Garden Buildings
April 2021 Trading Focus (Archived)

Each month, Insight DIY uses Kaiasm to track 1,329 things people ask for in the UK Garden Buildings sector, expressed in 11,664 different ways, and how well this demand is met by 3,675 market competitors. How well is your business doing this month?

Commentary from Steve Collinge: This month we’ve focused our attention on the highly competitive Garden Buildings Category which includes all types of buildings, decking, fence panels, paving and other landscaping materials. The Leaderboard matches what we know consumers have been searching for online for these product groups during the 13 week period to the end of April 2021, to how well this demand has been met by the UK’s leading retailers. The full retailer list is far longer than just the top 30 featured here and runs to over 3,600 companies.

Anything highlighted in blue is what we class as a ‘riser’ and anything yellow is a ‘faller’. Click on replay to re-run the 13 week animation again, click on any of the dates to see the position at that time or hover over a specific retailers name to see how they have tracked over this period.

Twenty years ago, the competitive set for Garden Buildings included just the Big-Box Home Improvement retailers and the garden centres, those retailers who simply had sufficient indoor or outdoor space to display a credible range. However, with an increasing number of online specialists and market places all very active within this category, offering broader ranges, often with better online content and faster home delivery, the category has become far more competitive.

Despite the dramatic increase in competition, it’s good to see B&Q and Wickes consistently at the top of the leaderboard, although I’m surprised that Homebase, with their strength in gardening slipping to 7th place. Overall, the more established retailers seem to gaining ground over the online specialists, the reverse of what we often see across the other leaderboards.

Take a look at the significant gains made by The Range, Primrose.co.uk and Keter, an established retailer, a specialist and a branded supplier, perfectly representing how any business can win in this category with the right online offer.

Market Leaderboard
Top 30

Published 25th May 2021

Data range: 13 weeks to 1st May 2021

These are the websites who won the greatest share of the demand tracked in this subsector.

Key rises and falls over the last four weeks are highlighted in blue and yellow respectively.

With thanks to Flourish, a Kaiasm partner.

Steve Collinge: We particularly like this chart, which simply shows the change in demand for customer needs/searches for garden buildings over the last 13 weeks. No surprises that we’ve seen a significant increase in demand for garden buildings since the beginning of February triggered by consistently high demand from consumers who continue to invest the spare cash they’ve saved during lockdown into their homes and gardens.

The gradual fall off in demand is typical of the seasonal slow-down we expect as we approach the summer months.

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Focus on April 2021

Steve Collinge: In this chart we show the product groups that have shown the greatest shift in consumer search demand, either positively or negatively during just the last 4 weeks. It’s interesting to see fence panels and green-houses performing so strongly, although the picture changes dramatically when you click on the arrows to see the specific risers and fallers for a number of the specific retailers. This month we have selected Argos, The Range, Homebase, Keter and GardenBuildingsDirect.co.uk, as this provides a valuable insight into the relative strengths of each business. Overall demand for garden buildings, sheds and garden storage seems to be on the increase, whereas now that we can all visit pubs again, clearly gazebos have fallen out of favour!

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