Trillions of data points

Andreas Gruß: Poland is indeed a highly competitive market with an extremely price-sensitive consumer who goes from store to store comparing prices. The demand of the Polish population for home improvement is huge, and the aging of these homes does make serious investments necessary. The share of disposable income spent on DIY is substantial and the need for consistently fair pricing is evident. To provide that competitive pricing we want to optimise our investment in price and promotion in those areas where the consumer cares most. We want our customers to not only have confidence in our prices but to let them find great offers every time they visit a store. Providing seasonal or assortment change-driven markdowns are also an integral part of that pricing strategy.

We aim to increase our market share primarily by increasing share of wallet with our existing customers. First of all, we have private customers who shop for their personal needs, but we also have professional builders. We are well on the way to making our assortment and pricing policies targeted at both these segments. In-store merchandising plays an important role in making the shopping experience enjoyable and, ultimately, helping customers find everything they are looking for or might potentially need. We have market leadership in some categories, like garden products, and we want to leverage traffic in these categories to the maximum, allowing us to cross-sell parts of our assortment which are still being built up. The customers' daily choices constantly show where to improve - but managing those trillions of data points does demand state-of-the-art technology.

The main challenge of our industry is at the same time the main opportunity. Markets are becoming more and more transparent, unlimited choice is the new norm. In DIY these trends are perhaps not as acute as in other industries, but they are becoming more and more dominant. Each retailer needs to be very sharp in creating a unique value proposition, including understanding and facilitating the preferred customer journey…