5 Key Themes from Home Improvement and Home & Kitchen Quarterly Results

December 4, 2023

After launching our Home Improvement and Home & Kitchen growth analyses last month, we dug into these retailers’ financial results and investor calls from the third quarter to uncover the most important industry themes for brands to take away as we wrap up 2023 and head into the new year.

The report saves you hours going through the results yourself, while giving you a deeper understanding of how the overall Home market is performing, who’s winning and losing (and why), and the role eCommerce plays within the market.

Let’s dive in…

Key Takeaways for Brands

1. Forecasting: Expect more of the same consumer environment in Q4 and into 2024. Temper your growth expectations and plan for price and promotion investments to outpace the market.
2. Price and promotions: Consumers want a deal, and retailers are seeking better wholesale prices as input costs have come down and putting more promotional responsibility on vendors. Deeply understand your own input costs, profitability thresholds, and sales goals to approach pricing and promotions strategically in 4Q and into 2024.
3. Winners and losers: Retail winners will be those that lean in most effectively to great promotions and/or compelling innovation. Accordingly, these will likely be your most promising growth channels in the face of decelerating growth nearly everywhere.
4. Mix shift to lower priced categories: The industry is seeing broad-based pullback in big ticket categories which is expected to continue. Identify opportunities to resonate with the consumer and maintain market share with lower priced products.
5. Think omni: As B&M retailers increasingly invest in eCommerce and drive greater in-store + digital collaboration, so too must vendors in order to stand out to the retailer and compete effectively in the channel. This requires perpetual learning and upleveling on eCommerce, identifying new omnichannel collaborations internally and with your merchants, leaning into test-and-learns, and growing budgets for digital.