DIY continues to soar

"Where stores were allowed to open, the Covid-19 pandemic brought high growth rates in the DIY retail sector in the year 2020. However, beyond this short-term effect, consumers are showing medium and long-term changes in their behaviours and attitudes: in times in which people have had to stay at home more than ever before - so primarily in their apartments, but also on balconies and patios and in the garden during the warmer season - they want to make it as comfortable there as possible.
This newly discovered appreciation of the home in larger sections of the population, and in particular also among younger people, is reflected in the updated European Home Improvement Monitor almost one-to-one. It is enough to line up the headlines next to each other with which the authors from the USP Marketing Consultancy have summarised their figures from eleven countries in order to see: one good piece of news for the industry follows another.
For example, this January, compared to November 2020, more consumers spent a large amount of time at home due to Covid-19, as confirmed by 88 per cent of those surveyed. This is the case in Sweden in particular with growth of 14 per cent, Denmark with a plus of 11 per cent and Austria with an increase of 8 per cent. According to the opinion of overall 65 per cent of those surveyed, this development will continue in this way during the whole of the year 2021, above all in Denmark, where 17 per cent more people expect this than in November, as well as in Germany, Austria and the Netherlands, each with 13 per cent, and Great Britain where it is expected by 11 per cent more people.

A passion for DIY has risen once again among survey participants. According to the results of the study, consumers continue to invest more in these activities and are enjoying them more than usual. Over one fifth (23 per cent) are carrying out more DIY work than normal, a fact which particularly applies to the Dutch. The majority of these carried out smaller decorative work (70 per cent) or smaller constructive work (58 per cent). However the majority of consumers (68 per cent) do not expect the time they spend on DIY to change in the next three months. Even so, at 27 per cent, a larger proportion of those surveyed are planning to spend more money on DIY projects in the year 2021 than was the case in November with 22 per cent of consumers. "However, DIY stores that needed to close are not reaching normal sales levels. The online…