Leyland, established in 1985 and known for its iconic blue high-street storefronts, is one of London's most trusted and recognisable painting & decorating retailers, serving both the trade and DIYers with 33 stores across the capital.
As London’s decorating experts, Leyland offers a wide product range, expert advice and friendly customer service, all whilst prioritising its local communities. Among the DIY superstores and vast online-only providers, Leyland's high-street presence and accessible expertise set them apart.
“Now that each store’s inventory is linked up to NearSt, I know that anyone searching for our products in the local area will find us.”
- Naivasha Elworthy, Leyland Marketing Manager
The Problem
Leyland’s Marketing Manager, Naivasha Elworthy, was seeking solutions to boost the online visibility of her stores in their local areas, and in turn, get more local shoppers through their doors. “Increasing brand awareness can be challenging and expensive. Our goal was to find something that could make a real difference to awareness and store footfall that didn’t involve the often prohibitive costs of other methods,” Naivasha said.
Naivasha knew that attracting shoppers into Leyland’s stores often hinges on providing a quick and convenient shopping experience. In such a competitive market, failure to provide this convenience can result in both tradespeople and retail consumers going elsewhere.
A constant objective in Naivasha’s role is making Leyland’s products more accessible and available to current and potential customers looking for them.
Before teaming up with NearSt, each location’s in-store stock was invisible to anyone searching online. With 83% of online shoppers saying they would visit a store if they knew a product was available, it made sense to change this.
“Getting shoppers through our doors is absolutely key. Our in-store colleagues are well-known for their knowledgeable and friendly customer service, so anyone who pops in for the first time is likely to return!”
- Naivasha
The Solution
Naivasha used NearSt to connect all her in-store products to the places where her customers are searching for them online.
Using one of NearSt’s >130 native stock management system integrations, Naivasha was able to connect an inventory feed from Leyland’s Kingston-Upon-Thames store to NearSt in just a few hours. This feed automatically uploads basic SKU data (a barcode), pricing, and stock level information to NearSt’s platform several times an hour. This basic feed is then transformed into high-quality real-time local inventory data and fed directly into Google.
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As a worldwide Google Local Feeds partner NearSt took away all the technical complexity associated with connecting live stock data to Google. In just 19 days Leyland Kingston’s live in-store product availability was appearing in thousands of local search results on Google for nearby shoppers, completely automatically and with no further input from Naivasha or her team. To learn how you can connect your in-store inventory to Google, download the full case study here.
After seeing the ease of implementation and impact on store performance, two months later Naivasha connected the in-store products of their entire 32-store (now 33) network to Google.
The remaining 27 stores went live within 3 days of activation. As a result, Leyland's in-store products are now being viewed on Google over 200,000 times a day by local shoppers - helping Naivasha effortlessly drive online shoppers into her stores as they now know Leyland has what they need.
"NearSt offers the ideal solution and after trialling a few stores we did a full rollout and have been working with them ever since.”
- Naivasha
The Results
Alongside their customer-first approach, part of Leyland's strategy is ensuring its stores remain at the heart of everything they do. By collaborating with NearSt to integrate her in-store stock and enhance the online customer experience, Naivasha achieved remarkable growth in online performance and in-store footfall. These efforts have resulted in lasting, substantial benefits for the business. -2-1.png?width=244&height=481&name=Leyland%20SDM%20(2)-2-1.png)
Leyland saw a 15% increase in their products and Google Business Profile being seen by local shoppers on Google. Leyland is being found online more often
Leyland witnessed substantial growth on Google during their first 12 months with NearSt. With 44% of customer journeys now starting on search engines, increasing the visibility of their stores by 15% on Google means Leyland is more likely to be found and chosen by local shoppers near their stores.
To discover how Naivasha achieved a 12% increase in footfall across her stores, download the full case study here.
