User:Arnold419/sandbox

Introduction
Dunelm is a multi channel homeware and furniture retailer based in the UK, operating in 170 plus stores accross the UK and Northern Ireland. Founded by Bill and Jean Adderly as a market stall in 1979, Dunelm has since grown to have over 9000 colleagues and turned over a gross profit of 92.4 million (before tax) in 2017. . In 2017 they also acquired The WS Group, which owns the Kiddicare, Worldstores and Achica brands, greatly improving their product range. They strive to be renowned for their style, value, quality and ease of shopping and have been awarded by the House Beautiful Awards for two years a row, winning Favourite Homeware Retailer in 2016 and the Home retailer of the year and online home retailer of the year in 2017

Dunelm Strategic approach
Dunelm’s digital marketing component has largely contributed to the growth that they are experiencing. Their recent acquisition of WS Group has also played a huge role in this growth, improving their online digital marketing strategy and online technology as well as increasing their product range and market share.

The aim of a multichannel marketing strategy is to facilitate more multi-channel consumer behaviour for the retailer. Dunelm offers consistent prices across its multichannel platform, both online and in stores. This is important as this consistency eradicates confusion in the minds of customers. Their multichannel approach is also important as it creates convenience for the customers, which Dunelm have identified as necessary based on their observation of the growing trend that their customers are busy and always on the go. Dunelm is encouraging customers to order online but also facilitate direct contact for the customers who like to touch and feel their products in store, which is most common with furniture and bedding.

With regards to the physical availability of the brand, their website is focused on delivering the best customer experience as well as products. Dunelm’s website prioritises its home page as the most important in the customers searchandising process; Dunelm place all their promotions and price discount on this page to facilitate greater sales because this is where the customers attention is the highest. Dunelm have also taken the rise of phone usage into account in its digital marketing strategy as mobile usage accounts for 20% of their overall traffic. Most customers use their mobile phones to browse for information and as a result, consumer use of mobile shopping is rapidly increasing, with purchases via mobile phones reaching 31 billion in 2016. Realising this growing change, Dunelm has encouraged more mobile phone use in its store by having "point-of-sale posters and shelf ticket labels explaining the benefit of using mobile" as stated by Sajjad Bhojani, Dunelm's Head of Multi Channel Marketing and Developments. Not only does the use of mobile devices produce benefits for retailers by advertising their products and brand to the consumer, it also creates a sense of interaction when consumers are shopping, forming a pathway to a relationship reference between Dunelm and its consumers, which promotes brand loyalty.

Their online platform helps them in collecting data on their customers, also known as business intelligence. A consumer's buying history is used to determine their preferences, which is then used to personalise their online shopping experience to cater to their perceived needs.

Social Media
Dunelm actively use social media platforms as a part of their digital marketing strategy. They actively use Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Pintrest, YouTube, Linkedin and have a Blog. All of the links to their social platforms can be found on their website.

Dunelm's Instagram has the largest following of all of their social Media platforms. They use this platform to engage with customers whilst showcasing new additions to their home-ware ranges. They also engage with their audience by posting material relevant to cultural celebrations, using photos, videos and GIFs. For example, they advertised one of their elegant crockery sets on valentines day. Its also common practice for potential customers to tag a friend or family member they think will be interested in the items in a post - further enhancing engagement. They also use hashtags so they can be found by people who do not follow their page and make a habit of asking their audience questions to elicit a response, referring to the link in the bio to encourage customers to browse their website. The link is a 'feedshop.it' link that directs the customer to a separate page with the same pictures that are on their Instagram feed. The customer then has the ability to click any picture and be directed to the range or items that is advertised in that picture. This activity is stored as in app engagement analytics and offered as an analytics report to