Plants, Lawns and Plant Care
May 2021 Trading Focus (Archived)

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Each month, Insight DIY uses Kaiasm to track 2,623 things people ask for in the UK Plants, Lawns & Plant Care sector, expressed in 24,027 different ways, and how well this demand is met by 5,106 market competitors. How well is your business doing this month?

Commentary from Steve Collinge: This month we’re focusing our attention on the highly seasonal Plants, Lawn and Plant Care Category which as well as the plants and seeds, includes compost, turf, pots, planters, watering equipment including water butts, artificial grass and flower delivery. 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 May 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 5,100 retail competitors.

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.

This sector is hugely competitive, with both established bricks’n’mortar retailers like the garden centres and DIY Sheds battling it out against experienced businesses like Thompson and Morgan (established 1855) who have completed a very successful transition from mail order to online and younger, nimble online players like Crocus (established 2000) and Primrose (established 2003). Market Places such as Amazon and eBay have also been gaining significant traction in these categories, Amazon is now firmly located in the No.2 position and eBay at No.8, as their ranges and service proposition continues to attract more consumers.

In this hugely competitive sector, it’s encouraging to see B&Q, Homebase and even Wickes gaining ground, whilst the appearance of Screwfix in position 14 was something of a surprise. With no sign of Dobbies, Blue Diamond or British Garden Centres appearing in the top 30, it just shows how far off the mark those businesses are when it comes to digital investment and matching their online offer to what potential customers are searching for. If you get a moment, look at where Wilko are on the chart, they really should be doing far better for a business whose seasonal gardening category has traditionally been so strong for them. The Suttons Seeds direct business is also an interesting one to watch, sitting firmly in the top 10.

Market Leaderboard
Top 30

Published 22nd June 2021

Data range: 13 weeks to 29th 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 overall demand for customer needs and searches for Plants, Lawn and Plant Care over the last 13 weeks. No surprises that we’ve seen a significant increase in demand for these products leading up to the peak April period and the gradual fall off in demand since April is typical of the seasonal slow-down we expect as we approach the summer months.

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Focus on May 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. The mix of products showing the greatest increase in search demand makes for fascinating reading (probably influenced by Gardeners World), as does the fall off in demand for artificial grass, watering (probably because we’ve had plenty of rain) and storage containers including pots, planters and hanging baskets.

Click on the arrows to the left of the ‘Rises & Falls’ title, where you can see we have highlighted individual charts for Homebase, B&Q (DIY.com), Wickes, Interflora, and Patchplants.com as this provides a valuable insight into the relative strengths of each business. It’s clear to see here, how B&Q, Homebase and Wickes are all fighting over the same customers searching for the same products.

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