News 2003
Virgin Mobile creates own-brand High Street stores – virtually
05/08/2003
Virgin Mobile today announced ambitious plans for a major retail presence on Britain’s high streets, cementing its position as the UK’s fastest growing mobile network, in partnership with Virgin Megastores and Virgin Megastores Xpress.
Virgin Mobile is launching a mobile phone zone within stores, which will be known as a ‘Virgin Mobile Specialist Store’ and is effectively a virtual shop. The dedicated focus gives Virgin Mobile the opportunity to explain its new products and services in a fun and entertaining environment. The `Virgin Mobile Specialist Store’ concept has already been trialled in ten London and South East England Virgin Megastores, with phenomenal success. A significant sales uplift was seen in all stores, with an average increase on sales of 50% within a month of the store opening.
The company is developing 91 Virgin Mobile zones in Virgin Megastores and Virgin Megastores Xpress stores by the end of October 2003. This will increase to 160 stores, across the entire Virgin retail estate, by the end of 2004. The new offer is one of the fastest retail roll-outs ever seen in the UK.
120 people will be recruited to staff the `Virgin Mobile Specialist Stores’ by the end of 2003, with another 100 people during the course of next year. Up to four staff will be hired for each shop to give expert Virgin Mobile customer service and advice. Customers will be shown how to set their phone up in-store, use voicemail, set up VirginXtras, and to get them up and running immediately, their phone directory can be copied over from their old phone to their new one with a SIM reader.
Graeme Hutchinson, sales and marketing director, Virgin Mobile, said: “When Virgin Mobile launched in November 1999, we started selling phones in Virgin Megastores and caused a great deal of controversy! Our competitors said we’d never sell mobiles in record shops, but how wrong they were. Since our humble beginnings, with a couple of metres of shelf space in Virgin Megastores, we’ve found that combining mobile phones with music and entertainment is a perfect way to engage Virgin Mobile customers. The success of our virtual network business model has proved itself beyond doubt. Now we are confident we can continue to develop our virtual retailer concept in partnership with our sister company Virgin Megastores to give us a major presence on the high street.”
Simon Wright, chief executive of Virgin Entertainment Group, said: “This is a particularly exciting example of two sister brands creating a perfect synergy with their respective offers. We have sold more than 1.3 million Virgin Mobile handsets through Virgin Megastores to date. This is a total vindication of our original belief that mobile phones are totally relevant in the entertainment arena.”
Virgin Mobile customers can of course `Flash-It’, in Virgin Megastores or Virgin Megastores Xpress – they simply flash their Virgin Mobile phone to get free airtime when buying music, dvds, games and videos.
