NEWS


Homebase announces plant range app


Homebase has become the first national home improvement and garden retailer to add its complete plant range to the SmartPlant App, giving customers the confidence to choose exactly the right plant for their home and garden. After a year-long successful trial with Homebase, the SmartPlant App will offer a free digital plant caring assistant with every plant purchase. All customers will need to do is download the app following their purchase of either an indoor or outdoor plant, scan the barcode on the plant, and they’ll get free, personalised, monthly plant care instructions reminders direct to their smartphone Approximately 95% of the British and European plant


growers who supply Homebase have already signed up to the SmartPlant App. The remainder of its suppliers will be onboard by the end of 2020. The app – which is fully integrated with Amazon Alexa offering the chance to ask plant care questions hands-free – has rolled out to all their Homebase stores nationally.


SmartPlant is said to be the only app in the world that allows users to speak directly with plant experts via the app, receiving a personal tailored response to all their plant queries within 24 hours.


The SmartPlant App, which was launched in 2017, allows customers to unlock information about specific varieties of plants by scanning the QR code on plant labels at Homebase with their mobile phones, as well as provide ongoing information about at-home care. Customers can sign up to receive regular updates in the form of videos and top tips from over 100 garden experts such as Huw Richards & Chelsea award winner, Raymond Evison, on how to look after their plants successfully.


NEWS IN BRIEF


n BHETA’s next retailer networking forum takes place on 25 March and will feature Amanda Reed, Leekes’ Buying Controller. Leekes will be bringing BHETA members up to speed on recent changes at the out of town department store group. n The International Hardware Fair, planned in Cologne from 1 March 2020, has been postponed to a new date in


February 2021 due to the Coronavirus virus threat globally. n The category with the biggest increase in sales during the last year at garden centres across the country has been announced by the Garden Centre Association (GCA) as part of its Barometer


of Trade (BoT) report. Houseplant sales saw a year-to-date increase of 17.6% compared to 2018. n Soak.com, the digital bathroom retailer, has entered into administration after unsuccessful attempts to find a buyer. n Benjamin Moore has announced The Decorating Centre, Wetherby, as its latest authorised stockist.


4 DIY WEEK 28 FEBRUARY 2020 FEDIYMA changes to HIMA


After 20 years of operations, the European Federation of DIY Manufacturers (fediyma), will now be known as the Home Improvement Manufacturers Association (HIMA). HIMA


is an international


network of over 1,000 suppliers and manufacturers of home improvement, DIY, gardening, building materials and furniture industries across the globe. The home improvement industry has undergone a


Positive sales to start 2020 according to GCA


Sales across traditional and non- traditional categories at garden centres across the country were up during January (2020) according to the Garden Centre Association’s (GCA) Barometer of Trade (BoT) report.


Houseplant sales were up 33.01% and outdoor plant sales were up 14.69%, while clothing departments saw an increase in sales of 15.99% and catering sales were 11.28% up compared to the same month of 2019.


Iain Wylie, GCA chief executive, explained: “It


is great to see such a positive start to the year with sales up in the majority of traditional and non-traditional categories. The


NearSt receives funding boost to drive high street growth


NearSt has raised £2m in seed funding to drive more footfall into bricks and mortar stores. Founded in 2015 by Max


Kreijn and Nick Brackenbury, the duo developed a technology that links products on shop shelves in real-time to nearby customers searching in Google.


The latest funding takes the total raised by NearSt to £3.2m, and brings in finance from notable angel investors Will Hobhouse (Heal’s, Jack Wills, Whittard of Chelsea) and Ben Laurie (Google Research & Machine Intelligence), alongside senior engineers from pioneering AI firm DeepMind. NearSt will use the cash injection to accelerate uptake by retailers in the UK with a wave of new hires, and launch the start- up’s offering in the US. Currently


sending 5,000


extra customers per month into UK high street stores via its technology, who would have otherwise shopped online, NearSt will also use the new cash injection to grow this to over 100,000 a month by year end, providing a welcome boost for the high street. “Most of the products we buy online are stocked in a store nearby,” said Nick Brackenbury, co-founder of NearSt. “Until today though, they were invisible to your smartphone, so online was the only option. We’re


significant transformation over


the past decade. The face of the market is quickly evolving, and manufacturers must adapt to new shifts in demographics, attitudes and end consumer preferences. The reality is that business is becoming ever more


only category that saw a drop in sales was furniture and barbecues at -17.2%, which is understandable at this time of year, and any increases or decreases in this category have a negligible effect on the overall figures, given the volume of outdoor leisure sales in January.


“It certainly wasn’t barbecue weather, but we did have an unusually mild start to the year weather-wise, which meant garden centre customers were able to spend more time outdoors preparing their beds and plots for the coming season. “Seed and bulb sales were up 4.43%, sales in garden sundries were up 11.6% and pets and aquatics sales were also up at 3.73%. Gift sales were up 9.98%, Christmas sales saw an increase of 2.43% as customers stocked up on items for the 2020 festive season, hard landscaping sales rose 22.13% and food hall and farm shop sales were also up 10.09%.”


Overall sales for the month were up 7.69% with a year to date change of 7.69%.


www.diyweek.net


solving that problem for retailers by making it effortless to get their products seen by the millions of local searches happening everyday near their stores. “The magic of NearSt is how simple it is for a retailer to take advantage of this cutting edge technology. A few minutes and a few clicks is all it takes to get their inventory management system hooked up.”


The technology has seen


widespread uptake by British retailers as a low-effort, but powerful tool, to fight back against the likes of Amazon, with over 30% of independent retailers in some sectors already using the service.


complex at a greater speed. “We enable our members to ‘face the future’ is the mission of the association, which stands on three pillars: networking, knowledge and lobbying,” explained Reinhard Wolff, president of HIMA (pictured).


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