How a hardware shop sold products that had never been displayed on the shop floor

Located in the rural heart of Norfolk, Brundall Home Hardware is a treasure trove of over 9,500 products. After opening in 2005, Andrew and Alison have built up a local, independent and thriving community hub selling everything from cookware to ironmongery services to garden supplies. 

The Challenge: 

Always mindful of how to attract new customers in a rural location, Andrew set about establishing an online presence. However, the difficulties of managing nationwide deliveries forced Brundall Home Hardware to try other means of reaching out and engaging with a new demographic. After running several traditional marketing tools proved ineffective, Andrew knew that he had to find a way to reach out to local customers that he knew would travel into bigger towns to get products that Brundall Home Hardware were selling on their doorstep.

The Solution: 

‘We were quite enthralled that fairly quickly we were getting people coming into the store saying they had found a particular product online.’ - Andrew, Brundall Home Hardware

As an active member of several Home Hardware Facebook groups, Andrew noticed that a lot of like-minded shops were posting about using NearSt to promote their inventory online with shoppers in the local area. After speaking with the NearSt team, Andrew discovered how easily NearSt could integrate with his POS to display his inventory on Google, driving customers searching for products in the area directly to Brundall Home Hardware. 

The Results: 

“We keep certain products in our stock room that have never been on public display on the shop floor before. I've had customers who have come in and showed me pictures of these products on their mobiles and there’s no way that they would know we had those products in stock without NearSt … it’s completely opening up doors for us” Andrew, Brundall Home Hardware

During his four-week trial, Andrew was completely blown-away by how many people were coming into the store asking for products they had found online. By using NearSt, Brundall Home Hardware has been able to drive new customers into their store, with many asking to purchase products that often sit in the stockroom.

NearSt is now Brundall Home Hardware’s only online presence and in April 2021, Andrew’s inventory was spotted online over 8300 times. With an estimated 81 customers coming into the store during the same period, Andrew has been delighted to note that several customers have come in saying they ‘had found us through a Google Search and now we would be their first point of call’. 

If you’d like to see how NearSt could help you connect your products to customers for no extra work, drop us a note on hello@near.st or give us a ring on 0333 050 9658.