Sainsbury’s to launch Homeshop

A new in-store concept developed by retail consultancy 20/20 for supermarket chain Sainsbury’s is to be rolled out to further stores after a successful trial.

Homeshop will be introduced at the end of September to stores in Bramingham Park, near Luton, and Straiton, in Loanhead, near Edinburgh. Testing of the concept has been underway since last month in East Mayne, Basildon.

The format brings cookware, glassware, homeware, electrical goods, CDs, videos, stereos and TVs under one section within the main store. The area is segmented into kitchen and homewares and a separate “living” area, where customers can also listen to CDs and videos at designated listening points. The Basildon Homeshop department is 315m2, the two other stores will be a similar size.

“Homeshop will help reinforce Sainsbury’s proposition of ‘Making Life Taste Better’ by offering a range of cookware to prepare that recipe, the plates to serve it on, and the TV and video to relax with afterwards,” says Richard Cristofoli, Sainsbury’s senior manager, format marketing.

20/20 design director Bill Cuming says, “Pivotal to achieving our goal was ‘thinking customer’ at all times.”