‘People like to come and browse’: Heal’s revamps its flagship store to lure back shoppers

theguardian.com:

D esks for a new generation of professional home workers, king-size beds and plush velvet sofas: the upmarket furniture retailer Heal’s has revamped its original London store along with its range to try to win over shoppers amid stubbornly high inflation and a cost of living crisis.

The company has been selling furniture to well-heeled residents of the capital from the same shop on Tottenham Court Road since 1840, long outliving many of its rivals.

Now the city centre site has had a big refurbishment – doubling the shop frontage to 100 metres of windows along what is known as London’s furniture street, and significantly rearranging the store’s interior – to cater to the demands of the modern home.

Heal’s has had a presence on the street for more than 200 years, and while it still bears the name of the family that founded the brand in 1810, its current incarnation is a far cry from its origins bringing feather-filled mattresses to Britain from France.

Heal’s chief executive, Hamish Mansbridge, says the new layout offers a better showroom experience to shoppers who visit the store, or Heal’s six other retail locations across England, to sit on sofas or lie on beds.

Enticing consumers back into stores is on the minds of many retailers trying to persuade their customers to keep spending and visiting shops in the post-Covid world.

“It is a difficult environment, and people are certainly talking about money more,” says Mansbridge.

He is banking on the importance of a high street presence, even in the age of online retailing, which now accounts for half of Heal’s sales.

“The evidence suggests that even when people are shopping online for bigger ticket items, they have been to a store to look at things. Generally speaking, people