Paper Plus innovates to fight online threat
Paper Plus is embarking on a ‘‘transformation project’’ to be rolled out nationwide after the first concept store in Christchurch’s Barrington Shopping Centre is tested on customers.
There are 115 franchised shops around the country facing a variety of common retail challenges.
A Paper Plus in Feilding recently closed, and one in Merivale, Christchurch, did not have its lease renewed and was replaced with a Whitcoulls.
Paper Plus Group chief executive Sam Shosanya said retailers must become innovative and sharpen their focus on selling points that distinguish them from online stores.
Store designs will be tweaked based on customer response and feedback.
The company said the new plan will allow franchise owners to convert to a concept store by selecting various design options most relevant for their customers and their budgets.
Paper Plus has also developed joint ventures such as an inhouse publishing business with industry expert Bill Honeybone, and a wholesale sourcing business with United Sourcing Group.
The recently opened shop in Barrington is the flagship for the first phase of the nationwide transformation project and builds on market research from across North America, Europe and Asia.
The aim of the new strategy was to encourage people to spend more time in shops by making the outlets more welcoming.
The new Barrington shop was designed around several ‘‘experiential zones’’ including spaces for customers to try the range of stationery and play with the latest games and toys.
Exclusive Paper Plus books and toys will be revealed leading up to next Christmas.
The new shop also features a community calendar, and a minilibrary where customers can exchange books with other community members.
Shosanya said the future of retail wasn’t just about robots and automation. ‘‘You can’t touch, see and feel online. You can in your local bookstore.’’
On the technology front, Paper Plus undertook a hardware and software upgrade of its network in 2016.
Servers were slow and coming to the end of their life, and the company’s Spark network was being retired. Intellium designed and built a private wide-area network and manages data at its data centre.