Bespoke kitchens were hailed as the next big thing, with LG Electronics and Samsung investing heavily in instore merchandising and marketing for the multi coloured design options that Bespoke offered, the only problem is that the early multi coloured concept that Bespoke was built on has failed, with Harvey Norman moving to strip out Samsung’s Bespoke merchandising stands from their stores.
Other retailers are tipped to follow Harvey Norman’s lead with the future being more about Bespoke black and white refrigerators and a range of colour options across small appliances.
“Great idea but the concept has not worked” a Harvey Norman executive said.
To get Bespoke off the ground both Samsung and LG invested heavily in instore merchandising which looked great but did not necessarily lead to a Bespoke sale, the merchandising is believed to have cost the South Korean appliance brands millions.
The problem according to Harvey Norman management was the sell process and the availability of panels.
“Samsung refrigerators are great but the concept of Bespoke is a big like 3D TV’s, different from the norm and hard to sell”.
As one observer said “What were appliance retailers selling? A refrigerator or a new design and coloured panels for a kitchen, the messaging got lost. Retail staff in appliance stores are not trained to sell design, they want to sell an appliance and get their commission, and this is part of the problem.”
“The bulk and scale of a Bespoke kitchen is a lot different from selling a coloured vacuum cleaner or kitchen appliance” they said.
ChannelNews understands that the last remaining Samsung Bespoke refrigerator is a Black and Terracotta White model that “is proving popular” according to Harvey Norman sales staff.
The first Samsung Bespoke refrigerator was launched in 2019, with Samsung investing millions in expanding it’s mix-and-match lineup to include 15 categories, with everything from ranges to microwaves, dishwashers to washer/dryers, even air purifiers and vacuums.
Initially Bespoke was designed to meet what Samsung thought was a growing demand for customisation while providing a new level of intelligent connectivity that Samsung claimed, “empowers users to be more sustainable in the kitchen”.
Now Samsung is moving to focus on Bespoke “Finished Solutions”.
Other retailers including The Good Guys and Bing Lee have said that both LG’s and Samsung’s Bespoke concept is a “difficult sell”.
Samsung has not officially commented on the decision by Harvey Norman to remove Bespoke kitchen merchandising from their stores.
