The Swedish retailer has opened its first ever smaller-format store in the outskirts of London in St Albans, offering a more visible interaction between and e-commerce for the customer as part of its omni-channel strategy.
The new store is the first to present the product range in a new way, and in substantially less space that a typical Clas Ohlson store, while the width of the offering is maintained. The store has more digital solutions, more inspiring elements and customers have access to the full range of products via customer terminals. This will also be Clas Ohlson's first store to offer so-called Click & Collect, i.e. the ability to order online and pick up in store. This is now also being introduced in all Clas Ohlson's stores in the UK.

Clas Ohlson vice president Peter Jelkeby commented: "We are constantly striving to become more relevant and accessible in our offering and in the customer meeting. With this new, smaller store format, we can offer a full product range in a much smaller space which will help us to be more flexible when expanding our store network."

Located in The Maltings Shopping Centre in St Albans, with a retail space of approximately 300sq m, the store benefits from a large primary catchment area, and the shopping centre has about 21 million visitors annually.

The new store format is designed to complement Clas Ohlson's o existing larger stores and forms part of the company's omni-channel strategy. The retailer has hinted at plans for another couple of smaller-format stores in the first evaluation phase.

During the 2015/16 financial year, Clas Ohlson plans to establish a total of 10-15 new stores across its territories, including Sweden, Norway, Finaldn and Germany. The total number of future store establishments under contract is 12. A new outlet in Ealing, London, will open in January 2016.