Let Battle Commence!

News emerged this morning of a wholesale change to the promotional strategy of Homebase, as all promotional point of sale is being removed from stores and all offers removed from the website. 

Clearly part of Wesfarmers plans to take the pricing fight to B&Q, the first changes were spotted within the Showroom category, with all promotional POS being removed from kitchens and bathrooms. A conversation with a Homebase member of staff indicated that the changes would be made over the next few days, with EDLP effective on kitchens from Friday latest. He stated that their intention is to undercut B&Q across the board and maintain the same prices every day of the year.

They have already made signifiicant changes to the pricing of their Bathroom ranges, with the impact of this already being picked up on the BathroomCompare.com website, where Homebase's competitiveness has increased signficantly. The homepage shows Homebase now have the same number of lowest price comparable bathrooms as B&Q, with only Wickes having a slight advantage over the others.

Check out the BathroomCompare.com website here.

The Bunnings strategy, which is expected to be copied and pasted into the UK, is straight-forward and focuses on three pillars:-

1. Lowest Price - Every Day Lowest Prices. If you find a cheaper price on a stocked item elsewhere, they’ll beat it by 10%. It will be fascinating to see if they implement the same price guarantee as they currently offer in Australia, which can be seen here.

 2.Widest Range - In Australia, Bunnings stores stock around 45,000 products, including; plants, gardening equipment and supplies, indoor and outdoor lighting, flooring, heating and cooling, hand and power tools, paint, home storage, kitchens and appliances, garden furniture and play equipment, plumbing and electrical products, building supplies and timber. An expanded range is available through the Bunnings Special Orders service.

 3. Best Service - Bunnings employs over 40,000 team members in Australia and New Zealand. Many of their team members have a trade background and 80% of hours worked in their stores are by permanent employees. This helps them provide customers with expert advice and great _service. Bunnings offers free D.I.Y. workshops for adults and children, free trailer hire, same day home delivery, hire shop, special orders, café, children’s playgrounds and ladies nights.

Over the next month we will be adding a number of price comparison baskets to the Insight DIY website to track who really is the most competitive Home Improvement retailer in the UK and we'll bring the results to you on a regular basis.

Source: Steve Collinge - MD Insight Retail Group.