Winning Appliances has recently launched its flagship store in Fortitude Valley, Queensland, inspired by the iconic Flatiron building in New York City, complete with an in-house chef and inspirational merchandising.
CEO David Woolcott said that the idea behind the design of the new showroom was to show customers that while Winning Appliances is a 110-year old brand, it’s also modern and cutting-edge. The building’s interior and exterior were both designed by prominent architecture firm, Elenberg Fraser.
“We asked them to work with our interior designers to come up with a concept embodied by what we call the Golden Age of Retail – that was the message. For us, that period was when retailers spent significant amounts of money on their interior, like the original Harrods and Selfridges,” said Woolcott.
“As a retailer, you can’t just line up your products in your store. You need to inspire your customer as well. It’s not every day a customer is purchasing a major appliance, it’s a big investment, sometimes it’s actually not an investment they’d rather not make – ‘Our fridge broke down and I really didn’t plan to spend $2,000 on a new one this week, but I have to’.”
Winning Appliances is also on the hunt for other locations in the Gold Coast area, with additional plans to expand further into Sydney, the biggest market for the company. The retailer first launched its Indooroopilly in Queensland six years ago and has three stores in Western Australia – Joondalup, Osborne Park and O’Connell.
One of the most interesting features of the Fortitude Valley showroom is the the retailer’s permanent chef and the active cooking area. Here, a customer can relax and and watch the chef preparing food in the experiential kitchen, using various appliances from the retailer. Customers are also invited to get involved in the food preparation, so they can see for themselves how the products perform in reality.
While many other retailers are opting to close down their physical stores, Woolcott said that Winning Appliances had chosen instead to invest heavily in focusing on the customer experience in the showroom. According to Woolcott, the retailer’s showrooms in Redfern, Sydney and Kingston in Canberra were similarly “really extensive and costly exercises, but the results were phenomenal”.
“A lot of bricks-and-mortar retailers are worried about their margins and they’re trying to cut, cut, cut from a cost base. We have an efficient business model, but it’s based on great customer experiences,” he explained.
“We think the physical store environment is so important, particularly because our customers don’t spend just half an hour with us – they spend hours and hours if not weeks, planning their renovations and talking about what their homes are going to look like. We’ve got our customers or such a long period of time, we want to make that experience as best as we possibly can.”
Winning Appliances also relaunched its website six weeks ago, which will also be fully transactional in June. Custom-built on a brand new platform, the site has better navigation, geo-location capabilities and is aimed at offering customers inspiration and practical help around home renovation and design.
