Currys unveils UK&I store upgrades ahead of Xmas trading

Currys has announced a range of upgrades to its UK and Ireland stores ahead of the Golden Quarter trading period, as it seeks to create a more seamless shopping experience for customers. 

These enhancements come on the back of Currys’ store refurbishment programme, which saw 50 superstores and 42 megastores get revamped since July. A further 23 stores are expected to be completed by the end of the financial year. 

The electronics retailer will be switching from paper product pricing to digital labelling, which is due to arrive in 100 UK&I stores by the end of this financial year, with 60 stores going digital ‘pre-peak’. 

A digital queuing system will also be introduced across its entire portfolio of 298 UK&I stores, fronted by sales floor leaders who will be on-hand to welcome customers. They will be identifiable to customers with ‘Here to Help’ hi-vis.  

Integrated into colleagues’ ‘store-mode’ tablets that are used to process customer orders, shoppers will be able to join a digital line to speak to a tech-expert. This change aims to better manage wait time expectations and free up time to browse the store until a staff member is available. 

Other improvements have also been made to how stock is delivered and managed for Currys’ ‘Order and Collect’ service, as a more efficient delivery model will see daily stock arrivals take place in one go rather than spread over several drops throughout the day – as currently is the case. 

In addition, stores will be open longer following customer and staff requests, giving customers 1,800 extra shopping hours each week. 

Matthew Speight, director of stores at Currys, said: “We’re ready to help all our customers enjoy amazing tech during what we know is our busiest trading period of the year. Our teams are excited by the new tools and improvements they’ve got to help them, help our customers.”