In search of the excellence of physical stores, which we are beginning to define together with , we have decided to explore with Victor Font, from Kave Home, how much they can learn from pure players digital to achieve the purpose of the omnichannel.
In the fifth chapter of we do the road in reverse, from online to offline. We spoke with Victor Font, Managing Director of Kave Home. We had already, but this time we focus on how the online furniture brand is making the leap to offline with the opening of its first physical stores in Barcelona and Madrid.
Interview with Victor Font
3:32 What is Kave Home?
Until two months ago it was an eCommerce of trendy furniture and decoration. We launch 40 new references every week and we have everything in stock, which allows us to deliver in less than 48 hours in Spain. We are also present in , Italy, Holland and Portugal. And I say that we were an eCommerce because a little over two months ago we opened our first physical store, our first flagship store in Barcelona.
The interesting thing about Kave Home is that we are not one that was born by itself but we are a kind of spin off of Julià Grup, which has been dedicated to the furniture sector for 37 years. Traditionally dedicated to B2B sales to other stores and eCommerce, for five and a half years it has sought to reach the end customer with the Kave Home brand.
5:42 Let’s say that Kave Home is the brand created by Julià Grup to bypass the channel conflict and prevent its customers from criticizing it for selling directly to the end customer.
When the entire company was digitized we saw that we were selling online B2B, so we took advantage of the fact that we had everything digitized to launch ourselves with B2C. At first everything was ready to be released in Spain, but the week of the launch it was decided to translate the page into French and try first in the neighboring country. They sensed that a very big conflict could be created because at that time Spain still represented more than 50% of B2B turnover.
Seeing that the eCommerce thing could work, because it was incredible that someone in France bought a sofa online through La Caixa, which at that time was the payment gateway, it was decided to enter Spain. And with this I am not saying that the channel conflict was overcome, but we gained a couple of years, some traction, security in the model and we saw that it really made sense to face that conflict.
7:52 In February 2018 we published an interview with Victor Font. The headline was: “We want to launch our first flagship stores in Barcelona and Madrid in 2018”. And this did not come to pass! 😉
We were looking for an urban store, not so much a large area, with many square meters. We needed a special space. Between finding it and adapting it, we have gone to January 25 of this year, so for 25 days I have not fulfilled my promise. Now we are also with Madrid and I don’t want to give dates, but this year… for sure!
9:22 What was it like to go the other way, from online to offline…
That’s the funny thing, we went from selling to stores, to selling directly online and now to physical retail. We had it very clear. Online sales in our category are growing at double digits, and it is one of the best evolving. But if you look at the reports, 10-15% of the category is sold online, so, the opportunity is offline. In addition, in these months we are already seeing that people need to see and touch the product, especially being a new brand. There is a component not only of sales but of brand validation which was what prompted us to open the store.
11:05 You use the concept of experience store. What is this idea based on?
There are competitors who have showroom cigars, in which you can not buy. That is not natural, because if you arrive at the store and see a product that you fall in love with, you want to take it home. So we transform that idea into experience store in the sense that you see the product, you touch it and, if you want, you can take it with you. But the idea is that you buy online in the store. You can do it from your mobile through eCommerce, from the tablet that all the dependents carry, you can pay as you go, at the till, through the POS; and as an innovation, what we have done is put several computers. Now we have six large Macs, in which once you have validated the brand and you have the product you like, you go to the computer, place the order and since we have everything in stock, in 24 or 48 hours you have it at home.
12:44 Many times in this process, ‘we have to be omnichannel’ will have come up. What aspects have you worked on and what other experiences are you testing to allow the customer to buy as he wants?
In the end omnichannel is telling the customer: do what you want. You want to buy online in the store, do it. You want to buy it and take it away, go ahead. You want to buy it and pick it up at our warehouse, you can too. Our mentality is this, customer service, that’s why we have stock. We build the entire omnichannel from here, and this has its implications. We had to find a field capable of uniting all this customer vision and we decided to work with email. You have the email online, you also capture it offline, so we try to centralize that customer experience in an email at the systems level.
One of the main challenges of the omnichannel approach, which we have thought about a lot, is the incentive system traditional store clerks and teams have. They have a percentage of the store’s turnover or sales. What about online sales and those incentives? If the clerk doesn’t pick up the email or if the customer doesn’t talk to any clerk, from his perspective, he loses that sale. It’s complicated: we want a very good conversion rate in the store but also for the customer to do what they want. We are going to have the challenge when we begin to open franchises or corners: what is going to happen with this omnichannel, with that online part and that offline part. It’s the challenge of attribution.
17:22 At Kave Home you also work with a photo & search system. What does it consist of?
It’s a visual search that works both inside and outside the store. It is an alternative search engine. We saw that it could be done on the web and that with the right provider it could be quite fast. Instead of typing, I click the camera button on the web, my mobile camera opens, I take a photo of the product, and I go to the product page. In the store it is interesting because represents a new way of sailing, faster; And outside, if I see a product that I like, I take a photo of it and check if it’s from Kave Home, and if it isn’t, it takes me to similar products on our website.
19:40 This encourages the in-store experience and you don’t even need an app…
Yes, for now We do not have an app because the day we have it we want it to be because we provide a very large extra value, which justifies the download. You will not buy furniture as often as you buy clothes. Our goal is that our good customers can buy three or four times a year. So, without further ado, I don’t think an app makes sense to users; but if you are an interior designer or an architect and you want to have our furniture, if we offer you a specific program that allows you to see the products with augmented reality in your work space, it already begins to make sense. In fact, the professional sector is already a prescriber and an important part of our client base.
21:57 You also have the Grab & Go. This is that you can buy it in the store and take it with you, as well as buy it in the store and have it come to your home, as well as buy it online and take it in the store.
This last point is under development and will soon be working but the other two options are already available. What we did was divide the entire product in two. The Grab & Go, which is all the small product, decoration and kitchenware; and the Order Online, large products that you are hardly going to take from the store yourself. Although here we are very commercial, and if you insist on taking the sofa at the moment, you take it.
22:59 How do you communicate the intelligence of the two schemes, of what people consume online and what works in the store?
We do a lot of meetings, but we also have our Business Intelligence, so in the store and in preferential positions there is always a best seller mixof the products that give us more online billing, and newswhich is what our model is based on.
24:32 When opening a physical store, did you ever think of doing it under the name of Julià Grup?
One of the main objectives of opening the store is to create a brand. In that sense, the B2C brand is Kave Home and it is the brand around which we are transforming the entire company. We had no doubts.
25:12 Are you already implementing marketing campaigns that cross online and offline, “traffic to store” style campaigns?
Us Interest in digital campaigns geolocated, with which we intend that people who are in the area, who have certain interests or do certain searches, find us easily. But in terms of measurement, we are still waiting to have information of store visits from both Google and Facebook. So we’re trying it all out, and eager to play with them to see what we can get.
26:56 What is the challenge for 2019?
The stores have a clear billing objective, but we are seeing how far it can go. The normal thing is to start with a lot of traffic and with a conversion rate a little lower than expected. We trust that the second will rise. and online, the goal is to grow again, not double, but grow by 60% and reach €25 million this year. In Spain, where we have the stores and where we are investing the most in marketing, is where we want to grow stronger. In addition, the fact of opening markets will also help add to that billing.
The last six… with Victor Font
iOS or Android? iOs, and that I worked at Google!
App or browser? I am very geek of applications, I download some every week.
What is the first social network you open every day? , the first. If I train for any event I spend a lot of time on Strava. I am a big fan of LinkedIn, and I use Instagram to see what is happening in the sector and how we are doing on networks.
A hobby far from any screen? Going to the mountains, skiing, running, cycling…
What is your favorite eCommerce? . They have a wide catalog, good prices and they work well on loyalty.
Who in the sector would you like us to interview? I’m sure I won’t tell you anything if I tell you to . He is one of the guys who is most up to date, who knows the most about eCommerce and technology.
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