B&Q (Block&Quayle) founded by Richard Block and David Quayle in 1969 , has become the largest retail chain in China and in the United Kingdom and the second largest in Europe.
B&Q It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Kingfisher plc (40% annual sales in the UK, 40% in France with Castorama and Bricodépot, and 20% In the rest of the world)
In a difficult social and economic context, B&Q uses the growth of the sharing economy (car-pool, co-working,and garage-sales) to launch the first social network aimed at getting neighbours to talk,share and save together and thus create a stronger sense of community spirit: Streetclub.
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Translations
B&Q (KINGFISHER GROUP) launches a social network for neighbours: streetclub.co.uk
7. Community involvement
Community development
Transmitter
Context
Objectives
- Use the sucess of social netwoks to bring the neighbours together
- Give a positive and green image of the company.
- Encourage people to buy more sustainable home appliances
APPROACH
Kingfisher’s purpose is to make it easier for customers to have better, more sustainable homes. By also providing their customers with project advice and new shopping channels, Kingfisher makes it easier for them to adapt their homes to their evolving needs. “Better Homes, Better Lives”.
In 2012 as part of their suite of community initiatives such as You Can Do It and Future Homes and to help the DIY chain achieve its aim of supporting the customer at home as well as in store, B&Q created Streetclub: a free on line local network that lets people communicate with their neighbours. People can, organise events, share tools, buy and sell or just chat about their local area.
B&Q’s logo is on the website and for each sale on line B&Q makes a profit.
Though it is not the main purpose of the network, many tools and handy services are beeing swaped , Some coming from B&Q others not.
For the user, the benefits are obvious: better relationships with their neighbours, less money spent on material goods, and of course a good feeling of doing the right thing for the planet. For B&Q it is however less obvious. Mr. Compton ,manager of streetclub.com, thinks there will be an increase in the sales of better quality tools as they will be used by a bigger number of persons. He also believes that there will be an increase of the sales of little accessories. And last but not least, thanks to some handy neighbours, B&Q could gain new customers who would never have gone in a retail store before.
CONTRIBUTION TO COMPANY PERFORMANCE
- Frendlier image of the company : part of the same community
- Expected benefits : new cutommers, quality tool for sustainable buying, more small accessories and beefits on each sale on line.
Benefits
- 2012: 3500 members and more than 1000 swaps.
- 2013: 1663 clubs
- Less people alone: shared goods and services
- Substainable use of goods: fewer resources used.