Unieuro inaugurates its new format with the Client Hub and AI assistant in Lissone (Mb)

Unieuro presented its new retail format in Lissone (Mb), with more services, more technology, more advice and a new organisation of the space, designed around people’s needs.

A strategic project created to respond to the evolution of retail, increasingly integrated across physical and digital channels, and to changing consumer habits, with the aim of making the store more intuitive, efficient and innovative.

The new features

Among the main new features are the Client Hub, a dedicated area located at the centre of the store that brings together services, assistance and advice, and the AI chatbot, an in-store digital assistant that uses artificial intelligence to interact with customers, guide them around the store and support them in finding information about products and services. These are complemented by a new design, digital tools supporting the shopping experience, and an offering that combines established categories with new product and service areas.

The project

The new Lissone concept represents one of the main initiatives in the evolution of Unieuro’s distribution system, in line with the industrial plan Beyond Everyday, thus becoming the first laboratory for testing, optimising and progressively extending the format to stores in the network with the greatest potential. The project is the result of a process of analysis and design that involved the various company functions across the organisation, starting with observation of customers’ behaviour and listening to their needs throughout the purchasing journey. This work defined the guiding principles of the format, from organising the space according to customers’ needs to reducing friction in the experience, from technology to the central role of services, and the role of established categories and new product and service categories.

The product range

The product range becomes an integral part of the format’s narrative: established categories are joined by new high-potential categories, while display methods are rethought to make solutions clearer and more relevant. The new area dedicated to energy solutions introduces product-service packages, with proposals that may include photovoltaic systems, wallboxes and heat pumps; at the same time, a space dedicated entirely to wellbeing and self-care is also created, bringing together fitness, wearable devices, beauty tech and small domestic appliances for personal care in a single experiential world: categories previously distributed across different departments that now converge with solutions designed also to be tried out directly in the store. The private label and the second-hand world also receive greater prominence, encompassed in the Good Idea concept and enhanced through its own distinctive identity, strengthening the link between innovation in the offering, service and customers’ new needs.

The Client Hub

The most representative element of the new concept is the Client Hub, an area of almost 85 sq m physically located at the centre of the store and designed to be the heart of the shop. It is not simply a service desk, but a new proposition for the relationship with the customer: the name recalls the very concept of a hub, a connection point capable of bringing together different functions, needs and moments of the experience in a single space.

Large, recognisable and highly visible, the Client Hub brings together Unieuro’s current and future service offering, transforming activities often distributed across several areas of the store into a single place for welcoming, advice, assistance, guidance and solutions. The main customer services are delivered and managed in this space: collection and payment of online orders with Click & Collect and Pay & Collect, after-sales assistance, repairs, installations, financial services, dedicated advice and energy solutions, including offers linked to supplies and operators.

In-store AI assistance

Technology has been designed as an ecosystem supporting the experience, not as a simple list of tools. The most distinctive element is the digital assistant developed in-store using artificial intelligence: a solution designed to interact with customers, guide them around the store, support them and accompany them as they explore the products and services available.

More than a simple information tool, the digital assistant introduces a new way of interacting in the store, making access to information more immediate and expanding the possibilities for interaction between customers, the product range and sales staff. The concept is completed by a digital catalogue that can be consulted in real time by scanning the QR codes shown on the digital labels of all products, a structured waiting-management system that directs customers to assistance, repairs, financial services, advice and other Client Hub services, call buttons that allow customers to request support from a member of staff when the area is unattended or staff are already busy, self-service checkouts, direct payment in the department and new mobile devices for staff.

A widespread system of digital screens also makes it possible to communicate products, promotions and services in a more contextual and dynamic way, giving brands greater visibility and enhancing retail media opportunities. The extensive digitisation of informational, promotional and service content ultimately helps make the store essentially paperless.

The colours of the experience

The visual identity of the new concept stems from a balance between technology, warmth and recognisability: the orange brings energy and proximity to the space, the blue evokes the world of technology and innovation, the wood introduces a more tactile and welcoming dimension that brings the store closer to people’s living environments, while the white helps enhance light, order and the clarity of the space. The new display approach also affects the established categories: from the cash-and-carry area enhanced with solutions closer to the world of furniture, to telephony with arrangements that encourage free handling, through to the organised climate area and the TV area redesigned to make comparison between brands, formats and offering tiers more immediate.

The comment

“With the new format, we are taking an important step in the evolution of Unieuro, in continuity with our industrial plan: we are not merely rethinking the store, but the very role of retail in a context where products, services, advice and technology must integrate ever more naturally,” said Bruna Olivieri, country manager of Unieuro. “The Client Hub puts this vision into practice: it brings services to the physical centre of the experience and transforms them into a recognisable, accessible place designed around customers’ needs. Then there is artificial intelligence, which is entering the store through the AI Chatbot. It is a technology which, together with the other digital tools, is useful both in supporting the customer experience and the store staff: it amplifies rather than replaces the expertise and advice of our colleagues, and helps make the store even more relevant as a space for interaction, guidance and solutions. Lissone is the first building block of a project resulting from an enormous team effort, in which the whole organisation has played a leading role: I wholeheartedly thank all the teams who worked with passion to turn this vision into reality.”

This article was translated from the original Italian version with the assistance of artificial intelligence. In case of discrepancies, please refer to the original Italian version.