Brands staying ahead of the curve with store events
November 28, 2017
Recent research from Barclaycard has given brick-and-mortar retailers some hope by revealing that hosting in-store events and creating an immersive experience can drive revenue.
After surveying 251 senior decision-makers in retail and over 2,000 customers, the researchers found that hosting events and providing entertainment in physical stores could boost their annual turnover by 14% on average.
With in-store events becoming the biggest trend for 2018-2019, we are highlighting how some of our customers use events to create an unforgettable experience and increase revenue.
Mothercare doubles event revenue

Mothercare, a global retailer for parents and young children
The Challenge
The relationships Mothercare shares with its customers revolves around the most important part of any family’s life: parenthood. And yet, this contrasts with a market that has moved toward discounting, cost-cutting, and commoditization.
At the core of Mothercare’s offering was their loyalty club, an initiative that built strong, high value customer relationships. The visibility and data it provided were limited but showed huge strategic potential. Mothercare quickly invested in electronic receipts and customer relationship management (CRM) upgrades so they could gain even further insight.
This developed a new level of clarity that Mothercare could use to further understand customers, but they still felt something was missing. To grow their community to be bigger, more engaged, and more loyal, they needed a new way to attract customers back to the store.
The solution? In-store services, including events.
Mothercare began a mission to refine how they offered in-store services to the public so they could take advantage of the huge potential to build better relationships and increase revenue.
The Solution
The initial requirements of the project were simple.
Mothercare knew they needed to centralize events and make them easy to manage, so staff and customers would find it useful, convenient, and enjoyable. To make events and in-store services core to the Mothercare experience meant making sure any system could scale to serve hundreds of stores and customers at once.
Following their CRM and electronic receipts projects, it was essential that any new system would seamlessly sync with them and share clean, compatible data.
Starting slowly, Mothercare implemented

Mothercare started to host custom events, marketed via email and in-store signage, to streamline the process and learn from the data generated by such appointments.
Soon after implementation, events were hosting 50+ attendees and driving tens of thousands of pounds of extra sales, even with little marketing. Meanwhile, they had created a data feed of all upcoming events, which could
Mothercare used

The Effect
Ryan Davies at Mothercare elaborates on how this project has stimulated
“It would be easy to say that the most conspicuous benefit of this project is that our event revenue has doubled, providing hundreds of thousands of pounds of new revenue. Or that we saw
“But the other benefits are just as important to this company’s future. We’ve achieved this while
At Mothercare today, in-person services are just as important as the products they offer. They also create an
“Our work with electronic receipts and CRM let us see our customers properly in a whole new level of detail. But it was
“This project has put loyalty and CRM right at the top table where it belongs. The desire to achieve that has existed for some time but the projects that prove it are
Waitrose Cookery School becomes a recipe for success

The Story
British supermarket giant, Waitrose, has 352 of stores across the UK and
However, the cooking school wasn't always a part of Waitrose. The idea was born from a Waitrose survey that revealed that
Upon seeing these survey results, Waitrose created a cookery school that would serve all customers regardless of experience level. Some school sessions are cuisine-specific, focusing on food from places such as France, Thailand, and Italy. There are also skill-based lessons that covered bakery, butchery, fishmonger, and knife skills. Teachers and chefs also run topic-specific workshops, such as "how to assemble a dinner party menu."
Waitrose became the first supermarket in Britain to run their own
Executive Chef Neil Nugent said: ‘We want to inspire the nation to move from just watching cookery programs to
To make this vision a reality, Waitrose partnered with us to build a dynamic booking interface
Waitrose also enjoy using our waiting list feature, which allow their customers the ability to join a waiting list if a course is at full capacity. If a customer cancels their booking, the next customer in line will
By using event booking software, Waitrose also sell course tickets as gifts, which has helped them to tap into the experiential gifting market.

Success
Since opening their first cooking school in 2010, Waitrose has expanded and opened two more with an average of 1,700 bookings a month.
Offering courses on everything from couples brunches, winter cooking, and even children classes, Waitrose is tapping into all areas of their customer base and creating a cooking community. This innovative approach to customer engagement has created a new revenue stream while exposing current customers to new product ranges and ingredients.
By working with JRNI to design & implement a booking system, Waitrose has:
- Reduced the
amount of time staff spend on administration - Created a database of engaged customers that can
be marketed to accordingly - Made it easy for customers to check course availability, book, and receive updates about new class offerings
Three UK helps over 10,000 consumers improve their digital skills in one year

Their Mission
Three is a mobile network and broadband provider giant who has 10 million customers and 320+ stores in the UK. Their current project is to increase brand
Sian Laffin, Head of Discovery and Innovation at Three, believes that the Discovery spaces will “change the current perception the mobile industry” and move the brand beyond competitive pricing.
She
What is Three ‘Discovery’
The Discovery spaces, which are separate from Three’s retail stores, are a new and free way for people to learn about technology. Topics range from smartphone use to
Consumers can either book sessions in-store, or on Three’s website with our booking software.
So far, Three has worked with charities, community organizations, local schools, and small businesses to build custom sessions that help attendees develop their digital skills. Three has rolled out the service across 50 stores in the UK.
Success

In the past year, Three has helped improve the digital skills of over 10,000 people as part of its Discovery program.
“It’s a wider investment in the
If you’re considering using events or appointments in your retail store, check out our recent eBook.