One heritage retailer is continuing to expand, with new store openings underway bringing new franchisees into the network.
The expansion is backed by an augmented reality app that under shutdown has proved invaluable to maintain customers’ purchasing habits.
Floorcovering firm Andersens was founded in 1957 and has 47 franchised stores, in Queensland and northern New South Wales.
CEO Rowan Hodge tells Inside Franchise Business “Andersens is actively opening stores. For us the biggest challenge has been going over the border to New South Wales to open a store.
“We have a positive growth mindset. We’re in top gear, looking for what’s next. ”
Andersens augmented reality app
With the app the customer can scan in their room, test different floorcoverings, save ideas, get in touch with an Andersens store for advice and to make a booking.
Hodge says the business had been working on the app for 12 months before the coronavirus crisis catapulted the project into reality.
“We have a busy female consumer, she’s working 9-5. What do we do to reach her? Expand our trading hours? Offer in-home quotes after hours? Seven day trade is difficult but possible. Then the more we teased it out the more we were influenced by retail trends overseas and AR.
“Using a tablet, the customer could request a call back from the nearest store, we could get in contact and measure at home. We knew if we launched this we’d be first to market, we’d be disruptive.
“The franchise community backed us and we brought the product to market in a test concept late February. There was testing among staff and we had planned to test it in a social media environment. If it moved the needle at all it was a win, if it was big, we’d develop it further.
“The initial proposal landed on my desk the same day we heard about lockdown and people being ordered home.”
This proved a catalyst for the firm.
Hodge says “This was a fight or flight moment: do we hibernate and weather the storm? Or do we fight? We chose growth.
“We fast tracked into an ad and went to TV. This is where we our courage and luck coincided. Most people in the industry had pulled their marketing but we committed to a media buy when others didn’t. As a result, we had incredible value from the ad.
“We were telling consumers about a technology they could browse from home. We had 8000 downloads of the app. For something developed as a ‘let’s see what happens’ project, it vastly outstripped our expectations.
“We saw an above average qualified lead. Customers don’t really walk in to a carpet store unless they are a qualified lead. If you’re downloading an app you’re selecting where to buy, so we generated a fantastic number of qualified leads at a time when other businesses were closing doors.”