Research Consultant at USP Marketing Consultancy
As mentioned before, the share of online purchase of home improvement products has been growing steadily. In 2017 this share was 7,8% in Europe measured over all product categories. The differences per country are very high though, in some countries like Germany and the UK it’s above 10% and in others like France and Belgium it’s below 5%. It also varies greatly per product category, for some products like garden and power tools it’s already above 30% and for others like insulation it’s below 2%.
So where do consumers buy there home improvement products online? We all hear that Amazon already has a strong position in Europe when it comes to the purchases of home improvement products, but how high?
In the image above the top 5 websites for online purchases of home improvement products in Europe are presented. Amazon tops that list with a share of almost 20%. the runner up is Leroy Merlin, although their share is considerably lower at 8,2%. IKEA completes the top 3 with 7,7%. Ebay and OBI take the fourth and fifth place, both with around 4,5 procent.
When looking at individual countries, like Germany the picture changes a bit. In Germany Amazon again takes the first place with 37%, Ebay takes second places with 14,2% and Obi completes the top three with 13,7% of online purchases of home improvements products.
When reviewing this data on an European level and on a country level it’s clear that the generalists online stores are outpreforming the DIY retialers by quite a bit. We also looked at the most used websites for inspiration, which I will write an article on later on.
These are some of the results of the new Q2 2018 report of the European Home Improvement Monitor. The topic of this report is purchase channels with an additional in-depth look at online buying. The report covers 11 European countries and includes a product chapter of choice (20+ categories like bathroom products, tools, flooring, HVAC and so on). Many topics are addressed and the development of all purchase channels is presented per country and per product. Because we have a track record of well over 3 years, we can also present the trends. Furthermore, the report gives clear insights on the online buying behavior of consumers (splits are made for DIY experience, income, age etc.).
Learn more?
Please contact Dirk Hoogenboom
or Reinier Zuydgeest