18 months as it aims to capitalise on the UK’s £38 billion hardware market.
In a presentation to investors on Monday, Bunnings UK managing director PJ Davis said digital engagement in the UK was “very important” and that the information-only digital model employed by Bunnings Australia wasn‘t sufficient.
“In this market we believe strongly that we need to be transactional,” Davis said.
“The next step is to lift [online] to make sure that it‘s really strong pre-shop engagement and transactional for the UK.”
READ MORE: Bunnings improves employees’ contracts since taking over Homebase
Despite setting out an 18-month timeframe for the ecommerce platform to be rolled out, Davis said the Bunnings UK team were in no rush.
Wesfarmers, the Australian conglomerate that owns Bunnings, plans to add to its St Albans flagship with another store in three weeks, and then three more stores before the end of its financial year.
Davis said the next Bunnings store will be smaller than St Albans, and they will trial different store formats on UK local market.
Davis also confirmed the Homebase stores, which Wesfarmers acquired from Home Retail Group last year in a £340 million deal, are being completely stripped before being converted to Bunnings, including the pre-existing mezzanine levels.
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