Leroy Merlin: A digital lick of paint for the in-store customer experience

WAX Interactive and Bema digitise the customer journey in the Leroy Merlin paint section

Leroy Merlin chose WAX Interactive to assist it with the development of the interface for an in-store interactive terminal which can help customers choose colours for their home. The stated objective of the world's 3rd biggest DIY firm is to enrich the user's experience in its sales areas by guiding the customer during their journey and facilitating the buying process.

An objective for the world's 3rd biggest DIY firm: to enrich the in-store customer experience

Leroy Merlin, the leading French retailer of DIY materials, has a network of 121 stores located across the whole country and offers a range of 60,000 product references.In Autumn 2014, Leroy Merlin expressed a desire to make a digital solution available in its stores to help its customers make decisions and consequently help with sales for its sales team.

The brand chose the Bema company's concept called 'Paint Box' developed by WAX Interactive.It is an interactive terminal which offers the user a choice of thousands of paint colours and guides them according to their projects, preferences and also suggests the best combinations. In addition, at the end of the 'journey' the terminal will virtually paint a typical surface (kitchen, bathroom, etc.) with the colours chosen and saved by the user (with the option of printing the chosen colours in high definition) to enable them to imagine themselves in the universe that they have imagined.

The first phase of the project took place from late 2014 until April 2015, with the installation of 5 'test terminals' in stores in the Paris suburbs and north of France.

WAX Interactive - proven expertise with interactive terminals

Following this pilot phase which made it possible to collect information and feedback from customers, Leroy Merlin and Bema asked WAX Interactive to create a new interface for the terminal in order to enrich it and consequently offer a unique sensory experience which is both practical and fun.

The agencies in Belgium and Lille have combined their UX, functional, design and technical expertise in order to redesign the application and customise it so that it addresses the brand's specific issues as fully as possible.

The WAX teams consequently optimised the interaction screens so as to make the journey smoother, more user-friendly, and above all involve the customer in their choice of colour and facilitate their purchase. 

In addition, the ranges of colours available on the terminal have been greatly expanded while remaining simple to use for customers.With this new interface, the customer can now choose their colour in less than thirty minutes, imagine themselves in a room, and also share their mock-ups in real time with friends and family to get their feedback in order to validate their choice to trigger the purchase directly in the store.

The redesigned terminal interface has been updated in all test stores and a brand new terminal was installed for the opening of the new Leroy Merlin store in Le Havre in June 2015. In the next few months, the experience will be rolled out in more than fifteen other stores.

Jeremy Guyot, Head of Paint Merchandising, Leroy Merlin France, explains: « I really liked the rapidity and proximity in the collaboration with WAX Interactive. The 'back and forth' nature of our discussions made it possible for us to develop and act quickly to get what we wanted to visually. In addition, the WAX teams clearly knew how to make the technical vocabulary accessible, and above all we had a graphic designer during the meetings who adjusted the layout and showed us changes in real time which we noted for the interface! »