5 Major Components of Competitor Analysis Explained
No matter how big or small, each company functions in a unique market. You have customers whom you need to convince to buy from you in this market. You also have competitors who want to convince those same customers to buy from them instead. There are many elements to a successful go to market strategy. Some elements include understanding the consumer, timing your entry into the market, and defining your sales and marketing plan. Another critical component of success is understanding the competition so you can perfect your competitive strategy.
When you gather information about your competitors, you can examine the methods they use and the customers with whom they achieve their greatest success. By analyzing how competitors operate, you can delve into their strategies in a way that helps you discover how to best approach the market through your own company. Below, we focus on 5 key elements you need to know to develop your competitive strategy. These elements will help you succeed with both your own customers and theirs.
Competitor Analysis Element #1: Identify Your Competitors
The first step to unravel your competitors’ strategy is to identify your competitors. This process is more than a Google search for other companies that provide similar products and services. You need to know your competition’s market positioning: how are consumers already solving the problem your product solves?
Understanding your competitors means asking questions about the market, and then drilling down to:
Who Is Selling What You Sell?
You think of your product or service as unique. But if people have functioned without it up until now, either someone else has something similar, or alternatives have served the market up to this point. You need to understand what those market alternatives are, and who is selling them. For example, nobody knew they needed an iPod before they bought one. After its introduction, portable CD players and the Walkman became obsolete.
What Is the Geographic Competition?
If you are selling from a brick-and-mortar store, you should study other businesses in the area. Who are they and how do they operate? Online retailers need to be included in your competitive strategy as well. You cannot ignore e-commerce and omnichannel retailers in your competitor analysis. Make sure you use solid and representative marketplace intelligence to understand who the key competitors are in your category.
What Price Points Exist in the Market?
Pricing might seem more like a customer component of your competitive strategy. But it is also a key part of a good competitor analysis. Being able to differentiate on price eliminates certain competitors from the market. For example, Rolls Royce is not likely to see a sub-compact car manufacturer as a threat. Understanding the pricing across many products in the market may help you to identify areas where competition is weak and gain a foothold in the industry.
The Harvard Business Review suggests using a positioning map to identify who is in the market and what price points they occupy. This provides a nice visual that places you in the context of your competitors within your market. Understanding how and where your competitors operate helps you situate yourself within that map. You may even decide to scale features up or down to fit within a particular competitive price point.
Competitor Analysis Element #2: Who Are Your Competitors Targeting?
Once you identify your competitors, you can start to develop a picture of their market demographics. Based on your price point and product specifications there are two possible outcomes. A) a competitor might be after customers very different from the ones you seek or B) you may be preparing for a fierce battle over the same people. A solid competitive strategy involves understanding not only who IS buying the product, but who is LIKELY to buy the product. By doing your research into target demographics and overlaying that on your competitors’ demographics, you will discover gaps to exploit. Understanding the following components of your competitors’ strategy is another key to success.
- Age Brackets: You may be (or will be) focusing on a particular age group or generation in your marketing. If your competitors concentrate elsewhere, your preliminary research may show that they are missing a key segment. Or this may suggest that you have an opportunity to fill a market gap—or that you are misdirecting your efforts.
- Gender Differences: Do your competitors sell more to men or women? These distinctions can significantly impact how you should direct your efforts and messaging.
- Income Levels: Some products or services fit better with different income levels. This may be a matter of pricing strategy or a matter of social norms. Understanding the relative affluence of your customers and your competitors’ customers helps you find those most likely to purchase. Combining the income level of the consumers purchasing with your price point data in Element #1 will help you optimize the price and demographics.
- Online or Storefront: Having your product in a physical store carries higher costs as it relates to distribution, POP, etc. but it may be the price of entry into your market. Understand where your competitors are selling, and you may find additional opportunities and revenue streams.
Competitor Analysis Element 3: What Are Your Competitive Features?
In element #1, we mentioned the importance of aligning your pricing and your features on your product. Your ability to compete in any market will depend in part on your ability to either better address an existing unmet need or create a new need in the market. Accordingly, your analysis should always look at the actual products and services with which you are competing. Most successful companies differentiate themselves not only through clever marketing, but by meeting specific needs. By first understanding the existing marketplace, you can work towards fulfilling customer needs through innovation or better featurization of your new product or existing portfolio.
When identifying the competitive features, ensure you take the following steps:
- Do your research: Once you understand the key players, find a list of their key features. Many websites have feature comparisons you can use for this task, but don’t overlook the value of having the product in hand. You may find that build quality, “fit and finish”, and other features can’t be determined from a webpage. Go to the store and buy the product. Many companies will do so and disassemble their competitors’ products.
- Feature Matrix: Develop a competitive feature matrix to help you to compare products at a glance. Be sure to include both tangible and non-tangible features. For example, while two TVs may both offer Ultra HD resolution, one may still have a higher quality picture.
Competitor Analysis Element #4: Where Are They Successful?
Once you have looked at who your competitors are and what they offer, you can start to break down how they succeed. Reasons that customers choose a particular product or service — and reasons that they do not select another — can go a long way toward helping you understand why and when those successes occur. Customers have motivations across the spectrum: from ease of purchase to careful analysis of their individual needs. Those motivating factors help create the successes and failures of each of your competitors. This type of information is available in various sources, most notably through qualitative data collected from the consumer after their purchase.
Again, this information can reveal trends among segments of the population. Individual variances will always enter the equation, but you can still look for ways in which groups gravitate toward and away from particular locations, companies, product features, and service offerings. The more in-depth your competitor analysis models delve into the available data, the more you can glean about the customer behavior relevant to your company.
Competitor Analysis Element #5: Determine Where You Can Add Value
The elements above organically lead to identifying the gaps in the marketplace. Whether identifying key gaps in price points or identifying an underserved segment of the market, each of the elements above should be leading to one question: Where can you add value where the competition doesn’t? This more thorough analysis provides the key to identifying your best opportunities for success in the market. If business success relied solely on your being better than your competitors at doing the same thing, a bull-headed drive to win would be the only path to success—and that success would come infrequently and fleetingly.
Competitor Analysis Strategy Overview
Look at your competitive analysis to identify gaps — in marketing, service, product features, or any other element. You can find openings into which your company can fit. While you may choose to, you do not have to butt heads with larger or more established companies. Instead of fighting battles over the same customers, you can use competitive analysis to fill an existing unmet need or create a demand in the market for a product that does not yet exist. Thorough investigation, followed by targeted action in the available market, gives you the best opportunity for success.
The consumer insight and market research provided by TraQline is a key tool that can inform your strategy with data and insight. When you are ready to take a data-driven approach to surpass your competitors, contact our market research experts.
Contact us to learn more about our competitive offerings.
Kitchen & Bath Fixture Market Infographic
What are the best brands and outlets in the Kitchen & Bath Fixtures market? – An infographic
TraQline answers the “who”, “what”, “where”, “when”, “why”, and “how” for Kitchen & Bath market shares. Our quarterly survey will help you understand who’s buying, where they’re buying it, and what drives their decisions. Our Kitchen & Bath infographic will help you answer the following questions about the market and how it is changing…
Who is leading sales in the Kitchen & Bath Fixture market?
Our infographic will give you greater details, but for now, here’s what you need to know about the market leaders for Kitchen & Bath Fixtures:
- Home Depot and Lowe’s continue to significantly exceed other outlets for unit share and dollar share. However, unit and dollar shares at Home Depot continue to steadily decline from Q3 2020. Home Depot share of sales are down significantly from this time last year.
- Amazon, while 3rd in outlet unit share behind Home Depot and Lowe’s, is at almost 9 percent unit share (up 2 points from this time last year).
- As a Kitchen & Bath Fixture product aggregate, Moen, Kohler, and Delta show a very similar unit share for the current quarter and are significantly higher than all other brands. All three brands increase slightly from this time last year. Kohler, however, has a clear lead over other brands for dollar share.
How much do consumers spend?
When buying Kitchen & Bath Fixtures, the aggregate industry price average is $195. However, the average amount paid at different outlets can vary. For example:
- Purchases at Home Depot and Lowe’s (the top outlets) show a similar average price paid. Average price at Home Depot is $155 and Lowe’s is $152 across the product aggregate.
- Amazon has the one of the lowest average prices paid at about $111 across the product aggregate.
What demographic is buying Kitchen & Bath Fixtures?
Just who buys Kitchen and Bath Fixtures? TraQline’s census-balanced respondent pool has given us insights like:
- Two-thirds of purchasers are married (66 percent).
- 88 percent own their home.
- Of those shopping for Kitchen & Bath Fixtures, both men and women are involved in the purchase decision 33 percent of the time. Only women are involved in the process 37 percent of the time.
Online Sales Trends:
Most purchases across the product aggregate continue to be made in a retail store (69 percent). However, that percent has been steadily declining the past few years.
- Online purchases for rolling four quarters ending June 2021 are up significantly from the previous three periods.
Kitchen & Bath Fixture Market Share Facts:
Curious about other information TraQline’s survey has uncovered? Here’s another preview for you:
- The Amazon draw rate (12 percent) is significantly lower than Home Depot (47 percent) and Lowe’s (42 percent). However, the Amazon close rate (71 percent) is a little higher than Home Depot (70 percent) and significantly higher than Lowe’s (64 percent).
- The top outlet purchase drivers are “Competitive price” and Good selection of products”. Amazon excels at these two purchase drivers which partly explains a YoY increase in Amazon purchases.
To see everything we've included on our infographic, fill out the form below and download your own copy:
7 Reasons Your Research is Expensive... And What to Do About It
Conducting primary research should be a great experience. Projects can yield results that lead to great products, organizational change, and increased market share. One thing that all projects have in common is that everyone would like them to be less expensive. There may be some ways you can reduce the cost of your next research project. Here are seven reasons your research might be expensive- and seven ways you might be able to sneak one more research project out of your budget.
1) Your Research is Expensive Because Your Sample Size is Too Large
When it comes to quantitative research, bigger sample sizes correspond to better, more actionable results. But bigger sample sizes may not always be necessary. Sample is a large percentage of the project expense. Talk with your research providers about what your smallest sample size needs to be. At some point, the law of diminishing returns begins to kick in. For example, if the share of preference is at 20 percent, the margin of error looks like this:
Save Money By Selecting the Appropriate Sample Size
As you can see, the gains from adding 200 to the sample size each time diminish the larger you go. One solution to making your research affordable is to trade off the extra one percentage point in margin of error in favor of a couple thousand dollars. Work with your research provider to make sure you have the right sample for the anticipated results.
A Note About Subsegments:
In some cases, you need to make sure you have enough respondents to be able to create segments or subgroups for your responses. If you need subsegments, then ask the following:
- Are subgroups vital to understanding your data? Will responses differ between them? If so, will you take action based on these different subgroup responses? If not, look at total sample.
- Can you reduce the number of subgroups? Larger subgroups mean that each one must be able to be significantly different from the other. This means larger sample sizes, and a reason that research is expensive
2) Your Research is Expensive Because Your Target is Hard to Find
One of the great things about a good screener is that you can find hard-to-reach potential consumers by starting with the right list and then filtering them out with well-written questions. But the more specific your requirements, the harder it is to find these people. Imagine how difficult it would be to find a needle in a haystack. Now imagine trying to find not only more needles, but more haystacks. The amount of time and effort equates directly to the cost of the research project.
Save Money By Considering The Following Alternatives:
In certain cases, such as interviewing buyers of a brand-new product, it may be necessary to spend the time and money to identify respondents even if it’s difficult. If that’s the case, here are potential solutions:
- Get a list – Do you have a list of product registrations from the client? Does someone else already have a list?
- Reconsider timelines – does ‘recent purchase’ have to mean ‘in the past week’? Can it be three months?
- Reconsider the scope – depending on your goals, your research can include those who bought a similar product to yours
- Increase your search time – the more time you have to find your respondents, the more conventional and inexpensive methods you can use. Urgent research = expensive research
3) Your Research Is Expensive Because Your Survey is Too Long
One of the strongest temptations that our clients have when starting a new survey is to throw in “the kitchen sink”. After all, their thinking goes, finding our customers is expensive and we’re finally getting to talk to them. Why shouldn’t we ask them everything we’ve wanted to know for the past couple of years!
Here is the most important reason why you shouldn’t do that: we want respondents to stay on task. Asking five questions about their purchase motivators and then shifting gears to how much they like banana bread can throw off the respondent. Of course, there’s a second reason too: the longer the survey, the higher the cost.
Reduce your research costs by keeping your survey focused
Ask yourself this about each question on your survey:
- Is the survey flow clear: would this survey confuse your mother?
- How will you use the data?
- What decisions will you make?
If you do not have a good answer, you can add the question to the potential elimination pile.
Besides helping with cost, a shorter survey also has the benefit of delivering higher quality data. Respondents will be more attentive and less subject to fatigue as they take the survey.
4) Research Costs Are Climbing Because Your Analyses are Unnecessarily Complex
While we are big fans of acronyms like LOGIT, ANOVA, or CBC, there’s one we prefer: KiSS (Keep Statistics Simple). Multivariate Analysis is often a useful tool, and it needs to be used for some projects. However, complex statistical modeling takes more of your supplier’s time and expertise, which in turn drives up costs.
Save money by focusing on what analyses are critical to answering your questions
Before engaging your supplier in these types of analyses, have a discussion on what types of analysis they think will be most relevant. When a crosstab will do, use it. “Research by the Pound” might be a tempting proposition, but remember to stay focused on quality, not quantity.
5) Your Research Is Costly Because You Selected the Wrong Methodology
In a previous article, we outlined some of the differences and uses of both qualitative and quantitative research. We also reminded you that each has its place. You can almost never replace one for the other. While qualitative research can be a very important tool to gather learning, it can also be much more expensive that quantitative research. In some cases, you may have enough institutional knowledge to skip the qualitative and head straight to quantitative research.
Reduce costs by considering if qualitative research is necessary
Is a qualitative study vital to answering your questions, or can you skip straight to quantitative research? If qual is needed, consider methods other than in-person focus groups. Online focus groups can often provide a high-quality learning at a lower price.
And with quant, if you are not doing it online make sure there is a good reason. While project specifications or objectives can sometimes necessitate phone or in-person research, those methodologies are also much more expensive, time-consuming, and difficult to complete.
6) Your Research Costs More Because You Conduct Your Survey Too Often (tracking surveys)
The nature of tracking studies is that they need to be conducted regularly and consistently over time to measure changes in the marketplace. These studies will help indicate the effectiveness of your (or competitors) marketing activities
The impact of such activities may take time to be felt. You could draw incorrect conclusions about your efforts if you don’t allow enough time for the impact to be visible on the metrics you’re measuring. With that in mind, fielding your tracking survey every month or every quarter might be too much. In some cases, you will spend a lot of money, see no changes in your key performance indicators (KPIs), and prematurely (and possibly incorrectly) conclude the marketing initiatives had no impact.
Save money by reducing frequency
Consider what is realistic regarding expectation of movement on your chosen KPIs and field your study accordingly. If you can reduce the frequency of your survey, you will save money on your research.
When does it make sense to do frequent updates?
A survey like TraQline measures marketplace changes every quarter (we even have a monthly version). So is that too frequent? Not exactly. Here’s why:
TraQline is a syndicated survey of 150,000 respondents quarterly. With this massive amount of respondents, we are able to measure smaller marketplace changes with greater accuracy.
“But wait,” you say, “you just told me huge sample sizes equal huge costs, right?” It does, but by syndicating the survey we are able to spread out the massive cost across multiple customers. In this case, the huge cost is borne by these multiple customers, thus making it affordable to everyone.
7) Your Research Costs More Because You’re Not Getting Competitive Bids
If you were shopping for a new car, you would shop around. It’s no different with market research projects. Not only do multiple bids on a project allow you to compare prices, they also provide a variety of perspectives regarding your project’s design. There are many ways you can develop a stellar relationship with your supplier. Once have found one you trust, you may not need to continue getting competitive bids for projects the supplier has handled for you in the past. However, getting some new perspective on old problems can yield unique insights.
You don’t have to take the lowest cost, as price should not be your only consideration. But at least you will have some perspective to ensure you are not paying significantly more than need be
Save money by seeking competitive bids for your research project
With trusted suppliers, let them know you’re getting a couple of competitive bids every once in a while—and then do that. They’ll understand. Make sure you are open to new ideas and the possibility of a new supplier
With new suppliers, always get at least one competitive bid (most researchers get three total). Don’t hesitate to let your suppliers know that the bid will go not to the lowest cost supplier but the supplier who can deliver the best results at the highest value.
Market Research Made Easy | TraQline
Market research can be expensive, but it makes sense to do the projects in the most efficient way possible. The market research experts at TraQline can guide you towards the most efficient and effective research methods available including our suite of market research products including Durable IQ, SKU Metrix, and HPOS. By keeping in mind the above facts, you may have enough budget for another project in the last fiscal quarter! If you need help reaching your target market, TraQline offers the consumer insights you are looking for. When you are ready to have the industry information and consumer data you need at your fingertips, contact our experts to get started.
TraQline Hybrid POS™ Features: Revolutionizing the Major Appliance Market
TraQline Hybrid Point of Sale (HPOS)™ is a new model tracking system for the Major Appliances market. This system taps into TraQline’s extensive data pipelines to synthesize major appliance information and statistics across the industry. TraQline’s HPOS™ technology helps major appliance businesses measure, analyze, plan, and implement data-driven insights. Here is an overview of the features you can find within our major appliance HPOS™ system.
Multiple Data Input Sources
TraQline HPOS™ is powered by multiple data sources—including floor shops and website intelligence.
- Floor shops: Our insights include a summary of major appliance sales insights, including time of purchase, retailer, region, etc. This encompasses detailed information—down to each SKU on the sales floor. Included images allow you to view product placement, display, and pricing. Meanwhile, our HPOS™ metrics provide insight into more obscure factors like promotional activity, brand mix, product mix, and product location.
- Website intelligence: Using the latest technology, TraQline HPOS™ scrapes pricing, image, and feature information from retailer and brand websites every day. We then synthesize and condense this information down into actionable insights, allowing you to identify new products, competitive models, and normalized features at a glance.
Up-to-Date Performance Insights: Major Appliance Industry Statistics
The appliance market constantly shifts and changes—with the market, economy, new releases, seasonal impacts, consumer needs, and so much more. Evolving metrics require up-to-date insights. This is why the TraQline HPOS™ system provides monthly data performance updates. Model-level data can help you tactically address any shift in the industry and stay ahead of the competition.
Data-Driven Marketing and Merchandising Decisions
As you look for opportunities to grow, you might find yourself relying on “gut feelings” when making marketing and merchandising decisions. Unfortunately, these decisions can be a hard sell to management and may lead to less accurate results.
The alternative? Many industry experts have had to tirelessly track down bits and pieces of market information. Not only is this time-consuming, but it can also leave you following a patchwork roadmap on your way to success.
TraQline HPOS™ is here to revolutionize how you make marketing and merchandising decisions. This platform makes all of the latest information available to you in a convenient deliverable each month. Our HPOS™ will analyze how changes to your product, pricing, promotions, or placement impacts sales over time. These insights can help you accurately measure the value of adaptations and tailor your efforts to success with data-driven confidence.
Major Appliance Insights Across the Industry
TraQline HPOS™ provides comprehensive performance insight. As such, this system helps you understand both your company’s performance and how it stacks up across the competition. Let’s take a look at these two perspectives:
- Understanding Your Performance: This tool will analyze your sales changes over time—helping you measure and demonstrate the effectiveness of a product change or marketing approach.
- Keep Tabs on the Competition: Understanding your competition can help you put your performance in context. TraQline HPOS™ provides model-level performance data for every major US retailer.
Breaking Down Market Share: Major Brands and Retailers
TraQline’s HPOS™ dives deep into the major appliance industry—allowing you to work with relevant data on a granular level. Our comprehensive scope extends down to individual models and SKUs. You can track and view these changes over time for a birds-eye view of the major appliance market.
Unlock the Power of TraQline HPOS™
Are you ready to get next-level appliance market insights on your side with TraQline HPOS™? We invite you to contact our professionals today with any questions you may have. Our HPOS™ experts will be in touch with you to discuss pricing, product features, and more. Get started today to unlock a new level of data with TraQline HPOS™.
Hybrid POS™ Features: Revolutionizing the Major Appliance Market
TraQline Hybrid Point of Sale (HPOS)™ is a new model tracking system for the Major Appliances market. This system taps into TraQline’s extensive data pipelines to synthesize major appliance information and statistics across the industry. TraQline’s HPOS™ technology helps major appliance businesses measure, analyze, plan, and implement data-driven insights. Here is an overview of the features you can find within our major appliance HPOS™ system.
Multiple Data Input Sources
TraQline HPOS™ is powered by multiple data sources—including floor shops and website intelligence.
- Floor shops: Our insights include a summary of major appliance sales insights, including time of purchase, retailer, region, etc. This encompasses detailed information—down to each SKU on the sales floor. Included images allow you to view product placement, display, and pricing. Meanwhile, our HPOS™ metrics provide insight into more obscure factors like promotional activity, brand mix, product mix, and product location.
- Website intelligence: Using the latest technology, TraQline HPOS™ scrapes pricing, image, and feature information from retailer and brand websites every day. We then synthesize and condense this information down into actionable insights, allowing you to identify new products, competitive models, and normalized features at a glance.
Up-to-Date Performance Insights: Major Appliance Industry Statistics
The appliance market constantly shifts and changes—with the market, economy, new releases, seasonal impacts, consumer needs, and so much more. Evolving metrics require up-to-date insights. This is why the TraQline HPOS™ system provides monthly data performance updates. Model-level data can help you tactically address any shift in the industry and stay ahead of the competition.
Data-Driven Marketing and Merchandising Decisions
As you look for opportunities to grow, you might find yourself relying on “gut feelings” when making marketing and merchandising decisions. Unfortunately, these decisions can be a hard sell to management and may lead to less accurate results.
The alternative? Many industry experts have had to tirelessly track down bits and pieces of market information. Not only is this time-consuming, but it can also leave you following a patchwork roadmap on your way to success.
TraQline HPOS™ is here to revolutionize how you make marketing and merchandising decisions. This platform makes all of the latest information available to you in a convenient deliverable each month. Our HPOS™ will analyze how changes to your product, pricing, promotions, or placement impacts sales over time. These insights can help you accurately measure the value of adaptations and tailor your efforts to success with data-driven confidence.
Major Appliance Insights Across the Industry
TraQline HPOS™ provides comprehensive performance insight. As such, this system helps you understand both your company’s performance and how it stacks up across the competition. Let’s take a look at these two perspectives:
- Understanding Your Performance: This tool will analyze your sales changes over time—helping you measure and demonstrate the effectiveness of a product change or marketing approach.
- Keep Tabs on the Competition: Understanding your competition can help you put your performance in context. TraQline HPOS™ provides model-level performance data for every major US retailer.
Breaking Down Market Share: Major Brands and Retailers
TraQline’s HPOS™ dives deep into the major appliance industry—allowing you to work with relevant data on a granular level. Our comprehensive scope extends down to individual models and SKUs. You can track and view these changes over time for a birds-eye view of the major appliance market.
Unlock the Power of TraQline HPOS™
Are you ready to get next-level appliance market insights on your side with TraQline HPOS™? We invite you to contact our professionals today with any questions you may have. Our HPOS™ experts will be in touch with you to discuss pricing, product features, and more. Get started today to unlock a new level of data with TraQline HPOS™.
Home Depot and Ryobi Win Top Spots in US Outdoor Power Equipment Market
Consumers invest a lot into the power equipment they need to take care of their properties. The TraQline data covering the outdoor power equipment market for the quarter ending in June of 2021 offers excellent insight into buying behaviors when it comes to both retailers shopped and preferred brands.
Home Depot: The Steady Leader of the Outdoor Power Equipment Market
Home Depot had its first dip in outlet dollar share since 2014 between the 4Q end June 2020 and the 4Q end June 2021 with a 1 percent loss. Despite this, the retailer still held a lead over all other retailers with 28.7 percent. There was a similar, small dip in unit shares (1 percent), but still a significant lead over competing outlets at 26.7 percent. Lowe's was the closest runner-up in dollar and unit shares (21.9 percent and 20.5 percent, respectively).
A Look at the Leading Retailers by Region
Home Depot held the strongest share of the OPE market nationwide at 27 percent, with only Lowe's holding anything close at 21 percent. Regionally, Home Depot was most popular in the West (33 percent). The giant home improvement retailer was only beaten out marginally in the South, where Lowe's held the top spot in the region (26 percent vs 25 percent).
Retailer In-Store vs Online Sales
In addition to having well-established brick-and-mortar stores across the country, Home Depot has gained steady traction with online sales. For the 4Q ending June 2021, Home Depot's online sales were at 20 percent. Lowe's had the lowest online OPE sales at just 12 percent.
Ryobi: YoY Gains and Substantial Market Leads
For the 4Q ending June 2021, Ryobi finished out with 8.3 percent of the dollar share in the outdoor power equipment market, which fell just under the longstanding brand leader Craftsman, which won 8.8 percent. Ryobi has sustained impressive YoY gains since June 2014 when it held only 2.6 percent of the brand dollar shares in the market. For the last R4Q, Ryobi managed to top all other brands with 10 percent of unit shares, though their lead is slim. The closest competition is Craftsman (8.4 percent) and Black & Decker (8.9 percent).
A Look at the Leading Brands by Region
Ryobi took the lead as the preferred nationwide brand (10 percent), but other brands like Black & Decker and Craftsman were not far behind. Ryobi had the most significant lead in the West at 12 percent but was also the leading brand in all other regions except the Midwest. The dominating brand among Midwest shoppers was a tie between Black & Decker and Craftsman, both holding steady at 9 percent of sales.
Brand In-Store vs Online Sales
In terms of online vs in-store OPE sales mix, Stihl makes the largest percentage of its sales in-store with 86 percent. Snow Joe & Sun Joe, on the other hand, has the largest percentage of its sales mix in online. The brand makes 74 percent of its sales online. By comparison, brand leader Ryobi makes 23 percent of its sales online.
Other Interesting Data in the OPE Market
So, what drives consumers to buy OPE, who was doing the shopping, and how many places did they shop? Here is a brief look at a few other interesting bits of data:
- Most people shopped at only one store before making their purchase (60 percent)
- Shoppers buying Black & Decker were most likely to have considered only one brand (78 percent)
- The biggest reason for the purchase of OPE was to replace a non-functioning item (39.8 percent)
- Most Ryobi shoppers were married (68 percent), owned their own homes (88 percent), and were men (57 percent)
Get the Detailed Report on the Outdoor Power Equipment Market
Despite challenges in the market, it seems that shoppers are still just as interested in buying outdoor power equipment as ever. Leading retailers and brands are holding steady even though changes may be on the horizon. Get TraQline's free downloadable infographic for a more detailed level of insight into the OPE market.
Online vs in-store shopping: Omnichannel Trends Are Picking Up Across Industries
It’s been said that the state of online shopping has accelerated, placing it on track for a $1 trillion year by 2022. This acceleration is largely due to the ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Even without the influence of a global disaster like a pandemic, TraQline data shows steady increases in consumers making purchases online, It’s been said that the state of online shopping has accelerated, placing it on track for a $1 trillion year by 2022. This acceleration is largely due to the ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Even without the influence of a global disaster like a pandemic, TraQline data shows steady increases in consumers making purchases online. Except for Q2 2021, online purchase rates have seen significant growth every quarter for the past 5 years. With these paradigm shifts underway, how are online vs in-store shopping trends shifting? Where is the U.S. market is seeing the most opportunity for omnichannel growth?
Q2 2021 is the first quarter in 5 years to show a significant decline in online purchase rates, likely due to consumers enthusiastically visiting retail stores as lockdowns and restrictions ease
Key Facts About Online vs In-Store Shopping
- The rate of online purchasing has been steadily increasing over the past 5 years
- Online shopping as a whole peaked in Q4 2020 for the US consumer durables market
- Consumer durable categories (of the 270 tracked) with the highest rate of change in online growth include: Cell phones, Kitchen & Bath, and Major Appliances
- Consumer durable categories with the lowest rate of change in online sales include: Automotive, Building/Plumbing/Safety, and Sports equipment
The US Market Has Shifted In Favor of Online vs In-Store Shopping
With almost 31 percent of respondents indicating they made a consumer durables purchase online in Q2 of 2021, the tide is turning in favor of online shopping. The rate of online purchasing has been steadily increasing over the past five years. TraQline’s syndicated survey noted a sharp increase in online shopping overall in Q2 2020, which was during the height of lockdowns in the United States. There was a nearly 600 basis points (bps) increase from Q1 2020 to Q2 2020 in the mix of sales that went to online rather than in-store shopping (26 percent to 32 percent quarter over quarter). This rate continued to increase, peaking at 35 percent in Q4 of 2020. This is somewhat unsurprising as online sales traditionally increase in Q4 due to online shopping for the holidays.
Which Product Groups Saw Highest Online vs In-store shopping growth during the pandemic?
Every product group that TraQline covers saw increases in online shopping sales during the pandemic. Looking specifically at the changes between Q1 and Q2 of 2020, the three product groups that saw the largest rate of change were:
- Cell Phones: 1300 bps increase from one quarter to the next
- Kitchen & Bath: 790 bps increase from one quarter to the next
- Major Appliances: 800 bps increase from one quarter to the next
Which Product Groups Saw Lowest Online vs In-store shopping growth during the pandemic?
While every product group saw growth, some grew less rapidly than others. The three product groups that saw the lowest rate of change were:
- Automotive: 120 bps from one quarter to the next
- Building/Plumbing/Safety: 330 bps from one quarter to the next
- Fitness Equipment: 580 bps from one quarter to the next
For top product groups: What’s driving growth in for online vs in-store shopping?
Within those top product groups, certain products help drive online sales growth. As cell phones is a single product on its own, more variance among products can be seen by looking more closely Kitchen and Bath and Major Appliances product groups. Many consumers made purchases to enhance their quality of life at home, and these product categories reflect those changes and updates.
Which products drove online shopping growth for Kitchen and Bath?
Kitchens and Baths are often a focus of remodeling and DIY projects for homeowners. With so many people at home and feeling eager to upgrade their space to fit their quarantine lifestyles, it is perhaps unsurprising that this group saw large increases from Q1 to Q2 2020. In fact, of the 13 products tracked, only Kitchen Sink’s online sales didn’t grow 500 bps or more from Q1 to Q2 2020.
One in four kitchen and bath products was purchased online rather than in store. Surprisingly, the highest growth rate came from Kitchen Countertops, which grew 830 bps quarter over quarter. However, it is important to note that it still only reached 12 percent purchased online in Q2 2020. So while this was higher than previous quarters, it is still a very low overall percent. Bathroom sinks and faucets also contributed to such high growth of online sales in this product group.
Which products drove online shopping growth for Major Appliances?
Major appliances are a category that consumers still frequently shop for in person. Prior to the pandemic, only about 16-17 percent of major appliances were purchased online. Once lockdowns began, that rate jumped to 27 percent in Q2 2020, a 800 bps increase over the previous quarter. Refrigerators, Dishwashers, Wall Ovens, and Over the Range Microwaves all saw 870+ bps increases in their online sales mix vs in-store sales. With low in-store stocks and so many people needing to cook and eat at home (not to mention do those increased dishes), it’s understandable that these products saw an increase. Washers and Dryers also saw 870 and 770 bps increases respectively as people found themselves spending more time at home.
Why Omnichannel retail trends are so important: Major Exercise Equipment
It was shocking to see Fitness Equipment (which includes pieces of major exercise equipment such as ellipticals, treadmills, spin bikes, and weight benches) with such a low online sales growth rate from Q1 to Q2 2020. The past year has been full of buzz about the difficulty around sourcing exercise and sports equipment and the explosive growth of brands like Peloton. However, the reason its growth rate was so low is that consumers were already comfortable buying sports equipment online. Omnichannel availability has been extremely important for this category. In fact, since the beginning of the pandemic, 3 out of every 4 major fitness equipment purchases are made online. Compare this to Kitchen and Bath, which saw a very high rate of growth, but still breaks down to only about 25 percent of the category’s sales being made online.
The US market has shifted itself considerably to meet the changing needs of consumers throughout the pandemic. This paradigm shift has emphasized the importance of following omnichannel trends—consumers are eager to make purchases in the ways that are most convenient and feel safest to them. Will online shopping growth slow somewhat or level off as seen in the two most recent quarters? Or will the resurgence of the pandemic drive online shopping to even greater heights? If you would like to monitor the evolving trends or take a more targeted look into your own category, contact a TraQline account rep today. We would be glad to help you understand how best to meet your buyers where they are.
Bath Industry Market Share: What You Need to Know
TraQline is your source of data and market information for the bath industry. While our quarterly reports include in-depth details used by brands like Home Depot, Lowes, and American Standard, we regularly publish free insights in our infographics. Let’s unpack some of the biggest takeaways from our Q2 2021 report on the bath industry market share.
Understanding the Bath Industry
When it comes to understanding bath industry data, it is helpful to understand what market researchers consider a part of this market. The bath industry encompasses the retailers and products of bathroom fixtures and installations. This sector includes:
- Bathroom faucet sales data
- Showerhead sales data
- Toilet sales data
- Bathroom sink sales data
- Bathroom vanity sales data
- Shower stall sales data
- Bathroom medicine cabinet sales data
- Bathtub sales data
- Shower door sales data
... and so much more.
The bath industry does not encompass products or retailers of soaps, lotions, bath bombs, or toiletries. These types of related products commonly found in a bathroom are technically cosmetics, according to the FDA.
Bath Industry Data, Statistics, and Market Share Insights
Within the bath industry, there is a range of metrics to watch in your line reviews. Let’s look at the three top bath industry metrics to follow within the US and Canada.
Where do Consumers Buy?
Knowing where consumers buy their bathroom products is essential to understanding the bath industry’s market share. According to 2021 TraQline data, the top retailer in both countries is Home Depot, with 32% of sales in the US and 27% of sales in Canada.
In the US, the second most popular retailer was Lowe’s (24%), followed by Amazon (9%). Canada’s next-highest percentage of sales comes from Canadian Tire (10%), followed by Kitchen/Bath/Plumbing Showrooms (8%).
How Consumers Buy
Are customers buying online or in-store? This metric can change the way you approach sales and gain market share. Surprisingly, Amazon owns just 4.5% of the US bath industry sales at the time of publication. However, 8% of US consumers report Amazon as the first retailer they visited in their buying journey.
Overall, the bath industry still seems to be overwhelmingly dominated by in-store buying. In the US, 68% of consumers bought their bath product in stores, while only 26% of consumers purchased online. Similarly, in Canada, 72% of bath products were purchased at a retail store while 19% of purchases were completed online.
Why Consumers Buy
Uncovering purchase motivation can help any brand or retailer gain market share by understanding customer context. So why do consumers shop for major bath products? These statistics were strikingly similar across both US and Canadian consumers:
- Routine Maintenance—Routine maintenance was considered the leading consumer motivator for bath purchases in the US and Canada, accounting for 45% and 43% of sales, respectively.
- Remodeling—Remodeling projects were the second most common cause of consumer motivation for bath purchases in the US and Canada, accounting for 28% and 31% of sales, respectively.
- Redecorating—Redecoration was the third leading cause of consumer motivation for bath purchases in the US and Canada, accounting for 17% and 14% of sales, respectively.
TraQline: Your Source of Bath Industry Data
Interested in learning more about the bath industry market share? This report merely scratches the surface of TraQline’s powerful insights. Contact our experts to get started or learn more today.
Home Depot and Sherwin Williams Take Top Spots in US Paint & Primer Market
For years, home improvement retailers and specialty paint stores have held top spots in the paint and primer market. Even though more people head to home improvement stores like Home Depot over specialty paint retailers these days, one specific specialty retailer is holding steady: Sherwin Williams. The 4Q end June 2020 found these two retailers battling for the top spot in dollar shares of the market.
A Closer Look at the Leading Retailers in the Paint & Primer Market
Even though Home Depot took a slight dip in outlet dollar share between 4Q end Jun 2020 and 4Q end June 2021 (-2.5%), the retailer still held the top spot among all outlets. Home Depot had a 6 percent lead over Sherwin Williams, which was the second leading retailer by dollar share. Menard's, Ace Hardware, and Walmart held similar dollar shares, ranking at third, fourth, and fifth for dollar share, which has been the case over the last several years.
The Retailers with the Highest Price Points for Paint and Primer
The price points can have some bearing on why consumers buy paint at certain retailers, but also the dollar share any particular retailer holds. With that being said, Sherwin Williams did hold the highest price index in the industry for the 4Q end in June 2021 ($43 vs industry price of $33). The retailer has actually held the highest price index since 2014. Home Depot and Lowe's lingered just under the industry average at $30 and $31 respectively.
Consumer Buying Behaviors in the Paint & Primer Market
Paint and primer are readily available at most home improvement stores and retailers. So, what purchase drivers influenced shoppers most? Let's take a closer look.
How many stores did consumers shop?
Across the industry, around 73 percent of consumers shopped at just one outlet when looking for paint and primer—a percentage that was similar across pretty much all retailers. People who bought paint at Sherwin Williams were most likely to have shopped at four or more stores.
Why consumers picked one store over another?
The top reason for buying paint and primer has remained the same for some time: routine maintenance or minor repairs. However, surprisingly, there were more people buying paint at Ace Hardware than any other retailer when it came to shopping for paint for this reason (41.2%). A good selection of products and previous experience were major reasons for picking retailers, most specifically at Menard's and Lowe's. When it came to shopping at a certain store due to competitive prices, Wal-Mart was not so surprisingly the top choice (62.5%).
What about regional differences in the paint & primer market?
The most preferred retailer in the country was Home Depot with 33 percent of the market share, but the retailer also held a significant chunk of the market in all regions. In the West, Home Depot actually held 42 percent of the market—three times that of Sherwin Williams at 14 percent. Lowe's was the only other retailer to give Home Depot a run for its money in any region. In the South, Lowe's held 29 percent of the region share, while Home Depot held 31 percent.
Get a Closer Look at the Paint & Primer Market
As the retail market changes where home improvement is concerned, who knows whether those specialty stores like Sherwin Williams will remain relevant in the industry. To get a more in-depth look at the TraQline paint and primer market analysis, be sure to download our free infographic.
IKEA, Wayfair, and their impact on the home décor market
Do you know what I love about shopping today versus just 5 years ago (besides avoiding crowds via the web)? Visualizing my potential purchases in home! I still remember using Wayfair’s augmented reality (AR) app for the first time—allowing me to see that wingback in charcoal gray sitting comfortably next to the fireplace. Thanks to the AR in the app and Wayfair’s speedy delivery, my home now has a new kitchen table, chairs, two headboards, new lighting, and more! After such a positive experience, the researcher in me wanted to take a deeper look into the furniture and home décor market category, as well as key retailers like IKEA and Wayfair, and the progress they have made to grow and capture share.
Where do IKEA and Wayfair rank in the market?
While I expected my purchases alone to account for a point or two of share, I was surprised to learn that Wayfair’s 3.1 percent share of the furniture and home décor market was lagging behind some of the heavy hitters (e.g. Walmart, Amazon, Target, etc.). This is due to the inclusion of various categories we track such as medicine cabinets, storage, lighting, furniture and more. Consumers still visit their local stores to buy these categories, but the difference in Wayfair’s unit share and dollar share (3.1 vs. 4.4) shows that consumers tend to shop there for more expensive items. Despite being lower than I expected, Wayfair showed consistent growth from year to year, though its share is flat over last year’s. IKEA’s market share is also smaller than the other major players in the Home Décor category. Their share has declined year over year for the last 3 years and is currently at 3.5 percent for the 4Q ending June 2021.
What do home décor shoppers buy at Ikea and Wayfair?
TraQline covers a wide array of furniture and home décor products, and our analysis included everything from storage and shelving to area rugs and living room furniture. Below, we’ll look at which products seem to draw shoppers to IKEA and Wayfair.
At IKEA, consumers gravitate most often to shelving, which wins 23 percent of the product mix. Storage comes in second place at 17 percent, and Bedroom Furniture takes third with 16 percent. Wayfair’s customers are much more focused than IKEA customers. Wayfair’s top products are Family/Living Room Furniture (21 percent), Bedroom Furniture (17 percent), and Office/Computer room Furniture (12 percent). Office furniture in particular has seen a lift over the past two years, likely due to the increased number of people working and studying from home.
Do shoppers visit IKEA and Wayfair before other Home Décor retailers?
Both outlets have their perks: IKEA encourages shoppers to make a day of shopping with Småland supervised play area for children and their in-store food court. Wayfair offers endless aisles and fast shipping (allowing me to order and receive my products before anyone in the house finds out I’ve been shopping). Despite this, neither IKEA nor Wayfair are usually the first store shopped for Home Décor- consumers usually check Home Depot or Lowe’s first.
A Changing Trend: How Online Sales are Influencing Home Décor Market Share
Furniture and home décor shoppers still tend to make their purchases in-store. However, in the past three years, we’ve seen a statistically significant decline in the share of customers who make their purchases in a brick-and-mortar store. In-store purchases have dropped from 73 to 61 percent in that time period, making way for a 14 percent increase in online purchases.
As an almost entirely online retailer, Wayfair has clearly benefited from this shift in shopping habits. IKEA, on the other hand, is a multi-channel retailer. It still wins the majority of its market share from in-store purchases, but their mobile app and website, alongside the global pandemic shifting consumer habits, have helped push online sales to increase significantly in the last two years, driving online sales to 22 percent of its total mix (Source TraQline unit/dollar 4Q ending Q2 2021). Interestingly, when we look at dollar share for online buyers only, Wayfair rises towards the top, with 16 percent of share for the last year. It is quickly closing the gap between itself and its #1 competition, Amazon. Dollar share increases are likely a result of the higher ticket furniture purchases being made as consumer become more comfortable with platforms like Wayfair’s, as well as making large purchases online in general. Despite Ikea’s recent growth in online sales, when looking only at online share, the retailer captures 3% of consumers’ dollars.
Retail spaces continues to evolve and change at a rapid pace. Each retailer is innovating to meet the needs of their customers. They’ve already introduced things like AR apps, in-store kitchens, and childcare (how’s that for innovation!?), so what will come next? If you had asked me three years ago if I would purchase furniture online, I would have said you were crazy. However, more consumers are embracing online furniture and home décor sales, and retailers are right there to meet us where we are. Plus I value my fellow consumers’ opinions and those online reviews are the game-changer leading me to click ‘complete purchase’. While Wayfair and Ikea are not the first stores shopped for furniture and home décor, they are rapidly evolving to capture share of the category. They are definitely two retailers to keep an eye on.