Andrew Burton
July / August 2024
ANDREW BURTON EXPLORES THE VALUE IN UK GARDEN CENTRES OFFERING DISTINCTIVE EXPERIENCES.
Recently I was asked if there is a standard design to a garden centre, and I responded by saying that gone are the days of duplicating other garden centres; there is no generic style, because every centre has a point of difference and strength that needs considering. Yes, there are similarities with many, but each needs a personal focus.
For over 20 years now, we have seen some garden centres evolve from being plant and gardening based shops, into rural shopping villages, encompassing a range of products and experiences to give the customer more than they can get in any other shop on the high street or retail park. Others remain core to the original design and offer, but even these have adapted to improve in lots of ways, identifying data driven specific opportunities – whether this was by adding a café, improving the car parking or creating more under cover space, we do see garden centres continue to move with the times.
Essentially, what we have observed, especially since the turn of the century, is the personalities of our garden centres changing, allowing different businesses to have different brands and propositions, with the aim to give their customers more choice and create a point of difference for themselves.
As the customer needs and the consumer landscape continues to change, we see garden centres continue to shape their design, layout and offer to maximise their potential. It is clear to me that these changes have the same principles as the original garden centres decades ago, which is to maintain the core objectives – these being to create unique customer experiences and give customers what they need to encourage them to visit you time and time again. The way businesses have done this is through infrastructure development and design.
I feel that there are some clear headlines and influencing factors when designing a garden centre. These include keeping any changes complementary to the existing offer, determining and influencing the consumer’s journey through layouts, and by creating a positive customer experience and ‘wow factor’ that customers remember, which is unique to you!
The owners vision may be different in every garden centre, but the aims remain the same – get the customer to enjoy their experience and maximise average transaction spend. If it is that easy, why aren’t all garden centres the same? It’s clear that businesses want and need to be individual, identifiable and relevant.
When I consider our industry, we have a mix of strengths in different departments. We have some that are strong on gardening and plants, others that focus on catering, and others in different areas such as giftware and seasonal goods – we also have many that encompass everything in this list.
Is there a template that fits all? My view is no. Every business has different potential and this is why design and individuality are so important, and in my opinion each garden centre needs to make an individual statement so customers can relate and refer to it. In the past 25 years within the industry, I can truly say that (nearly) every independent garden centre I have visited has a different personality – whether that is in look, range or culture – and this is what makes the industry so exciting.
One way to achieve an individual statement is to design a retail environment that is unique and captures the attention of customers. It can be innovative, immersive and enjoyable. Another way is to use tried and tested layouts to create an easy shopping experience. Or you may want to add new departments to add value to the customer journey. Whatever route garden centres go down, the design of the garden centre, internally and externally, adjoined to the brand vision, is essential.
So how easy it is to design the correct layout and ambience for a garden centre? The simple truth is that it takes work, consideration and data. Often starting with a vision to define goals, the design can either be driven by creativity or commercialism, but often is a mix of both and this is essential.
The vision can help to drive the creativity when it comes to aspects such as colour schemes, atmosphere, furniture style and immersive displays. However, without data clarifying the commercial aspects and giving us clear financial information – essentially, understanding turnover potential and profit versus costs to develop a concept – a project would not have the reasoning to take the design steps.
It should not be under-estimated how much importance lies in the design and layout as part of the strategy for retail and catering success in a garden centre. It is important to influence the direction of the customer journey and manage their behaviour by considering the garden centre’s flow and merchandise placement to maximise adjacencies. This also includes identifying the correct shopping locations which is essential whatever the site.
I’m lucky in the job I do. I work with some fantastic garden centres throughout the UK and I’m also lucky that I work with a really experienced and professional team that focuses on the whole business strategy, including commerciality, design and town planning. Because of this, I understand that it is really important to consider all of these aspects when designing a garden centre, and for anyone on the journey of design, having a team around you that understands how to fuse all of these criteria together is essential.
So, when I think about ‘why does design matter to a garden centre’, I often smile, and this is because I reflect on all the different personalities we have across the industry, look at how many businesses do the same thing in different ways, and realise that because of design and everything this encompasses, it makes our industry unique, bespoke, relevant and commercially effective.