Wickes Case Study
Planning for Future Success
Optimising the store estate in an Omnichannel landscape
The Challenge
Wickes have more than 200 stores across the UK.. Investing in large, physical stores is significant, not least as customers are increasingly choosing to browse and purchase online. It is essential Wickes understands the role a new store will play for customers in a multichannel world, as well as whether there will be any impact of cannibalisation from their neighbouring estate. The shopping trips from their customers vary hugely from picking up a pot of paint, to designing a new luxury kitchen. How can we best capture this in a forecasting model?
The Approach
- Understand the customer profile and level of spend for the different product categories in the Wickes range
- Build a bespoke demand surface at a small geography
- Build 2 separate models
- A gravity model to forecast the sales for Core DIY
- A blended model, including spatial regression to tackle Kitchen & Bathroom Sales
- Detailed analysis on real life examples to understand and validate the sales cannibalisation that occurs across the catchment following a new store opening
The Impact
Our priority was to build a consistent and accurate approach for forecasting sales cannibalisation across the estate. We’re delighted with the analysis and understanding GEOLYTIX have given us. Our knowledge of loyalty across customer types, catchments, impacts and expected store performance provides a factbase for us to make confident decisions from. We have a forecasting and mapping tool at our fingertips, that is used throughout our Property planning. And a team of experts a phone-call away for further help if we need!
Chris Sweeney, Customer Insight Director, Wickes.