A modern marketplace

Byggmax is a retailer particularly known for being a fast-growing, entrepreneur-led and well suited to challenge the market. ‘We are rebels since the start. Thirty years ago, we founded a home improvement store based on democratic pricing. Today, we have a hundred and sixty stores across Scandinavia,’ Niklas Hamberg, Head of Supply Chain at Byggmax smiles, ‘We are motivated by doing things differently: from how we operate our stores, set our buying strategies to how we design our service. It is part of our culture to continuously strive to be change-makers.’

The Swedish home improvement industry has long placed climate action at the front and centre, but few players have found rational solutions for combining environmental as well as economical supply chain management. In the case of Byggmax, an intriguing evolution agenda has been set to tackle this dual challenge: looking at sea transport, localised buying strategies and sustainable material assortments, elements which have contributed to increased complexity for the retailer. Additionally, time has been spent on understanding and analysing customer behavioural insights to gain an advantage.

In this instance, the word insight carries significant weight. Because it is through insight Byggmax and Sonat have been able to elevate the opportunities within the logistics affair. By using customer service as a vehicle for driving change, this partnership has seen growth through an interesting mix of an improved—and sustained—delivery experience.

‘The notion of buying goods sustainably is something that attracts both the end-user and us as retailers, but it is not always the easiest way. The complexity that comes with being experimental with our supply chain serves as our biggest differentiating factor. Today, we have a large array of goods online: wooden planks, plasterboards, screws, outdoor furniture and more. All these items need different types of transport which makes the handling of our orders complex. When we succeed in delivering product diversity sustainably and qualitatively, that is when we earned our “modern marketplace” positioning,’ Hamberg explains.

Sonat and Byggmax saw their strengths come together during the fall of 2019. Within the first few months, a proactive customer service, procurements, tuned processes and digitalisation were in place. These measures combined with the ‘stay-at-home’ effect of the pandemic became a remarkable lever for the brand. ‘The result that we were anticipating in three-years’ time, arrived in the second quarter of 2020,’ says Hamberg. The months across the summer saw more than a 40% increase in sales.

‘We see the growth as a possibility to strengthen customer loyalty at Byggmax, which is why we worked on refining the flow of logistics during the spring. Step-by-step, we increased efficiency and improved quality of the delivery experience,’ says Pernilla Johansson, Account Manager for Byggmax at Sonat.

What makes an efficient delivery for any online retailer today is something that has been driven by a widened range of customer expectations. ‘We try very hard to look at the behavioural insights instead of following trends, in our case a speedy delivery might not be what the customers need,’ Hamberg says.

Together with Sonat, Byggmax has been able to identify customer behaviours closer to the home improvement industry such as long-term renovations, customers buying online goods weekly and those entering the store with a plan for the following weekend. ‘Our products do not have a sell-by-date, there are no pints of milk on our shelves, but plasterboards. Deliveries do not have to be faster because all other players make it a norm,’ Hamberg explain

With weekly lead times instead of next day deliveries, there is a possibility to create collected delivery efforts and gain economy of scale, leaving an impact on both quality and sustainability. Transparency and seamlessness of information through these more complex but gathered initiatives are something Sonat and Hamberg have gone out of their way to solve. ‘Our goal is to create an intelligent supply chain, which has the clarity of full transparency running through it. Increased visibility for Byggmax stores as well as the end-users will allow for all parties to easily see and follow any order,’ Johansson states.

It’s obvious, that strong brand values motivate Byggamax to push the status quo, a trait that the team at Sonat shares. ‘They understand us and make sure to reflect our culture and brand in everything they do. Having the right motivation means, Sonat remains close to Byggmax in spirit, proactively assisting us when we best need them, a rare but vital business proposal. One may arrange process structures and frameworks for meetings, but at the end of the day, it comes down to what values you share. What we are striving to achieve is seamlessness within complex logistics, improving sustainability as well as customer experience in every delivery. What if it was as easy to buy home improvement goods as it is buying food from a supermarket? When we have reached that level of simplicity, I will be proud,’ Hamberg concludes.