Top Retail Selection Drivers in 2024 [INFOGRAPHIC]

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Unaided Reasons For Choosing Specific Retailers

What the results of this study show is that, typ­i­cal­ly, home­own­ers tend to shop at only one out­let for their pur­chas­es. Fur­ther, the major­i­ty of pur­chas­es are still made in-store vs. online, par­tic­u­lar­ly when pur­chased at hard­ware stores and home centers.

Home cen­ters, notably Home Depot and Lowe’s, dom­i­nate recent home improve­ment pur­chas­es, account­ing for almost 70% of the mar­ket. Non-store­front retail­ers, spe­cial­ty stores, hard­ware stores, and department/​discount stores each cap­ture about 8% of the pur­chase share.

Unaid­ed rea­sons for choos­ing spe­cif­ic retail­ers var­ied: Home cen­ters and spe­cial­ty stores were favored for their prod­uct selec­tion, location/​convenience, and price. Non-store­front retail­ers were cho­sen pri­mar­i­ly for their qual­i­ty assort­ment and price com­pet­i­tive­ness, with home deliv­ery also cit­ed as impor­tant. Hard­ware stores were val­ued for their con­ve­nient loca­tions, ware­house clubs for their pric­ing, and discount/​department stores for both price and prod­uct vari­ety.

Retailer Unaided Purchase Reasons

In 2020, Price and Con­ve­nience both dropped sig­nif­i­cant­ly as rea­sons to choose a spe­cif­ic retail­er, because of the need for the right ver­sion of a prod­uct to sim­ply be avail­able. His­tor­i­cal­ly, these held the top two posi­tions for why a con­sumer would make a pur­chase from a par­tic­u­lar retail­er. As of 2024, this retail­er shift has large­ly not revert­ed back to pri­or levels.

Prod­ucts or Vari­ety of Prod­ucts is the top dri­ver for Home Cen­ters and Spe­cial­ty Stores. Department/​Discount Stores’ top dri­ver is now Price (it was Prod­ucts or Vari­ety of Prod­ucts in 2022) while Hard­ware Stores’ top dri­ver is Con­ve­nience (in 2022 Con­ve­nience was tied with Prod­ucts or Vari­ety of Products). 

Retailer Aided Purchase Reasons

Over­all, the top 5 aid­ed rea­sons influ­enc­ing pur­chase deci­sions were con­ve­nient loca­tion, wide prod­uct selec­tion, one-stop shop­ping con­ve­nience, ease of find­ing desired items, and avail­abil­i­ty of pre­ferred brands. Among these, ease of shop­ping fac­tors were pre­dom­i­nant, while price, though still a fac­tor, was less crit­i­cal than oth­er considerations.

Over­all, 28% of respon­dents cross-shopped retail­ers before mak­ing their pur­chase, with Home Cen­ters remain­ing as the most cross-shopped retail­er for all years stud­ied (2016−2024). The num­ber of respon­dents shop­ping else­where before mak­ing a pur­chase has slight­ly decreased since 2020 and has returned to per­cent­ages doc­u­ment­ed from 2018.

The most cit­ed rea­son for not pur­chas­ing an item was that it was too expen­sive, where the top rea­son was that they didn’t have the size, col­or, style, etc. of the prod­uct wanted.

Amount Spent For Most Recent Shopping Occasion

In 2022, there was a sig­nif­i­cant increase in medi­an amount spend­ing with 2024’s spend­ing not far behind. This illus­trates that the cen­tral ten­den­cy of spend has increased over­all, keep­ing in mind that a por­tion of this increase is due to infla­tion­ary factors.

As in pri­or stud­ies, the largest medi­an spends include:

Homeowner Satisfaction with Retailers

Over­all, home­own­ers expressed high sat­is­fac­tion with retail­ers that offered con­ve­nient loca­tions, easy park­ing facil­i­ties, and effi­cient check-out process­es, all con­tribut­ing to a pos­i­tive shop­ping expe­ri­ence focused on ease and convenience.

In 2024, retain­ing foot traf­fic and sales vol­ume as a retail­er is also large­ly pred­i­cat­ed now on hav­ing the prod­uct vari­ety and options that con­sumers already have in mind.