B&Q has launched an ecommerce marketplace as part of ambitious plans to expand its online range to more than 1 million home, DIY and garden products.
The DIY giant wants its new digital proposition to become “a one-stop-shop for your home”, strengthening its foothold in key categories such as lighting, power tools and wallpaper, and allowing it to push into new areas including small domestic appliances and children’s outdoor play.
B&Q has already signed up 17 third-party sellers, including Black & Decker, Breville and Osram, to sell through the marketplace.
The retailer aims to offer shoppers 100,000 new products within the next six months, in addition to the 40,000 already stocked on B&Q’s existing website – a target that would more than triple its existing range.
B&Q boss Graham Bell said the business has ambitions to make “millions of products available” through the platform “possibly within a year” – although it has not set itself a firm target – and described the marketplace as “the biggest potential revenue growth opportunity that the business could ever envisage”.
Bell told Retail Week: “For us, this is a continuation of the evolution of B&Q – not a B&Q for now, but a B&Q for the next 20 years.
“How we can win is by creating, I would like to think, a one-stop-shop for your home – if you are thinking of doing anything to your home, you’ll go to the B&Q marketplace because you know they will cover everything you need. That will be our aim in the future.”
He added: “If you look at what we want to do, with the millions of products and the scope of this, it is probably the biggest potential revenue growth opportunity that the business could ever envisage.
“We know that nearly 85% of shopping journeys start online. We know that 45-50% of all sales start on marketplaces in Europe and the UK. Combining that with a physical store gives us that extra edge because there are some products that customers want to come and see, touch, feel, and get extra advice about.
“It allows us to establish more of an equal playing field for the siloed pureplay digital players, where we will be able to compete with them and offer a service that they can’t if we can create that omnichannel experience.”
B&Q has partnered with marketplace platform Mirakl to launch its new online proposition, which will be available via its existing website, diy.com, and its smartphone app.
It said the model could be used by parent company Kingfisher “to roll out marketplaces in other markets and banners” across Europe.
Third-party brands selling through the B&Q marketplace will be responsible for fulfilling their own orders, but the retailer plans to introduce click and collect and returns through B&Q stores on smaller products in the future.
Bell also suggested that B&Q could eventually integrate Kingfisher’s services proposition into the marketplace.
Kingfisher acquired home-improvement services start-up NeedHelp, which connects customers to vetted professional tradespeople and experts, back in November 2020.
It offers services such as kitchen installations, bathroom renovations, painting and flooring, but Bell said this could be expanded into areas such as insulation, energy-saving and home security.
The move comes at a time when a number of retailers are seeking to tap into the popularity of online marketplaces, historically driven by the likes of Amazon and eBay, by launching their own specialised equivalents.
The likes of Next, M&S and Joules have started selling third-party fashion brands through their websites, for instance, while retailers including Decathlon and H&M Home are aiming to seize the opportunity in other categories.
B&Q is already competing against ManoMano, the French DIY, home and garden marketplace that launched in the UK in 2016.
The etailer doubled sales to £1.2bn during 2020, with UK revenues more than tripling to £105m.
- Get the latest stores news and analysis straight to your inbox – sign up for our weekly newsletter
No comments yet