B&Q has announced it is speeding up its marketplace expansion with a new partnership.

The DIY and home improvement giant is partnering with e-commerce network Rithum to reduce the time it takes for brands to be onboarded to the B&Q website.

Launched in March 2022, the company's specialist home improvement marketplace includes more than 400 verified independent sellers with a range of over 300,000 products.

According to Rithum, the move will halve the time taken to onboard new sellers.

“We’re committed to continually expanding our range at B&Q marketplace and being able to onboard new products quickly is crucial to this so that we can give customers even more choice to help make it easier to improve their homes,” said Joanna McKew, head of business development, B&Q. “Reducing the time taken to get products live allows us to be flexible and react to trends quickly."

The owner of B&Q and Screwfix recently reported an adjusted pre-tax profit decline of 25 per cent to £568 million for its latest financial year.

Kingfisher said that lower sales had been impacted by a “more challenging” consumer backdrop in France and Poland.

While the home improvement giant said that over the next 12 months it expects repairs, maintenance, and renovation on existing homes to "provide resilience", it is cautious on its overall market outlook for the period because of a “given lag between housing demand and home improvement demand”.

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