The decade of @home

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Article by TFG on BizCommunity
Lifestyle retailer @home has reported that ‘wellbeing’ continues to be the most searched word on the @home website after having never featured in their top 20 words searched for the website before. Customer sentiment, sales indicators and community impact of this category confirm that the ‘decade of home’ is here to stay.
“In the early days of lockdown, we noticed that the conversation changed from healthy living to wellbeing. The role that one’s home plays in this narrative is pivotal as that is the central place where one’s wellbeing begins. How well you sleep, how well you eat, your wellbeing when you’re working from home, the routines you follow and the equipment you use. This new direction opened up many exciting possibilities for us. Our @home designers started to think about wellbeing in every room of the house and every facet of your life. Creating your sanctuary that is safe and at home,” said Shani Naidoo, TFG Group director.

The trend of wellbeing has revolutionised customer shopping behaviour from filling baskets with functional merchandise to transparently expressing intent and a new way of life – expressions of creating calm home environments, decluttering spaces and practising mindfulness in supporting local trade. @home has since bolstered its local supply chain by increasing orders with local suppliers and in the process securing local jobs at a very trying time. The brand’s local merchandise offering has grown in a number of product categories such as in bedding, mattresses, furniture, coffee, cooking ingredients, home fragrances and bath and body products.

Growing local changes lives

The new direction of wellbeing led the @home design team to develop a Simply Stored range and procure The Home Edit; both of these ranges are centred on organising one’s life. The more organised you are, the less cluttered your life is, the less stressed you should be. A great advantage that the team found while developing the Simply Stored range is that some of the items could be made locally, and where that was not the case, the @home team has been able to work with local partners to acquire the items needed to complete the collection.

Proudly SA items can be found throughout @home, from Egyptian cotton linen, to duvet inners, to self-care products to mattresses, selected couches, to home, office and outdoor furniture ranges.

In an effort to revive the SA textile industry @home have collaborated with a leading local manufacturer of fine woven and warp knitted home furnishings fabrics for a variety of products, including cushions. They are working with a company that employs up to 300 people, many who have more than 30 years’ service. Simultaneously, some are representatives of second and even third-generation family members who have developed their skills in the business.

Natural feather and down and synthetic duvets and pillows are produced locally in Cape Town by a family-run company that its founding director and his family still run. Now employing over 200 South Africans, most of their 30 original staff have stayed and continue to produce the same high-quality goods responsible for their success over the years. All fillings are processed to exceed international standards.

@home’s Egyptian cotton bedding, across all thread counts, is manufactured locally in the Western Cape. This superior quality product comes from the hands of 373 female employees working as machinists, spreaders, cutters, folders and production supervisors, ensuring the best quality finished product gets to you. At least 81% of the female staff are the breadwinners for their immediate and extended families.

@home’s 100% cotton everyday towels, the Zero Twist and Ribbed Cotton ranges, are made by a well-established local towelling manufacturer synonymous with quality and durability. The company has long focused on maintaining sustainable value chains within the industry.

“Magnificent Barista Boys is one of my favourite local stories. What started as collaboration with two young entrepreneurs has developed into a business partnership. The @home team worked with the duo to develop a sustainable business from the ground up and are selling exclusively to @home. Magnificent Barista Boys started selling only two varieties of coffee beans, growing to 17 active lines selling on average 1000 units a week in-store and online. This is the power of localisation, driving sustainable economic growth for all,” concluded Naidoo.

About TFG:

With 31 retail brands that trade in fashion, value, jewellery, accessories, sporting apparel, cellular, homeware and furniture, TFG is one of the leading retail groups in South Africa. Besides South Africa, TFG Africa also has a presence in Botswana, Zambia, Namibia, Lesotho and Eswatini through various retail brands. TFG first entered the UK market through the acquisition of the premium womenswear brand Phase Eight in 2015, followed by the acquisition of Whistles in 2016 and Hobbs in 2017. TFG’s presence in the Australian market was strengthened through its acquisition in July 2017 of Retail Apparel Group Pty Ltd (RAG), a leading Australian menswear apparel retailer. TFG’s vision is to be the leading fashion lifestyle retailer in Africa whilst growing its international footprint. TFG has over 4,300 outlets in 31 countries, and employs more than 34,500 people with over 26,3 million customers (RSA).

Benefits of Bopis for retail and beyond

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Article by Michael Gewer, CEO of VaultGroup on BizCommunity

 

If you haven’t heard of it already, take note: Bopis (buy online pick up in store) is transforming the face of South African retail, and it’s coming soon to a store – or a mall – near you.

Bopis offer retailers the perfect way to enhance the customer experience, drive in-store foot traffic and connect their offline and online experiences at a time when consumers are looking for a safer way to shop.

How it works: Customers do their shopping online, and once they’ve completed their purchases, they get an OTP or QR code on their smartphone that they use to open an electronic locker in the store.

Stores like Mr Price, Sportscene and Totalsports have been quick to install secure electronic lockers in their stores, enabling shoppers to click-and-collect their goods. Sandton City has implemented Drop & Shop lockers that let patrons securely store their shopping and personal items while eating out, going to the movies, or socialising.

Even though Bopis is not new, it’s the perfect solution for our Covid-19 times. A Digital Commerce 360 survey published in August found that almost 44% of the top 500 US retailers with physical stores are offering this click-and-collect service, up from 7% before the pandemic.

For South African retailers under pressure due to reduced shopper traffic, it represents a creative way to tempt people back into stores and malls. International evidence suggests that Bopis has resulted in more than 40% upsell activities in-store: consumers come to collect their purchases, and inevitably end up buying something else as well.

Delivery cost savings is another key benefit for beleaguered retailers, but for consumers, it’s all about speed and convenience.

 

Opportunities for other markets

The integration of Bopis with electronic lockers holds significant opportunities for other market segments as well. For instance, public and private sector pharmacies can use the system for people who need to collect their chronic medication.

Instead of spending time waiting in line, a customer can easily use an OTP or QR code to open a secure locker and get their medicine at their convenience. Considering that patients can spend up to six hours waiting at government clinics to collect chronic medication, the potential is real.

Perhaps one of the most intriguing use cases involves government. With applications for the likes of passports and smart ID cards mainly taking place online, Bopis can significantly enhance government’s e-citizen services. Instead of having people wait in line at Home Affairs or licensing departments to collect their cards or documentation, secure lockers can be used.

This will result in a significantly more efficient government process while mitigating against the risk of people having to unnecessarily wait in long queues.

African growth

The potential for secure lockers on the rest of the continent is limitless. And with much of the awareness around the benefits of integrating Bopis with lockers being done thanks to Covid-19, people (and retailers) are more open to this way of collecting their online purchases.

Secure lockers and Bopis are here to stay. The number of potential applications are as varied as the type of lockers available tailored to specific industry sectors. While Covid-19 might have been the driver for the growth in Bopis solutions over the past year, it’s a trend that’s here to stay.