B&Q will pilot a new Click & Collect service for customers ordering products from third-party sellers via its online marketplace, diy.com, aiming to offer shoppers greater flexibility, speed and convenience.

In what it claims to be a “first for a UK marketplace,” B&Q’s new service, which is being trialled in B&Q Fareham, allows customers to buy products from third-party sellers on diy.com for next day collection in-store. Marketplace Click & Collect will complement B&Q’s existing return-to-store service which is already available on diy.com orders, further expanding the retailer’s omnichannel proposition.

Diy.com now stocks over 2million home improvement and garden products from over 2,000 third-party sellers. The launch of Marketplace Click & Collect reflects its ongoing commitment to investing in technology to offer home improvers choice and convenience, as Virginia Wakefield, Ecommerce Director at B&Q, explained:

“Marketplace Click and Collect will give our customers even more convenience by further seamlessly integrating the online and in-store shopping experience.”

Wakefield added that around 90% of B&Q’s customers begin their shopping journeys online and, as a result, it sees a “strong conversion of digital customers into store footfall.” 

The Marketplace Click & Collect service is also expected to benefit B&Q’s third-party sellers, allowing them to offer shoppers more choice and reliability when collecting orders in-store, while also benefiting from enhanced efficiencies.

Following its success, B&Q plans to extend the service to ~300 stores as part of a phased roll out.