Wickes is nominated for the Retail Excellence Diamond Award and Digital Team of the Year at this year’s RG Excellence Awards. Gary Kibble, chief marketing and digital officer for the home improvement retailer, explains how the business is continually finding new ways to improve the end-to-end customer journey.

For Wickes, retail excellence is not a single-store, single-channel or single-team achievement. It is increasingly the result of a joined-up operating model that connects stores, digital, trade, design and installation around one shared view of the customer.

That begins with what Kibble describes as clear internal “north star”.

“Alignment across functions, geographical regions and levels of the business is driven by a shared understanding, which brings together our vision, mission and purpose,” he says.

The team takes a holisitc view of its goals and what makes it distinctive. They have a “consistent framework” for decision making which enables it to work towards business objectives while still responding to the needs of its loyal customers.

Mood of the Nation

A central part of that decision-making is Wickes’ monthly survey. Kibble explains: “Listening to our customers and understanding their context is key.

“Our Mood of the Nation research gives us a regular view of what matters to customers, from their attitudes towards home improvement to their mindset and emotional state.”

The research is used as a barometer across the organisation, helping teams remain grounded in customers’ day-to-day realities.

But Wickes does not rely on one source of insight alone. Mood of the Nation findings are combined with customer satisfaction data and feedback from platforms such as Trustpilot to build a more rounded picture of what customers need and where the proposition must evolve.

“We are not only listening to our customers, but acting on the feedback we receive every day,” Kibble adds. “Bringing these different sources of data and insight together gives us a rounded picture of what matters most to customers.”

Time is money for trade customers

Wickes’ investment in Click & Collect and on-demand delivery has become a key part of its service proposition, particularly for trade customers where convenience can have a direct commercial impact.

Wickes Rapid has now been rolled out nationwide. Customers can order up to 800kg of products for delivery to their home or site within three hours, seven days a week.

“For our trade customers, our focus is simple: save them time and save them money,” Kibble says. “Improving our service proposition around these two needs is central to keeping Wickes front of mind when they choose where to shop.”

He argues that the competitive benchmark has shifted. Customers no longer compare a home improvement retailer solely against other DIY chains; they compare the experience with grocery, marketplaces and other fast-moving retail categories where speed and convenience are now expected.

Wickes tracks delivery and Click & Collect performance through daily customer satisfaction data, with around 85 per cent of customers rating those services as excellent or good. For Kibble, the challenge is not just creating the right proposition, but delivering it consistently at scale.

Team players

Wickes’ digital team is essential to this consistency: “What makes the team stand out is their obsession with the customer and their ability to translate what customers need into a better digital experience,” stresses Kibble.

“There is a strong fail-fast mentality, with the team continually looking at how we can improve the end-to-end customer journey,” he says.

“Data plays a central role in this, helping us turn insight into action and identify where changes can make the biggest difference.”

That means balancing innovation with discipline, particularly where legacy systems and platforms are involved. The impact is not limited to the website or app. Wickes has introduced in-store devices that allow colleagues to pick customer orders more quickly, improving Click & Collect performance and helping support new delivery propositions such as Rapid.

Connected retail

Kibble describes Wickes’ approach to digital as “customer back” rather than “channel forward”.  The starting point is not whether a journey happens online, in store or via a colleague, but what the customer or colleague needs to complete the task successfully.

“Digital is increasingly a way of thinking and operating across the business, rather than something that sits within one channel,” he says. “Retail has evolved from single channel, to multichannel, to today’s omnichannel environment, and customers and colleagues now expect their experiences to be seamless.”

That shift is crucial for a retailer whose customer missions can span inspiration, planning, advice, product availability, collection, delivery and installation. For Wickes, the digital team is not simply designing experiences for a screen. It is helping connect the company’s channels so that both customers and colleagues encounter a more consistent Wickes experience wherever they choose to engage.

Wickes joins B&Q, Currys, EE, Hamleys and many more in the shortlist for Retail Excellence Diamond Award. While Argos and Lush are amongst Wickes’ rivals in the Digital Team of the Year category. See the full shortlist, and all categories here. This year’s RG Excellence Awards will be hosted at the Underglobe on 14 October 2026. 

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