Idea could eventually be rolled out to retailer’s entire 750 UK store estate if it proves to be successful
Carphone Warehouse will trial two new concept stores next month as part of a multi-million pound investment to transform its retail business.
The retailer’s managing director Jeremy Fennell said the openings will initially act as trials, adding the investment is “enormous.”
He declined to reveal locations or details around exactly how the stores will look but said, if they are successful, the concept idea might be rolled out to all 750 of its retail estate.
Carphone is also conducting trials across its stores on how it allocates the space it has at its disposal, with Fennell hinting more priority might be given to accessories and its MVNO iD Mobile.
Predicting the future
“We’ve been working hard on what the format of the future will look like and we’re going to open these to test those theories.
“We’ll do a small trial and not roll it out too much at once because the cost of doing this is enormous.
“We’ll take all of our learning from the rest of the business and other trials and turn it into a sustainable format that is scalable and can roll out to all stores.
“We are pushing out home broadband and television sales into some stores. There have been weekends when we have been churning out 10,000 subscriptions, which is really positive.”
This follows a multi-million pound investment to revamp its web platform earlier, something Fennell labelled as “archaic” to Mobile News at Mobile World Congress in February.