The big picture: Farmlands, unveiled its new innovative concept store in Ashburton widening its focus so stores can be both community hubs as well as a one-stop shop for all the products, expertise and service they are looking for.
What this means: Farmlands has been making changes to better meet the diverse needs of large-scale agribusiness and a growing group of lifestyle customers. These changes include widening product ranges, offering extended trading hours for stores in selected communities and promoting a delivery service that’s available to all customers.
What they said: Tanya Houghton, CEO of Farmlands says “We are proud of our stores and want to provide our customers with a great experience when they visit us. We are providing all the key elements of a Farmlands store, while also widening our focus so that our stores can be community hubs - places where people can both get the things and expertise they need, combined with having a social, interactive experience.”
Deep dive:
Farmlands continues their push in innovating the Agri-retail sector following their first new store in 7 years in Ashburton, late last year.
RX have been delighted to be a key partner in the design, development and roll-out of the new direction Farmlands is taking, innovating both how the store delivers functionally as well as immersivity for its customers.
The new store in Ashburton is the first in the network to reflect the future vision for the Farmlands’ network.
It provides easy access to farming fundamentals such as Nutrition, Grain and Seed, Dairy and Horticulture products
A new layout and way to explore other ranges such as clothing and shoes
Brand-new concepts including a pet-wash and the ‘Feed Barn’, which expands the range of nutrition products available to customers.”
Farmlands’ has strong origins as a one-stop shop for product, professional services, conversation and lifestyle activities for everyone connected to the land and this focus is returning Farmlands to its roots.
“It’s all about delivering great customer service – making sure that Farmlands is a natural place for customers to meet, hang out and get advice. We’ve received really positive feedback from our farmers, growers and lifestyle property owners who’ve already visited the store” say CEO Tanya Houghton.
The Farmlands and RX team are busy working on the next store to undergo a customer experience transformation being the Rangiora branch. As in Ashburton, we have started by looking specifically at everyone connected to the land – farmers, growers and lifestyle property owners – and their need from their local Farmlands store and are designing an in-store experience to meet the needs of the Rangiora community.
Tanya and her team’s brief have been crystal clear that each of the stores should have its own personality, layout, products and focus. This is not about taking a one-size-fits-all approach – each store will reflect the unique make-up of our shareholders and customers in each region.
This concept is very much an iterative “test and learn” where we will explore, discover, trial and experiment to get the best solutions for the community, the Farmland teams and the shareholders.
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