As Omni Talk wraps up its coverage from the Global DIY Summit 2026 in Amsterdam, one final conversation stood out for its simplicity.
While much of the event focused on AI, marketplaces, retail media, and emerging technologies, Ryan Baker, Chief Operating Officer of Bunnings Group, kept bringing the discussion back to something more fundamental: helping customers successfully complete projects.
That mindset helps explain why Bunnings has become Australia’s most trusted retail brand and why it continues to find growth in an increasingly competitive retail environment.
Organizing The Business Around The Customer
Baker’s own journey at Bunnings reflects the company’s long-term approach to leadership.
After starting on the shop floor 25 years ago, he worked through store operations, regional leadership, customer strategy, and merchandising before becoming COO. Today, his responsibilities span merchandising, marketing, supply chain, global sourcing, and retail media.
While that may seem like an unusually broad role, Baker explained that the structure is intentionally designed around the customer experience.
Rather than allowing different departments to optimize for separate goals, Bunnings aligns merchandising, fulfillment, marketing, and customer strategy under one umbrella. The objective is straightforward: ensure every function works together to create a better experience for customers.
In Baker’s view, supply chain is no longer simply an operational function. It has become part of the customer offer itself.
How products are sourced, moved, fulfilled, and delivered has become just as important as the products being sold.
Why Value Means More Than Price
One of the strongest themes throughout the conversation was value.
Bunnings operates as an everyday low-price retailer, but Baker was quick to point out that value extends beyond pricing alone.
Price remains the starting point. The company closely monitors competitors and even guarantees that if customers find a lower price elsewhere, Bunnings will beat it by 10%.
But value also includes convenience, assortment, trust, availability, and the overall shopping experience.
Customers need confidence that they’re receiving a fair price, but they also need confidence that the retailer will help them successfully complete their project.
That broader definition of value has become increasingly important as customers face ongoing economic pressure and become more intentional about their spending decisions.
Home Improvement Is Really About Projects
Perhaps the most compelling insight from the conversation was Baker’s view that home improvement retailers aren’t actually selling products.
They’re helping customers complete projects.
Whether someone is painting a child’s bedroom, building a garden bed, organizing a garage, or upgrading a rental property, the project itself is what matters.
The products are simply tools that help customers achieve their goal.
That perspective has major implications for how Bunnings approaches digital commerce.
Rather than focusing solely on product transactions, the company invests heavily in content, inspiration, and educational resources designed to help customers build confidence.
How-to videos, project guides, tutorials, and inspiration content all serve the same purpose: helping customers believe they can successfully complete a project.
For Baker, confidence is one of the most valuable things a retailer can provide.
The more confidence customers have, the more likely they are to take on new projects and continue engaging with the category.
Expanding Beyond Traditional DIY
While Bunnings remains rooted in home improvement, the company has expanded into adjacent categories that reflect changing customer needs.
Pet care, cleaning products, automotive supplies, and other categories have become growth opportunities in recent years.
The strategy isn’t simply about adding more products.
It’s about identifying areas where existing customers already have needs and creating additional reasons for them to engage with the brand.
The approach has helped attract new shoppers while encouraging existing customers to explore more of the Bunnings ecosystem.
As Baker explained, growth often comes from listening closely to customers and responding to how their lifestyles are evolving.
Building A Marketplace Around Trust
The rise of “do it for me” services has created another opportunity for Bunnings.
Through its services marketplace, the company connects homeowners with trusted trade professionals who can complete projects on their behalf.
What makes the model particularly interesting is the role Bunnings plays in vetting and validating those providers.
Customers aren’t simply being matched with random contractors.
Bunnings actively works to ensure participating professionals meet quality standards and provide reliable service.
That approach reflects the same trust-based philosophy that underpins the broader business.
For many homeowners, the hardest part of hiring help isn’t finding someone.
It’s knowing who they can trust.
By helping solve that problem, Bunnings extends its role beyond selling products and into facilitating project completion.
Faster Fulfillment Is Changing Customer Expectations
Another major topic of discussion was last-mile delivery.
Just a few years ago, Bunnings deliveries typically arrived within three to five days.
Today, customers can often receive products the same day, within a few hours, or even within an hour through partnerships like Uber Eats.
Those faster fulfillment capabilities are reshaping how customers think about home improvement purchases.
Instead of planning days in advance, customers can now continue working on a project and quickly order the missing item they need without leaving home.
The service is also helping Bunnings reach younger shoppers who may not have traditionally considered the retailer during project planning.
Importantly, Baker emphasized that customers receive the same pricing through these channels as they would in stores, reinforcing the company’s commitment to transparency and trust.
Winning The Next Generation Of Customers
Bunnings is also investing heavily in younger consumers, particularly renters.
Historically, home improvement retail has often focused on homeowners.
But Baker sees significant opportunity in serving customers who may not yet own a home but still want to personalize and improve their living spaces.
That has led Bunnings to expand assortments featuring removable and portable solutions that renters can take with them when they move.
The company has also found success in categories tied directly to moving, including boxes, packing materials, cleaning products, and truck rentals.
These categories serve as entry points into the broader Bunnings ecosystem and help introduce new customers to the brand.
AI As An Enabler, Not A Strategy
While AI was discussed throughout the summit, Baker offered a notably practical perspective on its role.
For Bunnings, AI is not the strategy.
It’s an enabler.
The company is already using AI to assist both customers and employees. One example is Buddy, an AI-powered project assistant that helps shoppers identify materials, access instructional content, and build project shopping lists.
Behind the scenes, AI is also supporting areas such as inventory planning, forecasting, and productivity improvements.
Yet Baker repeatedly emphasized that technology only matters when it creates tangible value.
The goal isn’t to deploy AI for its own sake.
The goal is to improve customer experiences and help team members work more effectively.
That mindset reflects a broader theme that surfaced repeatedly throughout the conversation: practical execution often matters more than flashy innovation.
The Long-Term Mindset Behind Transformation
Perhaps the biggest takeaway from the discussion was Baker’s belief that successful transformation requires patience.
Moving a business built around physical stores into a fully omnichannel future wasn’t easy.
It required significant investment, organizational change, and a willingness to challenge long-standing assumptions.
Many of those investments didn’t deliver immediate returns.
But Baker argued that retailers must be willing to invest for the future rather than optimize solely for the next quarter.
The companies that remain relevant are the ones willing to evolve before disruption forces them to.
That long-term thinking has become a defining characteristic of Bunnings’ approach to growth, technology, and customer experience.
The Bottom Line
At a conference filled with conversations about AI, marketplaces, retail media, and emerging technologies, Ryan Baker’s message was refreshingly simple.
Retail success starts with trust.
Customers trust retailers that offer fair prices. They trust retailers that help them solve problems. They trust retailers that make projects easier and remove friction from the shopping journey.
Technology can strengthen that trust.
Content can strengthen that trust.
Faster fulfillment can strengthen that trust.
But trust itself remains the foundation.
And for Bunnings, every investment—from AI to omnichannel fulfillment to services marketplaces—is ultimately designed to earn more of it.
To hear more conversations from the Global DIY Summit 2026 in Amsterdam, 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 from the Global DIY Summit 2026.
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.