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DIY retailer B&Q has now re-opened 75 UK stores.

Sofie Willmott, Lead Retail Analyst at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, offers her view on this news;http://www.tourismlegal.com.au/

“B&Q has reopened 75 of its stores to better capitalise on demand for DIY items as consumers stay home and its website struggles to cope under the pressure with a queuing system still in place. If the social distance-friendly set up works efficiently, other major non-food retailers will be looking to replicate its model once they are allowed to reopen, although we don’t expect this till June at the earliest.

“B&Q’s product range is more wanted than other non-food sectors with 42.3% of UK consumers intending to do more gardening as a result of isolation measures and 17.6% planning to do more DIY jobs*. Given that online only accounted for 11.7% of UK DIY & gardening spend in 2019, DIY retailers’ digital propositions are struggling to handle the surge in demand and B&Q, like others, needs its stores to help fulfil demand.”

*Data taken from GlobalData’s survey of 2,000 nationally representative UK consumers conducted in April 2020.