The saying time is money has never rung more true than for Screwfix’s tradespeople customers.
And the Kingfisher-owned hardware business is ensuring its shoppers are not missing out on a single penny by creating the quickest, most efficient shopping experience.
Screwfix’s convenience credentials include one-minute click and collect at all its near-900 UK stores, 60-minute or less delivery and as of late November, a partnership with Deliveroo.
“For our customers, time really is money,” says chief executive John Mewett, “when they’re not working, they’re not earning money.”
“Being able to get hold of the things they need to do the jobs quickly is really important so our focus has been around making sure that we can serve them quickly as possible.”
However, that’s easier said than done. To make this a reality Mewett has built a slick omnichannel machine – one that retailers across all sectors can learn from.
Mail order roots
The retailer has come a long way since it started selling screws in 1979.
“We actually started as a mail order business – not as a retail business – so we had a catalogue and customers would ring up and place orders,” says Mewett.
However, it became an early pioneer in the world of online, launching its website back in 1999 – and even back then it offered a pretty impressive service.
“We started off online as a next day business, so if you ordered in the afternoon then we delivered to you the next morning,” says Mewett.
However, he explains this didn’t work for many trade customers who often moved between different job sites day-to-day.
A gamechanger for the business was the launch of its click-and-collect service in 2011, where again it was an early adopter.
“When we launched click-and-collect, the scale of it was a surprise and wasn’t what we thought,” says Mewett, explaining that the business was forced to pivot the way it operates as a business after receiving hundreds of orders for each store.
“When it was 10 orders on a shelf, it’s really easy to do, but when you’ve got two hundred click-and-collect orders waiting in one store you have to rethink [the store’s operations].”
Making adjustments in store helped to move the proposition forward and allowed Screwfix to shorten its click-and-collect wait times to just 60 seconds.
“We want to offer the ultimate click-and-collect,” says Mewett, explaining that customers are now able to buy from over 10,000 products online and collect in-store within one-minute.
The service is “hugely popular”, he says. “You sometimes see customers sitting outside in their vans, placing an order and then walking in to collect the item.”
Speedy delivery
Screwfix boosted its convenience offer once again in 2021 when it launched its Sprint 60-minute or less delivery service.
The initiative is available to 48% of the UK with the service focused more on the major cities and metropolitan areas, explains Mewett.
“If tradespeople have found a parking space in the morning, they don’t want to give up their space to go and drive to come pick up some goods,” he says.
“If we can deliver it to them, it means they can keep their van – which is often their mobile toolbox – close to where they’re working.”
“The average delivery time is about just over 40 minutes and sometimes we are doing a lot of orders in less than 10 minutes,” Mewett adds.
Late last year the hardware retailer revealed a selection of its popular products will soon be available on the Deliveroo app as part of its new partnership with the delivery service.
The importance of stores
Screwfix’s convenience offering is all supported through its network of almost 900 stores across the UK.
Mewett explains the shops act as mini-warehouses which make it easier for store colleagues to pick out the goods for click-and-collect, as well as ready them to be picked up for delivery.
The stores help to support Screwfix’s strategy of providing the “ultimate convenience” for its customers, says Mewett.
The business is sticking true to its mission statement and has set a target of opening 1000 stores across the UK and Republic of Ireland.
Deleted: It opened 40 new stores nationwide last year, bringing its total store portfolio to 912.
“What we’ve been doing is opening more stores to serve markets either by filling in existing cities and filling in more rural areas to make it more convenient for customers,” says Mewett.
The retailer, which is known for its larger industrial estate locations, has also been focused on growing its presence with smaller inner city “ultra compact collect” stores to reach more shoppers.
“Particularly in cities, customers don’t shop at one particular store. They shop across multiple stores and it’s all driven by where they’re working.
“At the end of the day, having stores close to where they’re working and be able to serve [them] either through a very fast delivery or through them being able to come in and pick the item up in-store is absolutely critical.”
“We’ve made some adjustments to our range when we go into the slightly smaller location to make sure we’ve got what customers needs on a need-now basis,” says Mewett, explaining the rest of the range is available for quick delivery.
Working with B&Q
Screwfix has become a market leader in its own right for its innovative initiatives – some of which have been shared across the rest of the Kingfisher group, which it became part of in 1999.
“Some of the learnings have very much been around picking orders in store,” Mewett says, explaining that other businessses in the group have replicated Screwfix “mini warehouse” store model.
“B&Q, for example, has moved to where the majority of their orders are now picked from store and delivered from their stores.”
Both Screwfix and B&Q also operate TradePoint, which allows trade customers to buy from both retailers using the same account and pay after they’ve done the job.
“We’ve built that together, and it’s something that we were working on within the Kingfisher group,” he says.
Spare Parts acquisition
Screwfix is keen to expand its market share and in March last year, the business snapped up spare parts retailer Connect Distribution Services from administration.
The move saw the retailer’s IP, stock, contracts and fixed assets, as well as over 400 colleagues join the Screwfix business.
“We also acquired their ecommerce platforms for their brands, such as eSpares, BuySpares and 4OurHouse and the Connect Trade Portal,” says Mewett.
“Both businesses serve B2B and B2C customers and we’ve both got leading digital and fulfillment platforms. We’ve already have a number of initiatives in place across the businesses.
The acquisition has benefited both businesses, Mewett explains.
“Not only have we been able to take the learnings from Screwfix into Connect but Connect is a great business, and we’ve also managed to get many learnings from it, which are very useful to Screwfix.”
These learnings include how Connect collects and manages the data from customers, as well as understanding more about the appliance spares sector.
Mewett explains the retailer’s shoppers differ from those he’s used to at Screwfix: “People don’t generally shop by the spare [on Connect], they shop by the appliance that they’ve got.
“If you wanted a new door seal for your washing machine, you would start with your washing machine and then find the door seal.”
Mewett says the two business have already started working with eachother, with some of the teams from both companies transferring across to the other.
He adds that he’s “exploring opportunities to enable customers to click and collect through the Screwfix’s network of stores” as well as other initiatives.
It seems Screwfix is far from slowing down as it looks to maintain its position as a leading omnichannel retailer.
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