Hornbach-Baumarkt-AG Group

58 GROUP MANAGEMENT REPORT Non-Financial Performance Ind icators
on rapidly building up and expanding our online retail business.
Our guiding principle here is that customers should
decide whether they prefer to visit us on location at one of our
stores, or on the internet, or via a combination of both channels.
That is why we offer our customers all the channels they
need to implement their projects.
Virtual DIY store and garden center at www.hornbach.de
For our project customers, it has become absolutely normal to
plan construction and renovation projects in detail on the
internet. Since being launched, HORNBACH’s online store
(www.hornbach.de) has grown into a high-performance virtual
DIY megastore and garden center. Our online customers can
now inform themselves about more than 50,000 articles and
their prices. Extensive additional information enables them to
compare the various articles. Numerous text and image
guidelines and more than 40 “Meisterschmiede” videos offer
ideas and assistance in preparing and implementing projects.
One core aspect of our internet presence is the direct relationship
our customers have to their preferred HORNBACH store.
The range of services offered by the respective store is presented
irrespective of the customer’s location. This way, our
customers can inform themselves online about our current
training sessions, presentations within the monthly changing
Project Shows, and opening times, as well as about the availability
of specific articles at the particular store. Not only that,
they can find information online about our services, such as
our tradesman service, our paint mixing service, the builders’
merchant drive-in service, or our rental service. It goes without
saying that our internet store also offers customers the
possibility of having articles delivered directly to their homes.
And whenever the timing is particularly crucial, our customers
can also use our “Reserve online and pick up at the store”
service. Just four hours after the reservation, all of the articles
are ready to be collected from the desired HORNBACH store.
This service is a real timesaver, especially for our professional
customers.
Consistent permanent low price strategy
We have relied on an uncompromising, credible permanently low
price strategy for many years now. This is consistently valid for
all of our business activities. Our retail prices at our stores
and at our HORNBACH internet store are therefore identical.
This differentiates us from the discount campaigns and
differences in prices between the online business and stationary
DIY retail often seen at our competitors. We see this as
providing the best foundation for achieving sustainable,
above-average growth and high earnings strength in the long
term. Our aim is to retain customers at HORNBACH on a
permanent basis by offering the highest possible degree of
transparency, reliability and honesty in our pricing policies.
The price guarantee accompanying the permanently low
prices is intended to provide our customers with the certainty
that they can focus all of their energies at all times on solving
their projects.
HORNBACH tradesman service in all countries
When making purchases, HORNBACH customers are according
ever greater priority to supplementary services connected to
their project. For customers who wish to select their products
at our stores, but then prefer to entrust the necessary work to
experienced specialists (do-it-for-me customers), we made
the HORNBACH tradesman service even more attractive in the
2012/2013 financial year. According to an internal survey,
these efforts have been rewarded with maximum customer
satisfaction, which was also reflected in the year under report
by a very high willingness to recommend these services to
further potential customers.
Complex tasks, such as house door, interior door, and window
installation, were in particularly great demand in the past
financial year. Our tile laying service benefited from strong
demand for bathroom renovations HORNBACH’s tradesman
service offered 23 tasks in the year under report, including
cobble laying, terrace construction, and decoration services.
HORNBACH’s strength in recognizing trends at an early stage
is also reflected in its “Bathroom House” and “Kitchen Center”.
Planning and advice are available at the store, while the
assembly is taken care of by our tradesman partners. The