Bunnings starts six tech trials after study tour

Bunnings is working on six proof-of-concepts for technologies observed during a recent study tour of Israel, including a visual search tool that could make it easier for customers to choose the right screws or other DIY items.

CIO Leah Balter told the iTnews Podcast that the proofs will be run by the company’s innovation lab, a “purposely small” team that sits under Balter and aims to test future customer offers and digital solutions for potentially broader use.

The innovation lab team helped coordinate and organise the study tour to Israel, where Bunnings Managing Director Michael Schneider, other senior executives, and members from the retailer’s digital, technology and marketing teams were exposed to innovation and technology from 30 companies over the course of a week.

Balter, who also joined the tour, said it was “fantastic to see how innovation has evolved over the last couple of years”, during a period where Australia went in and out of lockdown.

From the tour, six technologies have been brought back to Australia and will now be proved out by the innovation lab.

“We brought back six proof-of-concepts that we're actively looking at and working on now,” she said.

“[They include] how to improve search on our website, so rather than having to type in the exact word, it might be visual search to get that screw that customers find hard to replace.”

Balter said other trials aimed to improve internal planning and communications between team members, and to trial ‘scan-and-go’ technology that could help customers to find and buy products faster when in-store.

If the proof-of-concepts are deemed successful, Bunnings will look to use existing scale-up and scale-out processes to bring the technologies into its stores.

“We will follow our usual model, which is just trial it in one store, then roll it out by state,” Balter said.

That mirrored the deployment model seen on past technology projects such as the introduction of click-and-collect, which was initially proved out at a single store - Craigieburn in Melbourne’s north - and on a subset of products - tools - before being scaled up to the full store range, and then to other stores, states and territories.

If technologies make it through proof-of-concept via the lab, the teams that are working on those technologies are also moved out into the business as well. 

“We recruit in a team, and if they prove a digital product, then they move out with that product,” Balter said.

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