RETAILER PROFILE: POWERBUTTON Shopfloor This interview was conducted earlier this year before lockdown. Right on the button 28


When Freemans Television in South West England set up its transactional website – called Powerbutton – a few years ago, it didn’t realise what opportunities for growth would be opened up. With business booming, the retailer continued to build up the site and even expand into other online marketplaces. Jack Cheeseman finds out more.


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ituated in the town of Portishead near Bristol, Freemans Television has been established for over 50 years. It started offering TVs, video products and domestic appliances for sale and rent but in recent


years the focus has been more on brown goods. In 2012 the store had a re-fit to introduce a modern TV showroom that allows for full product demonstrations of not just these but a host of hi-fi and audio systems too. Today, the retailer’s rapidly expanding transactional website – which


trades under the brand name Powerbutton – offers the best of an in-store customer experience with the ease of online shopping with a huge assortment of home entertainment technology available. And its reach extends far, far beyond the South West. From humble beginnings in a coastal town centre shop, Powerbutton


has developed into a competitive, nationwide online superstore offering next day courier delivery across much of the UK. Customers can also shop with the retailer on eBay and Amazon, too, after the retailer joined these online marketplace giants in the last couple of years. With so much product choice, and not to mention the attractive website


home page with video content and a help chat function, it is no wonder Powerbutton receives rave reviews from shoppers. The high level of customer service appears to be the biggest hit – indeed, the team are available any time of the day for tech support or shopping advice. Despite the website only being launched in June 2018, the retailer’s


omnichannel approach caught the judges’ attention at last year’s ERT Awards and Powerbutton was named Best Independent Electrical Retailer Website. Sales Manager, Jason Bamfield, collected the trophy on the day


along with… “Initially it was a big surprise, especially with the other big name


retailers that we were up against in the website category,” Mr Bamfield tells ERT. “I was thinking ‘we don’t stand a chance’. But to actually win, at that point with our site being relatively new, we were gobsmacked!” Mr Bamfield puts this down to all the time and effort that went into


making his presentation for the judging panel as he says he wanted to reflect how well the business is doing and, thankfully, it paid off.


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