Shopfloor analysis // Samples
samples. We find that clients choose from one of six quartz worktops and it doesn’t really go beyond that so there’s no point in showing any more of them either. If we’re going to show thousands, then it’s just going to prolong the whole decision making process so we like to refine things as much as we can and make it as simple as possible for our clients.”
Display decisions For Bruce, the idea of having samples on display for browsing clients to
look through is anathema and this has become an increasingly common view among some retailers. There is simply too much choice and to present it all to clients can be confusing rather than helpful. Stuart Luckman agrees, he may have thousands of samples but, he
says, there’s rarely more than three visible in the showroom and any client presentation will only have one or two for that particular scheme. “You don’t want to bombard people with what’s there,” he explains. “It’s
more for the designers to have them at their disposal should they want to fine tune and run through a slightly wider range of styles and finishes.” If the consensus is to not confuse the customer with too much
overwhelming choice, what does that mean for the supplier who wants to display the full range? How do they want retailers to deal with samples? “We’re currently evolving how we present Corian samples in particular,”
says Noble at CDUK. “For many years, kitchen studios would receive a box of between 60 and 70 small samples but we’ve just brought out a new range using around 20 bigger samples of the most popular colours. “We’ve certainly seen a trend over the last few years that customers
want to see a larger sample and so we’re investing in that, but to do it in a range of 60 would be far too much.” Ranges, colours and finishes are constantly being updated or changed
in this way, but a new set of samples means that, overnight, the old set are defunct. So what do you do with them all? Are there alternatives to simply chucking them in the boot of the car and taking them to the tip?
“
director, Ripples
“ 50
Ian Palmer Kutchenhaus, Ashford
My ideal is to have samples of everything. Whether people come to me with something they’ve imagined, something they’ve seen or they simply have no idea, I’d like to say, ‘if I haven’t got it, you can’t get it anywhere’
kbbreview
Paul Crow managing
Samples are fundamental. Those suppliers that put as much effort into the presentation box as they do the product itself are the ones that win. They need to have the feel of a luxury chocolate box
CDUK has recently launched an initiative called ‘Vita Nova’ that actively
encourages and facilitates the return of samples for recycling. “A few years ago we realised there was an awful lot of waste in our supply chain being thrown to landfill - whether that was material coming into us or out with our fabricators, designers or studios. “So we made a commitment to stop and help our customers to do the same. We decided that if we’re a design solution supplier we should find a way to provide a take-back scheme - and that’s Vita Nova. It aims to repurpose, revive and reuse as much material from our supply chain as we can and, of that, about 45 tonnes per year is samples.” Unlike brochures, there is no way to mitigate the cost of providing samples by offering a digital alternative. The physicality is the entire point of them and, until technology finds a way to replicate that, every showroom will have to continue to manage their libraries. There is no question, however, that suppliers will carry on looking for efficiencies in their production and distribution – and the feedback from retailers on how they actually use samples will play a big part in that.
kbbr
Listen to the ‘What’s The Point Of Samples?’ episode of The kbbreview Podcast. Go to
kbbreview.com/podcast or search ‘kbbreview’ in your podcast app of choice
September 2024
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