The Home Improvement Boom: Evolving Consumer Behaviors in a Post-Pandemic Era

Dur­ing the pan­dem­ic, home improve­ment projects surged. How­ev­er, as not­ed in YipitData’s 1H23 State of the Home Improve­ment Report, con­sumer behav­iors have since recal­i­brat­ed and sub­se­quent­ly trans­formed the indus­try. While GMV sales growth has slowed to 2 – 3% in 1H23 vs 23.5% in 2021, the home improve­ment industry’s out­look still remains pos­i­tive with 1H23 amass­ing an impres­sive $220 bil­lion in sales. 

The most strik­ing trans­for­ma­tion in the home improve­ment indus­try has been a strong push towards online sales, now rep­re­sent­ing 37% of the total home improve­ment mar­ket. This has allowed gen­er­al­ist giants like Ama­zon, Wal­mart, and Cost­co to chal­lenge indus­try spe­cial­ists like Home Depot and Lowe’s for indus­try mar­ket share.

So, how are evolv­ing indus­try dynam­ics impact­ing key cat­e­gories like Gar­den Cen­ter dur­ing the hottest sum­mer on record?

Gar­den Cen­ter cat­e­go­ry shifts are par­tial­ly due to sig­nif­i­cant growth observed across spe­cif­ic prod­uct sub­cat­e­gories, such as Water­ing & Irri­ga­tion. Notably, Ama­zon has expe­ri­enced rapid growth in Water­ing & Irri­ga­tion, grow­ing share 13 pp in 4 years, at the expense of tra­di­tion­al play­ers like Cost­co and Home Depot.

On Ama­zon, the brands dri­ving growth for Water­ing & Irri­ga­tion include Orbit, Giraffe Tools and Flexzilla.

How­ev­er, the top SKU’s respon­si­ble for brand growth on Ama­zon in 1H23, include smart sprin­klers and gar­den hoses. 

Inter­est­ed in learn­ing more on key indus­try and sub­cat­e­go­ry trends includ­ing tools, hard­ware, and out­door pow­er equip­ment? Read YipitData’s 1H23 State of the Home Improve­ment Report for the full story.

About Yip­it­Da­ta

With over 205M home improve­ment data points annu­al­ly, Yip­it­Da­ta has cov­er­age across 8,000 dis­tinct brands and key retail­ers, includ­ing Home Depot and Lowe’s, giv­ing you the vis­i­bil­i­ty you need to make bet­ter busi­ness deci­sions. Our pro­pri­etary approach com­bines data (physical/​email receipt, cc, web-scraped, etc) with pre­dic­tive mod­el­ing to give you the most accu­rate and gran­u­lar read on your mar­ket per­for­mance with only 7 – 10 days of lag.

We would love to con­nect with you at HIRI’s 2023 Insights Summit! 

Attend the Annual HIRI Summit to Keep Ahead of Market Changes

The hous­ing and home improve­ment mar­ket con­tin­ues to change rapidly.

If your brand is to stay rel­e­vant to Pros and DIY­ers while main­tain­ing and gain­ing mar­ket share, you and your team must keep your minds sharp to cur­rent indus­try trends and cus­tomer behaviors.

HIRI’s Home Improve­ment Insights Sum­mit is the pre­mier event deliv­er­ing the lat­est insights into con­sumer and pro cus­tomers atti­tudes, dis­tri­b­u­tion chan­nel shares, and hous­ing macroeconomics.

You’ll be hear­ing from experts in the indus­try who will be bring­ing to you research-based guid­ance for under­stand­ing mar­ket dri­vers, fore­see­ing changes, and dri­ving prod­uct and ser­vice strat­e­gy and innovation.