Conforama

For decades, visiting a physical store was the only option for customers buying a new kitchen from French home furnishing retailer Conforama. Stores offered pre-built displays and access to catalogs before the buyer arranged an appointment with a designer to plan a custom layout.

Then came the paperwork.

“There were customer forms to fill out, quotes and order forms to print and sign, then Excel spreadsheets for salespeople to populate,” said Mohamed Bounouh, one of Conforama’s kitchen designers. “There was a lot of administration involved. This was not only a drain on resources, but frustrating from a customer perspective.”

Today’s consumers expect more. Over 70% of retail shoppers use multiple channels in their shopping journey, with most expecting to be able to seamlessly switch between online and in-store. Interestingly, customers still want advice and support – but on their own terms: while many consumers feel overwhelmed or pressured when subjected to numerous questions by sales staff, the vast majority (81%) still expect direct interaction with human for fixing issues.

For Conforama, this evolution of customer preferences meant transforming the customer experience by offering online kitchen planning tools.

“We needed to overhaul the customer journey to make it seamless and omnichannel,” said Erwann Corbel, Conforama’s unit director for kitchens and bathrooms. “At the same time, we needed to reduce the administrative burden on our sales team.”

Conforama achieved this transformation by embracing Dassault Systèmes’ HomeByMe technology.

HomeByMe stood out to Conforama as one of the only solutions available on the market that addressed the full omnichannel buying journey. Conforama was impressed by its potential to help it increase its digital footprint and improve its web-to-store strategy, while also supporting its sales team.

“The HomeByMe solution fits perfectly into the digital transformation of our kitchen business at Conforama – and even helps accelerate it,” Corbel said.

“With HomeByMe Kitchen Planner, customers can design their dream kitchen online in few minutes,” Bounouh added. “In-store experts can also access a customer’s design or start a new design on their behalf. A quote is automatically provided once a design is completed and is updated in real time if any changes are made.”

Kitchen Planner is complemented by Retail Operation, a solution that helps Conforama sales experts to manage every aspect of the sales cycle online – from cost estimates, to ordering, to delivery. Its easy-to-use interface means minimal training is required, so sales can be up and running quickly.

“HomeByMe Kitchen Planner helps us to reconnect customers and salespeople around a kitchen design with a simple solution that offers transparency in pricing real-time projects,” Corbel said. “Meanwhile, Retail Operations provides sales experts a way of tracking and managing daily business operations.”

Conforama rolled out HomeByMe in a phased approach, with support and guidance provided by Dassault Systèmes. The company began by launching the Kitchen Planner solution online, before bringing it, along with Retail Operations, to 12 pilot stores. Conforama then rolled out both solutions nationally across all 180 of its stores. The process from pilot to rollout took just eight months. “The Dassault Systèmes teams were a great support during rollout,” Corbel said. “They allowed us to move fast.” 

Most traditional kitchen planning tools used by retailers are designed exclusively for in-store use by sales experts. These tools are often complex, require specific training, and are not directly accessible to consumers. HomeByMe Kitchen Planner, however, can be accessed by customers on their own devices and is very simple to use. This means shoppers can begin their projects at home and at their own pace.

“What I like about HomeByMe is the simplicity and fluidity of creating and shaping a project,” Bounouh said. “And of course, the renderings are exceptional. By combining ease of use with visual realism, the solution allows us to elevate the customer experience, helping buyers visualize their ideal kitchen with confidence.”

Once they have designed their kitchen online, customers can finalize their purchase in-store, satisfying those who desire expert guidance. Crucially for sales, this doesn’t mean starting again from scratch in the showroom. Sales experts can simply retrieve customers’ projects they’ve completed on the Conforama website via the Retail Operations interface.

This seamless omnichannel service is expected to improve the customer experience and also boost Conforama’s web-to-store strategy. Since sales experts can access customers’ designs, they can now instantly understand their needs. Having better insight into customer requirements also means kitchen experts can offer a more personalized in-person meeting. For example, they can provide more specific advice in terms of shapes, finishings, functions and accessories.

“We will be able to support our customers better from their very first contact with us, because our in-store sales spend less time on the tool and more time understanding the customer,” Corbel said. “We can also improve projects follow-up and support throughout the omnichannel journey thanks to automatic reminders, for example.” 

HomeByMe’s Retail Operations module, which has full connectivity with Kitchen Planner, aids the in-store sales team by removing many of the manual processes that previously took up so much of their time.

Designs created in Kitchen Planner are automatically linked to Retail Operations, where sales experts can see a full breakdown of every element of the kitchen. With this insight, sales experts can proactively follow up on leads, projects, sales queries, claims and delivery scheduling. They can also automatically generate quotes and invoices using the software, reducing their administrative burden and freeing them up to focus on their customers.

For Conforama’s Kitchen unit managers, heads of store and general management, Retail Operations provides full visibility of what’s happening across the business. Thanks to a detailed overview of the sales cycle, they can track customer orders by sales representative and by store, as well as margins and revenues.

“The all-in one HomeByMe solution – combining Kitchen Planner with Retail Operations – allows me to automate, be better organized, and save time,” Bounouh said. “So, for me, it’s a daily assistant.”

With HomeByMe fully live across its business, Conforama is now focused on analyzing results and optimizing both the online and in-store experience to provide the best omnichannel journey. “The real experience begins now,” Corbel said. “Next steps are to appropriate the solution in the sales team’s daily life and manage the change.”

In the months ahead, the company will continue to meet consumers’ growing preference for digital solutions by expanding the use of HomeByMe to provide a seamless omnichannel buying journey across all rooms of the home. “HomeByMe is the future,” concluded Bounouh. “It will allow us to do very beautiful things.”