The Ins and Outs of Home Improvement at Retail

The pan­dem­ic ele­vat­ed the consumer’s inter­est in tak­ing their liv­ing spaces to the next lev­el. Home improve­ment spend­ing in the U.S. in the sec­ond quar­ter of 2022 has sur­passed pre-pan­dem­ic results by dou­ble dig­its each of the past three years, accord­ing to data from The NPD Group. So far this year, the over­all home improve­ment aver­age sell­ing price has been 10% high­er than it was a year ago, and 40% high­er than in 2019. Despite ele­vat­ed prices, con­sumers con­tin­ue to spend on var­i­ous aspects of home improve­ment – mov­ing between indoors and out­doors, and from room to room.

Con­sumers take gar­den­ing seri­ous­ly in the sum­mer – lawn and gar­den sales grow most between April and June. This year, sec­ond-quar­ter unit sales were 250% high­er than in the first quar­ter and demand with­in the lawn and gar­den seg­ment for the quar­ter was sim­i­lar to last year. Focus­ing on out­door activ­i­ties con­tin­ues to be a promi­nent trend for con­sumers look­ing for ways to engage with oth­ers and safe­ly enter­tain friends and fam­i­ly. Unit sales of most lawn and gar­den seg­ments have grown because of this increased sea­son­al demand.

While there is a nat­ur­al sea­son­al pro­gres­sion in the con­sump­tion of home improve­ment prod­ucts in the U.S. as it relates to out­door projects, when sum­mer is over, they move indoors. Last year, the need to refresh indoor spaces came to the fore­front and inte­ri­or walls got a fresh, new look in the fall of. The indoor paint and stain seg­ment got a 2021 bump in sales in the third quar­ter, as did paint sprayers, primers, and oth­er paint-relat­ed categories.

After more mod­est­ly priced and straight­for­ward spruce-ups, more seri­ous inte­ri­or updates occurred. Between Octo­ber and Decem­ber 2021, year-over-year unit sales grew for sinks (290%), kitchen coun­ter­tops (161%), and bath­tubs and whirlpools (38%).

The sub­stan­tial atten­tion paid to bath and kitchen remod­el­ing gave way to renewed focus on laun­dry room spaces – fur­ther con­tribut­ing to fourth quar­ter growth in 2021. Next-lev­el laun­dry room solu­tions became par­tic­u­lar­ly pop­u­lar in March this year, when month-over-month unit sales of laun­dry appli­ances grew by more than 30% for two con­sec­u­tive months. Year-over-year sales of clothes refresh­ers also grew by dou­ble dig­its in March.

In 2020, do-it-your­self home improve­ments came cen­ter stage as con­sumers looked for ways to fill new­found time, enhance their sur­round­ings, or cre­ate more wel­com­ing out­door enter­tain­ing spaces. Then, as pan­dem­ic con­cerns began to ease but the finan­cial sav­ings from a year of less trav­el and activ­i­ty-relat­ed expens­es remained, more pro­fes­sion­al improve­ment projects came into the mix in 2021. Their needs will con­tin­ue to evolve as it relates to work­ing from home, enter­tain­ing, enjoy­ing new liv­ing spaces, or just cre­at­ing fresh sur­round­ings.

The empha­sis on home improve­ment remains a pri­or­i­ty for many con­sumers who con­tin­ue to spend more time at home. But in 2022, do-it-your­self projects are poised to pick up again as eco­nom­ic fac­tors increas­ing­ly put con­straints on the consumer’s wal­let. To effec­tive­ly max­i­mize the endur­ing appeal of home improve­ments, mar­keters need to both under­stand and help to inspire the next project on the consumer’s punch list.

NPD is the Gold spon­sor for HIRI’s 2022 Insights Sum­mit. Join us for HIRI’s 2022 Insights Sum­mit in Chica­go on Sep­tem­ber 20 – 21. Go to www​.hirisum​mit​.com to reg­is­ter either in-per­­son or virtually.