Australia’s leading bathroom and plumbing products specialist, Tradelink is rolling out a new branch design, with prototype sites recently launched in the ACT.
Stepping away from their conventional offering, Tradelink’s next-generation ‘Branch of the Future’ has been created by Sydney and Melbourne-based interior design agency, Design Clarity, and represents the biggest change of its kind in the company’s history.
The new store design challenges the traditional warehouse retail template by encouraging self-navigation and better staff-to-customer knowledge transfer in a functional and organised environment. The new branch design is accompanied by a full rebrand for the company, with the exterior fascia of each store showing Tradelink’s bold new direction.
Kristina Hetherington, Founder and Managing Director of Design Clarity said that Tradelink approached them with a request to revamp their retail offering. Design Clarity decided to create a back-to-basics environment where products could be displayed in a way that will be easier for trade customers to make purchase decisions. All the fixtures were lowered onto the trade retail floor level to maximise visibility across the space allowing for simple self-navigation and exposure to all core categories from anywhere in the store.
The new branch design template also incorporated initiatives such as leveraging point of sale technology and increasing the basket size as well as opportunities to educate customers and allow them to explore and connect via impulse bins, and digital quick-pick selection hubs with a click and collect service.
The new concept also boasts a practical design finish focusing on raw hardwearing materials. A key objective of this raw and authentic design ethos was to create a memorable space that would ensure the products and the retail experience stood out.
The two-fold project involved the restructure and design of the trade retail stores specifically for plumbers, contractors and other tradesmen. The second part was to introduce a new showroom model now called ‘on show’ dedicated to the end user customers and clients of tradesmen.
The new branch design prototype sites were recently launched in the ACT with the rollout to encompass several more sites across Australia.
