Downsize--but replace displaced SKUs with web-based kiosks, Staples says
With 49% of consumers complaining that stores today are too big, according to a survey from Kurt Salmon Associates, it’s no surprise that some retailers are downsizing. Staples Inc. is one of them--and it is finding web-based kiosks in stores an effective means of replacing sales lost when it had to reduce the number of products to accommodate the smaller stores, Joe Doody, president of North American delivery for Staples, told the NRF convention’s Super Session “What Consumers Want, What Retailers Deliver and What Wall Street Rewards” Monday.
Staples is undertaking a project to make its stores smaller and friendlier, shrinking them from 24,000 square feet to 20,000. But in that process, it has had to reduce its SKUs, Doody said. “For the few SKUs we did take out, customers can order them online in the store and get them delivered,” he said.
Staples spends about $400,000 per store on remodeling, then adds the kiosks. “It was definitely worth the investment,” Doody said.
Brian Devine, chairman, president and CEO of Petco, reported that when Petco downsized, it found another benefit--employees found the smaller stores more congenial places to work.
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