As people spend more time at home during the coronavirus lockdown, digital technology has taken on a central role in life, whether video conferencing with colleagues or shopping online.

  • Dixons Carphone has launched video shopping service and social distancing measures in Nordic stores
  • Chief executive Alex Baldock says “there are certain things that stores are best at delivering in our sector”
  • Retailer is thinking about how the “customer might change for the next six to 12 months and beyond”

Cooped-up consumers have helped electricals and technology specialist Dixons Carphone deliver a sales uplift in categories such as home office equipment including computers, laptops and tablets; entertainment, such as gaming consoles and televisions; and refrigeration and food preparation gadgets.

All of Dixons Carphone’s UK stores are closed, so all purchases have been through online channels.

Now Dixons Carphone has brought together lockdown digital habits and popular products to create a new shopping experience, ShopLive, created by UK tech firm Go Instore.

The service, which has been launched in Currys PC World, allows customers to chat to staff in-store using a video link to get advice and see demonstrations of the products they’re interested in from the comfort of their own homes. As UK stores are not yet open, a version of the tool has been launched on the Curry’s PC World website connecting shoppers to store colleagues working from home.

In the same way that services such as Zoom, Google Hangouts and Houseparty have soared in popularity to help people socialise and meet with colleagues from home, ShopLive could offer the in-person shopping experience many consumers still crave.

ShopLive is likely to be especially useful to vulnerable people who will continue to self-isolate even after some lockdown restrictions are lifted, as well as those who have become accustomed to doing more activities from home and will continue to do so post-lockdown.

Baldock, Alex

Alex Baldock: ’Sometimes crisis spurs innovation’

“Sometimes crisis spurs innovation,” says chief executive Alex Baldock, as he tells Retail Week about the rationale for ShopLive. “While we’ve been really pleased by the number of store sales online has been able to pick up, we are still missing a third of our sales.

“There are certain things that stores are best at delivering in our sector – for example, the face-to-face advice from a trusted expert, demonstrations of the product, the customers being able to play around with the product, and see and touch and feel it for themselves, and to access services to help them get the most out of their product rather than just buying it, like repairs, set up and data transfer.

“All those things are still best done in our stores, so we asked ourselves ’what can we do to enhance the online customer’s experience in a way that makes the most of our strengths and helps the customer most?’”

Baldock cites employee expertise as Dixons Carphone’s biggest strength, providing the greatest value to customers. That means the ShopLive concept can slot seamlessly into the retailer’s ecosystem and could prove worthwhile after the lockdown ends, even if it is accompanied by the hangover of recession.

“We can do things to help a customer’s online experience that no one else can”

Alex Baldock, Dixons Carphone

“If customers have less money to spend, they’re going to need more help affording technology and are going to want to get more out of the technology they’ve already got,” Baldock says, pointing out that credit provision is an increasingly important part of the Dixons Carphone proposition.

“And if customers are going to be wanting to do more online it brings innovations like ShopLive into play, where we can do things to help a customer’s online experience that no one else can, with the tech experts we have in the thousands.”

Baldock believes that omnichannel capabilities will be more important than ever in future and that Dixons Carphone’s ability to leverage its store expertise online sets it apart from pureplay competitors.

The safer store

ShopLive is just one innovation that Dixons Carphone will implement in stores. The retailer is also importing tried-and-tested social distancing measures learnt in its Nordic stores.

Government approaches enabled Dixons Carphone’s Nordic stores to stay open and the protective measures put in place have provided a blueprint for changes to its UK store operations.

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Dixons Carphone is innovating when it comes to safety measures and social distancing to be ready for the lifting of lockdown restrictions

Baldock talks of the “safe, zero-contact store”, where customers will be able to have face-face interactions with the confidence that their health and safety takes priority.

Changes made include a front-of-store trading area, where experts can answer questions, fetch products and demonstrate them from behind screens at a safe distance.

There is also a contactless drive-thru model, enabling customers to order and pay for items without having to leave their vehicles, as well as a standard click-and-collect service.

Were it permitted, the retailer would be able to roll out its innovations and safety measures as early as next week – though it is likely to be longer before the UK government allows shops to reopen.

ShopLive is perhaps the ultimate zero-contact concept because customers need not even leave their homes to ask questions and shop. It is still early days for ShopLive in the Nordic stores, but Dixons Carphone is expected to give more details about the customer response when it posts its full-year results in late June. 

A new type of customer

The various business changes reflect the ways in which customers are changing, or have been forced to change.

“We’ve been raising our gaze beyond the crisis to think about how the customer might change for the next six to 12 months and beyond,” says Baldock.

“The first thing would be to prepare for a customer with less discretionary money to spend due to a recession of some kind.

“We’ve been raising our gaze beyond the crisis to think about how the customer might change for the next six to 12 months and beyond”

Alex Baldock, Dixons Carphone

“Second, we don’t expect social distancing to vanish overnight as lockdown eases. We expect people to be cautious about proximity for longer than they’re told to be.

“And we’d expect that some of the forced experiments customers have had with digital-first behaviour to stick.”

Baldock believes Dixons Carphone’s strategy is more relevant than ever as it seeks to help customers choose, afford and enjoy technology.

If he is right, no doubt more retailers will seek to adapt to shoppers’ new Zoom-style habits.