Housewares Business-to-business magazine for housewares retailers and their suppliers
Habitat is set to return to Leeds on Saturday (January 28) with the launch its first new format stand-alone Mini store.
At 2,000sqft, the store in the Moortown suburb of the West Yorkshire city will include an edit of more than 600 products – all designed by Habitat’s in-house design team – with a range of price points across homeware, furniture, upholstery, lighting and textiles.
Customers will be encouraged to interact with products as well as explore habitat.co.uk on integrated digital screens and in-store iPads, which will allow them to browse the full product portfolio of over 4,500 products.
Staff will talk customers through products and highlight product options for home delivery.
Habitat managing director Clare Askem said: “This is our first new stand-alone concept for the business, so it’s an extremely exciting time for the brand as we continue to evolve both digitally and offline with new store formats.
“We know we have a lot of Habitat fans in Leeds so we’re delighted to be returning here.
“A lot of our online customers in the area have highlighted that they want to physically interact with products before they buy, which the new store will allow them to do, as well as get advice from our in-store colleagues.
“We’re looking forward to receiving customer feedback on this new store and building on these learnings as we look ahead to 2017 and our development of the Habitat brand.”
Habitat aims to trial regional ‘touch point’ stores across the UK to help support its multi-channel growth strategy. The retailer said it is investing in smaller footprint stand-alone and store-in-store formats – such as its recently launched Sainsbury’s Mini Habitat stores in Solihull (on Stratford Road in Shirley) and London (on Wandsworth Road in Battersea) to raise both online and offline brand awareness, as well as increase online shopper confidence.
The company trades from three London flagship stores, five Mini Habitat stores across the UK and at www.habitat.co.uk. Habitat has been owned by J Sainsbury plc since last September.
