Hardware Retailing The Industry's Source for Insights and Information
Marking a new chapter for the company, the new Orgill Innovation Center reiterates Orgill‘s commitment to fulling its mission of helping customers be successful by offering customized solutions. The 553,000-square-foot facility is located next to Orgill’s headquarters and doubles the size of its previous center in Olive Branch, Mississippi.
Orgill CEO and president Boyden Moore says the Innovation Center opens up new ways for the company to serve, grow and lead, as the Innovation Center was created with a purpose, to be a collaborative hub where ideas are tested, shared and turned into real solutions.
“We designed it to be a space that brings people together, our employees, our vendors, our customers and even our neighbors, because innovation doesn’t happen in isolation,” Moore says. “It happens when people collaborate, when we ask questions and when we try new things. And as we look ahead, the Innovation Center will play a central role in how Orgill grows.”
The Innovation Center will be key to help Orgill accelerate solutions for customers, whether that’s testing new products, refining retail products or sharing tools that make independent dealers more competitive, Moore says.
“We believe that we at Orgill have a critical role to play in eliminating scale disadvantages for independent hardware stores, home centers, lumberyards and farm stores,” he says. “The Innovation Center will strengthen how we bring technology into our business, helping us operate more efficiently and helping our customers do the same. It will provide training and development opportunities for our employees so that Orgill continues to be a place where great ideas and great careers are built. This is not just a building, it’s a launchpad. It’s where the future of independent retail is being shaped.”
Embracing the Future
The Innovation Center floor includes a full-size store that showcases the latest and most innovative products and merchandising trends. The store-on-the-floor is fully branded, stocked with all the core departments and features various merchandising techniques, including endcaps that will be switched out seasonally to mirror what retailers would do in their stores.
The Innovation Center floor has a full pro-focused store with hardware and home center products that would complement a lumberyard. The store is outfitted with gondolas and shelving that are only five feet high, which allows employees to see everything that is going on in the store from anywhere in the store.
A key part of any independent retail operation, impulse products and displays get full attention on the Innovation Center floor. The impulse section is stocked with ideas for impulse products and techniques to display them to encourage add-on sales. The floor also offers a rental demonstration area.
Orgill invited a number of vendors to also be a part of the Innovation Center. The vendors have set up full booths displaying their products and different ideas for merchandising these products. The vendors also have the opportunity to staff their booths to interact with retailers on the Innovation Center floor, and Orgill has encouraged the vendors to be creative in providing information to retailers when they don’t have employees manning the booth, such as video conferencing.
“We can now provide a year-round showroom experience featuring full model stores, vendor product lines and complete merchandising assortments,” says David Mobley, executive vice president of sales. “This is a significant advantage for both our customers and our vendor partners, as the ability to see, touch and feel products continuously makes a profound difference in planning and procurement.”
The Innovation Center highlights the latest in retail technologies, including retail robots, electronic shelf labels, point of sale systems from industry leaders and e-commerce integrations.
“This place is truly about innovation. It really brings together a lot of the elements that you might normally find at our Dealer Markets but collects them all in one place that is open throughout the year, not just in a limited time window,” says Greg Stine, executive vice president, marketing and communications. “Then, you add to that state-of-the-art meeting and
conference facilities and it’s part of the Orgill campus, it opens the door to a whole new realm of opportunities for team members, customers and vendors.”
The facility also provides space for workshops, seminars and tailored training and meeting and event areas can accommodate customer events, vendor conferences and training sessions. Other on-site amenities include an audio and video recording studio, customer lounges and offices.
“Our strategy is all about customization. We’re not trying to tell our customers what format they should run, but rather we want to customize to their store, format, opportunity and market. We want to research that with you and then build it together,” Moore says. “Most of our customers are constantly evolving how they are serving customers, so we built this space as a committment ot customization.”
