What hardware customers need
Hardware retail wins on range: a shop that has the unusual fitting keeps the customer for everything else. But the range is invisible, so customers drive around checking. Tradespeople are the profitable segment, buying repeatedly in volume and needing trade pricing and an account rather than a queue at a till. Both groups want the same fundamental thing: to know it is in stock before travelling.
What we build for a hardware store
First, deep catalogue search with technical attributes, since customers look for a specific size and standard rather than a category. Second, stock per branch with click-and-collect, which converts the drive-around into a reservation. Third, trade accounts with volume pricing and reorder from history, because tradespeople are repeat buyers currently treated as walk-ins. Fourth, bulk and project ordering, for the builders who need fifty of something delivered rather than carried.