Topps Tiles has described how it is working to make a shopping journey that spans online and offline sales channels “as inspirational as possible”.
The tile supplier, a Top100 retailer in IRUK Top500 research, said that almost all its customers now visited both its website and one of its stores during their shopping journey. “We are focused on making this combined store and digital experience as inspirational as possible,” it said in a trading statement out today. “During the period we have generated 20,000 personalised digital brochures, with over 90% of these generated in store assisted by our store colleagues.”
The retailer has also seen its Rewards+ loyalty scheme develop. It now has more than 50,000 trade members who are collecting points and also benefit from “the best value”.
These are all part of the retailer’s strategy of ‘our specialising the specialist’, which is also seeing the retailer launch 34 new tile ranges over the last year, which accounted for 9.7% of tile sales. Some 80% of Topps Tiles are own brand or exclusive.
Topps, which trades from 367 stores as well as online, expects to end the year with 370 stores. Sales in the third quarter, the 13 weeks to July 1, were down by 4.7% on a like-for-like basis.
Chief executive Matthew Williams said a more challenging macro-economic environment had continued through the quarter. “Tougher comparatives resulting from the changes to stamp duty in the prior year were a feature throughout the period and we have seen a modest improvement in trading over recent weeks as they have begun to ease,” he said. “Against this background, we will continue to extend our market leadership position by focusing on our proven strategy of our specialising the specialists. In particular, we continue to evaluate selective acquisition opportunities in the commercial segment of the UK tile market.”
