With a new store set to open at Warriewood in NSW, it was an opportunity to re-evaluate Amart Sport’s standard stockroom storage layout currently used in stores across Australia. This proved to be a smart move by the team with great results from only a few adjustments of the type of shelving used and some smart customisations.
Amart Sports are part of the sports division within the Super Retail Group, which includes Rebel Sport, Goldcross Cycles and Workout World. This sports division, also known as the Rebel Group, has its own internal design team, project managers and store Improvements team. Wanting to push the boundaries with their store layouts, they wanted to explore other storage solutions that could potentially reduce costs or increase capacity – or both.
Safer Storage Systems was able to come in with fresh eyes to provide a cost competitive solution with just a few minor layout changes to their standard preferred layouts, as well as some suggestions to better optimise the back of house storage area.
To identify areas of improvement, the team from the Safer Storage Systems Brisbane Branch inspected more than a dozen existing Amart Sports stores. Their site evaluations found that almost all stores shared a common trend – a significant lack of storage space.
In particular, the storage allocation for the shoe range was under sufficient for the current stock holding levels. This would soon be exacerbated with proposed changes to the way shoes are displayed and sold. Amart Sports plan to move to a full service selling strategy and will no longer store any products on the shop floor.
Now that all products would need to be stored back of house and be easily found by staff assisting customers, a more efficient storage system would be necessary for the full service selling system to be effective.
Making a simple, yet effective change to the storage plans from using pallet racking to the SSS Widespan storage system made a huge impact on the overall usage of the space. SSS Widespan is a heavy duty shelving system that can provide more flexibility, as there are far greater shelf widths and depths to select from. The SSS Widespan storage system is also more cost effective than the traditional pallet racking option.
This revision to the plans meant that the shelving could be more specifically adapted to suit the stock requirements of Amart Sports. Each product range could have its own storage solution customised with the appropriate shelf width and height, offering an increase in capacity and functionality in the back of house area.
Several customisations were also made to the shelving by the way of accessories. These shelf accessories were specifically designed around the products; such as hang rails that allowed for more efficient storage of clothing, and binning systems for smaller accessories rather than taking up valuable and wasted shelf space.
Installation works were completed in June 2016, with the Safer Storage Systems crew site inducted to work in with the customer’s own shopfitters and other trades during the construction timeline. This also allowed for better communication throughout the project and meant that any issues faced along the way could be swiftly resolved.
One of the biggest challenges the team encountered during this project was an unexpected change to available ceiling height in one area of the storage space. Due to the ducting being installed lower than expected, the space no longer allowed for the shelving height planned for this area. This resulted in last minute alterations having to be made to this portion of shelving being installed in this area. These adjustments were planned and executed promptly, while keeping Amart informed of the process.
Through experience and understanding of the retail requirements and challenges faced by Amart Sports, Safer Storage Systems were able to create balance between storage capacity, quality of product and price.
Results of the newly designed back of house storage have proved successful. With a well-optimised storage space, Amart Sports are able to hold and access more stock in the back of house area, and have also reduced the overall cost of their storage system.
Safer Storage Systems have since been invited to provide input and suggestions for increasing capacity and functionality for upcoming store fit-outs.
“They are really good people to work with. Any issues on site they come to [us] first and offer solutions around the problem. We would love to have them help on the next Amart store”.
Shopfitters for Super Retail Group
Download the Amart Sports Case Study below.
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