RETAILER FOCUS
OXO has given its brand and tools more visibility than ever before, making it easier for consumers to navigate the product collection to find the tools they need. “The Lift & Learn technology allows the consumer to pick up a product and visually learn more about it. We’ve also introduced some additional glorifiers which are little table talkers to explain more about the product. The Lift & Learn technology provides us with analytics to help us understand how often the product is being picked up. This allows us to tailor the product range based on the analytics. At the moment, we’re using our Lift & Learn technology for our four iconic products which we are known for. Over time, we’ll change the products which use this technology according to seasons or trends. In the summer, for example, we may add this technology to our barbecue tools so we can explain more about the range. Although the technology is in its infancy, based on the analytics we’re seeing more customers interacting with it than we had anticipated,” says Viale-Sole.
international brands. Whilst we’ve seen a massive growth over the past seven years in the UK, the business in the United States is bigger than Europe and we’re also growing in the Asia-Pacific regions.”
Educate the customer With this new instore concept, OXO is focused on ensuring the customer has access to all the information they need about the product. “Whilst we tend to find OXO’s products are bought by older, more affluent consumers, our products cater to such a big and broad market. For this reason, the way we’ve designed the fixture is to grab as much of the market as we can. We try to make sure we’re the most visible brand in the gadgets and utensils category because we want people to pick up and try the tools. We’ve also focused on the explanation part because when we speak to consumers, they don’t know the amazing things our products do for them. A Salad Spinner can also be used a serving bowl, for example, so our fixture is there to explain this to consumers,” says Viale-Sole. “We sell products that people generally already have. As a result, most of the time it is a distress purchase so they only buy a product when it is broken, for example. In addition, our customers don’t usually spend a lot of time researching the product before purchasing it. The visual elements we’ve included in this feature are all about trying to convince the consumer why our product is better than anyone else’s. The Lift & Learn technology has been more popular than we thought it would be because consumers are seeking more information about our products,” he adds.
When developing its fixtures in other retail spaces, OXO will continue to take a technology-first approach, as Viale-Sole adds “When you look at retail in general, everyone is introducing technology more and more into their fixtures so why wouldn’t the housewares sector do the same thing? Previously, we featured a digital screen on one of our fixtures in a John Lewis store in Liverpool, and it didn’t work so well because it needed more interaction. We have around 350 products so making the information easy and quick for the customer to access is crucial and the Lift & Learn achieves this. Moving forward, all of our fixtures will have some element of technology within them. It may not be a digital screen, but it will improve our customer’s understanding of our ranges. A lot of our products need to be seen to be understood.
Visibility is key
Located in a popular area with high footfall, the island fixture is in the centre of the John Lewis Oxford Street store, and perfectly captures the different moments of home entertaining. Designed to make shoppers feel as though they are in a real kitchen environment, the fixture covers all key areas from barware and entertaining, through to a cutting-edge cooking preparation section, and includes iconic tools such as the Peelers, Salad Spinners, Angled Measuring Jugs and POP containers. Viale-Sole says “Oxford Street has always been an interesting one for us as it is the biggest generator in revenue. The product mix, however, can be quite different. Because it is located on Oxford Street, for customers it is not always easy to carry their purchases home. As a result, we have selected smaller products for this fixture such as tools and gadgets and utensils which also sell really well in this branch. The other thing about Oxford Street is there is a huge number of tourists so for us as a brand we’re not only helping our UK consumers but also our
housewareslive.net October/November 2023 | 11
Understand the retail space Moving forward, OXO will evaluate how to replicate this concept to suit other retail spaces as Viale-Sole concludes “We’ve got an open plan with John Lewis to roll this concept out to five more stores that we don’t currently have fixtures in. The concept we take from the John Lewis Oxford Street store and the other five John Lewis stores will then be rolled out to our fixtures with our other retailers. With Oxford Street, we’re blessed with a massive size and footprint but we won’t always have that everywhere else so it may be difficult to replicate this in a smaller space. All the bits in this fixture are modular so they can be added and moved around according to the space we’re allocated. What we’re trying to figure out is what the consumers are most interacting with. We need to look out whether we should be focusing on the glorifiers or maybe bringing the products to life in a different way in different stores. That is where the education has come for us from this fixture.”
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36
