O2 facelift for ‘new connected world’

O2 is to refurbish 25 key retail sites by Christmas, and 150 in total by the end of 2009 in a multi-million pound facelift of its retail estate.

It is also set to double its annual investment in staff training.

The move follows similar store refits by Orange and T-Mobile to drag consumer high street mobile phone shops into a new age of converged mobile sales, covering fixed and mobile broadband, wireless peripherals and advanced voice and data solutions.

O2 is expected to launch its own laptop bundles ahead of Christmas.

“We are putting substantial investment into our storage space, and also into training staff. These things go hand-in-hand,” said O2 UK consumer sales director Stephen Shurrock.

“The investment in staff training for 2009 is double 2008’s figure, which was in turn double the money we invested in 2007.

“From a background as a mobile operator and retailer, we are now a broad communications company, offering a wide range of products and services in the connected world – fixed broadband, mobile broadband, iPhone and BlackBerry.

“The retailing industry of prepay and contract connections has moved on. Our stores have to reflect that. Technology, today and in the future, is getting increasingly complicated. Customers want a retailer and a network that will offer them expert advice.”

Shurrock said O2 has learned from its handling of Apple’s iPhone handsets, as well as its concept store at The O2, in southeast London.

All display devices will be live, functioning models in the new stores, linked up to printers, speakers, headphones and other peripherals.

O2 is also creating lounge areas for consultation and product demonstrations, centred around a coffee table and flanked by a plasma screen television.

It will also run digital signage, as Vodafone has done, in conjunction with Cable & Wireless to transmit live promotional messages on latest tariffs and products direct from a central operating bureau.

O2 said it is consciously reducing printed point-of-sale material in store in favour of delivering marketing and promotions via digital media.

As part of the training programme, O2 will install at least one dedicated technology expert, called an O2 Guru, behind a helpdesk in each of the new stores, able to impart technical advice on advanced wireless communications solutions.

It is also setting up self-help stations, where customers will be able to log-on to check accounts, top up, and buy tickets to O2-sponsored events.

O2’s store in Manchester’s Arndale Centre has already been overhauled and reopened.  Sites in Nottingham, Glasgow, Newcastle, Ipswich and Northampton are slated for refit this month.