Optimism about home improvement after the pandemic

In a well-attended online event on the Global DIY-Network yesterday, the topic for conversation was "The next normal of DIY, home improvement and gardening after Covid-19". Moderator Ken Hughes discussed the prospects for the home improvement sector following the pandemic with Adrien Boullet of ManoMano and Miles Agbanrin of Euromonitor International. Here Boullet put forward an optimistic prognosis for the next ten years, while Agbanrin drew attention to the different situation in mature and developing markets and noted that the sector lacked innovations.
In his talk, ManoMano manager Adrien Boullet highlighted how fast e-commerce and in particular the marketplace distribution model are advancing. Last year 15 million new online shoppers were added in Europe, with 70 per cent of these saying that they intended to shop online after the pandemic too. In addition, 57 per cent of global e-commerce sales were generated via marketplaces in 2020, as compared with 10 per cent in 2008. This figure is expected to rise to 70 per cent in 2022.
Miles Agbanrin also referred to the high growth rates in e-commerce in his talk. See our separate report on this.