BATHROOM RETAILER PROFILE | Sanctuary Bathrooms
MIXING BRICKS AND
One bathroom retailer in Leeds has married a thriving online e-commerce business with a large, well-stocked and presented showroom. Chris Frankland talks to James Roberts, director of Sanctuary Bathrooms, to find out how they made multichannel work for them
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discounters? Too many to count. But what if you could fight back? What if you decided to embrace the internet and make it as much a part of your business as your showroom?
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One retailer that has done that in a big way is Sanctuary Bathrooms in Leeds.
I first became aware of them when they started sending us interesting news stories on market statistics, gleaned in many cases from their Google analytics data. So I meet director James Roberts at Sanctuary Bathrooms’ Leeds showroom to check out how they have combined a large bricks-and-mortar showroom with a successful e-commerce business He tells me: “We started to see the growth online with people’s habits changing. They have less time these days and prefer to look at products in their own time. We have also found that with the latest bathroom trends people are buying what they want to make their dream bathroom, rather than getting everything from one place and not getting quite what they want. I don’t think our showroom has suffered because of the website. I would say it has helped, as people want to see the products.”
The online side of the business has been so successful that it now accounts for around 70% of sales. But it wasn’t always that way. Sanctuary Bathrooms was founded by James’s father Des in 2004. In fact, it is still very much a family business, with Des and his wife Sharon, James’s brother Richard and his wife Kerrie, and of course James and his wife Sarah all involved.
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ow many times do we hear bathroom retailers complain about the ‘race to the bottom’ on price brought about by online
Des had run a successful plumbing and heating business since 1981 and for many years installed bathrooms for a well-established Leeds showroom. But that showroom closed down in 2004. Des knew there were many of their customers who still wanted a supply and installation service.
So he set up on his own, renting a small unit where
he had a limited number of displays so people could go and view on an appointment basis, while still running the heating and plumbing business. As that business grew, he took over the adjacent units and created a permanent retail presence. That initial 1,000sq ft has now grown to 4,000sq ft with a 7,000sq ft warehouse just a stone’s throw away. Sanctuary’s first flirtation with online sales was on
eBay. As James explains: “eBay was our first venture into selling online. We sold taps and complete bathroom suites. We made up the complete suite, took a photo and listed it on eBay. At the time, this was a very popular way of buying. In 2005, we set up an e-commerce website. We used an out-of-the box e-commerce system from a local company, which helped promote the site nationally.” Although online sales are now the lion’s share of Sanctuary’s business, James tells me that the showroom and e-commerce sides have both grown steadily. Indeed the 4,000sq ft showroom is well fitted out, and has a classy look with names such as Crosswater, Burlington, Heritage, Hudson Reed, Kudos, Roper Rhodes, Geberit and Vitra on display. “We find both sides of the business complement each other,” says James. “We aim to give the same service online as in the showroom. It’s important that our customers have a good experience with us, be it
an after-sales issue or a question about a product. We have a high volume of customers recommending us to friends and relatives.” With that in mind, Sanctuary allows customers to book a timed consultation with one of their designers from the website. In this way, James says, they can make sure a product is right for them and that they like the look and feel of it. Sanctuary employs a total of 18 staff, with six in its nearby warehouse, three to four working on website updating and marketing, and six on sales. James adds that they are recruiting more people to the marketing team this year.
I put to James the age-old complaint that online sellers have an unfair advantage as their overheads are lower. Does he think that is a fair criticism? “As we have both, I would say our costs are higher with the website. We constantly invest in making changes and upgrading infrastructure to cope with the changing demands in stock and customers. I don’t agree online sellers have a free ride. When we talk to customers, and they have been into a showroom, it’s not always been down to price. Most say it was the experience they received that was why they didn’t buy from them.”
I ask James about his external marketing agency for the online business. “We have been working with different agencies since
kbbreview · September 2019
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