For years, retailers treated ecommerce and stores like separate worlds.
Kingfisher is betting the future belongs to the retailers that stop thinking that way entirely.
At World Retail Congress 2026 in Berlin, I sat down with Romain Roulleau, Group Digital & Ecommerce Director at Kingfisher, to talk about how one of Europe’s largest home improvement retailers plans to grow ecommerce from 21% to 30% of total sales.
And interestingly, the strategy is not centered around replacing stores.
It is centered around making stores more important than ever.
Because according to Roulleau, the retailers trying to compete with pure-play ecommerce companies on identical terms are already fighting the wrong battle.
Kingfisher’s advantage is not just digital.
It is physical scale combined with digital capability.
And in DIY retail, that distinction matters more than most people realize.
Why Stores Still Sit at the Center of Ecommerce Growth
One of the clearest themes throughout the conversation was that home improvement retail behaves very differently than many other ecommerce categories.
DIY is rarely a single-item transaction.
Customers are planning projects.
Comparing materials.
Matching finishes.
Solving problems.
Building entire rooms.
And because of that complexity, stores remain deeply intertwined with the customer journey.
“If we want to go against pure players and play with the same rules they do, we’re going to lose.”
That line perfectly captured Kingfisher’s philosophy.
Rather than minimizing the role of stores, the company is using them as a competitive advantage.
Today, roughly 90% of Kingfisher’s ecommerce orders are fulfilled directly through stores across banners including B&Q, Screwfix, Castorama, and Brico Dépôt.
That operational network gives the company something many digital-native competitors struggle to replicate:
Proximity.
Inventory access.
Customer support.
Fulfillment flexibility.
And increasingly, that flexibility is becoming one of the biggest differentiators in modern retail.
Marketplace Strategy Changes the Definition of “In Stock”
One of the most fascinating parts of the discussion centered on how Kingfisher is integrating marketplace sellers directly into the in-store experience.
And honestly, it completely reframes how retailers should think about endless aisle strategies.
Kingfisher’s first-party assortment typically ranges between 40,000 and 70,000 SKUs depending on the banner.
But through marketplace expansion, that assortment now scales into the millions.
At B&Q alone, marketplace assortment has grown to roughly 3.5 million SKUs.
That scale creates a very different customer experience.
Instead of telling customers an item is unavailable, store associates can now pull marketplace inventory directly into the same transaction flow.
Different size.
Different color.
Different style.
Different vendor.
The project can still move forward.
And importantly, the customer never has to leave the ecosystem to complete it.
“We have some third-party vendors. Let’s see if it fits.”
That may sound simple.
But operationally, it is a massive shift.
Because the store associate is no longer limited only to what physically exists on the shelf.
The store becomes an access point into a dramatically larger digital inventory pool.
Why Click-and-Collect Marketplace Returns Matter So Much
One thing Roulleau highlighted repeatedly was how aggressively Kingfisher is trying to eliminate friction between ecommerce and physical retail.
The company was among the first in the UK to offer click-and-collect for marketplace orders alongside in-store marketplace returns.
And surprisingly, many major European marketplace operators still do not fully support those capabilities today.
That distinction matters more than it initially sounds.
Because marketplace success is not just about adding more SKUs online.
It is about integrating those products seamlessly into the operational and customer experience customers already trust.
If a customer buys from a third-party seller but can still return the item inside a trusted physical store, the retailer maintains ownership of the relationship.
That trust layer becomes incredibly valuable as marketplaces continue expanding globally.
The Real Opportunity Behind Retail Media
The conversation also touched heavily on retail media, particularly how marketplace growth accelerates monetization opportunities.
Kingfisher’s goal is for retail media to eventually represent 3% of total ecommerce GMV.
And according to Roulleau, marketplace sellers are often significantly more advanced in retail media adoption than traditional wholesale brand partners.
Why?
Because many of them already operate inside ecosystems like Amazon.
They understand sponsored search.
Advertising ROI.
Conversion attribution.
Bid optimization.
They already know how digital retail media works.
Traditional brands, meanwhile, are often still learning how to fully operate inside those systems.
That dynamic creates an interesting education gap retailers increasingly have to bridge.
Why AI Looks Different in DIY Retail
One of the strongest insights from the discussion centered on how differently AI functions inside home improvement retail compared to simpler retail categories.
Most AI commerce demos today focus on relatively straightforward transactions:
Find a product.
Add it to cart.
Complete checkout.
But DIY projects are rarely that linear.
Customers are building kitchens.
Renovating bathrooms.
Planning outdoor spaces.
Combining products across multiple categories simultaneously.
That complexity fundamentally changes what AI assistance needs to do.
“You very rarely go into a home improvement store just for one product.”
Instead of focusing exclusively on automated checkout flows, Kingfisher is investing more heavily in AI tools that guide customers through the full project journey.
Recommendation support.
Project building.
Product compatibility.
Service guidance.
That distinction feels important.
Because in high-consideration retail categories, the value of AI may come less from removing humans entirely and more from helping customers navigate complexity more confidently.
Why Agentic Checkout Is Not the Priority Yet
One of the more refreshing parts of the conversation was Roulleau’s honesty about where Kingfisher is deliberately not overinvesting right now.
Despite all the industry excitement around fully autonomous AI agents handling transactions end-to-end, he made it clear the company believes widespread consumer trust in fully agentic checkout is still early.
“We have some other priorities.”
That perspective echoed something I heard repeatedly throughout World Retail Congress.
Retailers are absolutely paying attention to agentic commerce.
But many are prioritizing customer support, discovery, and project assistance ahead of fully autonomous purchasing behavior.
Especially in categories where purchases involve higher consideration, larger baskets, and more decision complexity.
And honestly, that feels like a much more grounded way of thinking about where customer behavior actually sits today.
The Bigger Takeaway
What made this conversation especially compelling was how operationally realistic it felt.
There was no obsession with replacing stores.
No fixation on chasing every AI headline.
No attempt to force digital and physical retail into separate buckets.
Instead, Kingfisher seems focused on building a retail ecosystem where stores, ecommerce, marketplaces, fulfillment, and AI all reinforce each other simultaneously.
And in many ways, that may end up being the defining characteristic of the next generation of omnichannel retail leaders.
Not digital-first.
Not store-first.
Fully integrated.
The Bottom Line
The future of ecommerce growth may not belong to retailers trying to escape their physical footprint.
It may belong to the retailers learning how to operationalize that footprint better than anyone else.
Kingfisher’s strategy reflects a larger shift happening across retail right now:
Stores are no longer competing against ecommerce.
They are becoming the infrastructure powering it.
And as ecommerce expectations continue rising, the retailers that successfully connect inventory, fulfillment, marketplaces, customer support, and digital discovery into one seamless ecosystem may ultimately have the biggest competitive advantage of all.
To catch more conversations from World Retail Congress 2026 in Berlin, follow Omni Talk Retail on LinkedIn or listen wherever you get your podcasts.
Thank you to Vusion for supporting Omni Talk Retail’s live coverage throughout the event.
Be careful out there,
Chris Walton and the Omni Talk team
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Omni Talk® is the retail blog for retailers, written by retailers. Chris Walton founded Omni Talk® in 2017 and have quickly turned it into one of the fastest growing blogs in retail.