Industry Vision
There are several important and rapidly evolving transformations taking place in the way retailers and their customers interact. Taken together these new developments are revolutionising the way we think about the shopping experience in home improvement. Innovation and the deployment of new technologies are permanently altering the way we shop every day.
Our main message to policymakers is to recognise how this vitality benefits the local communities our stores operate in, and how local people will continue to prosper from the jobs and services our stores provide, the innovation and benefits we deliver for households and the societal challenges we help address. But to do this, we need a level playing field in tax treatment and other regulatory obligations between bricks and mortar retail and purely online sellers.
Retailers welcome competition, indeed we thrive on it, but it has to be based on equal treatment for all operators.
This is the environment that will allow retailers to develop and market products and services that are essential to the home. Open trade benefits suppliers, retailers and consumers and helps retailers to continually innovate to better meet customer needs. Sound product safety policies will help deliver affordable products that are safe to use, produced in conditions that respect workers' health and safety.
