About Hitwise

Hitwise is the leader in online competitive intelligence. Contact Hitwise to maximize your online marketing programs.

Hitwise Intelligence - Robin Goad - UK

Analyst Weblog

« Large Hadron Collider fever online! | Fast moving search terms: LHC, big bang, Andy Murray and XL »

DIY and furniture retailers overtake estate agents online

September 11, 2008

UK Internet visits to house and garden retail websites have increased by 20.5% over the last 12 months, despite the credit crunch and falling house prices. At the same time, UK Internet visits to estate agents and property websites have fallen by 35.2%.

UK Internet traffic to house and garden retailers and property estate agent websites 2007 2008.png

A recent report from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) showed that UK estate agents are now selling an average of just one property per week, and this decline is mirrored online. The credit crunch has hit online estate agents hard: as the chart above illustrates, in August 2007 our Business and Finance – Property category accounted for 0.85%% of all UK Internet visits, but by last month this figure had fallen to 0.55%. Falling demand for houses is mirrored by consumer search behaviour, with UK Internet searches for ‘houses for sale’ down 53.1% between August 2007 and August 2008.

At the same time, the share of UK Internet visits to our Shopping and Classifieds – House and Garden category accounted increased from 0.49% in August 2007 to 0.59% last month, overtaking the Business and Finance – Property category on the way. It looks as if people are choosing to do up their existing houses rather than move. The interesting thing about the growth in House and Garden retailers is that it applies both to DIY retailers, such as B&Q, Screwfix and Homebase, and furniture retailers such as Ikea, Laura Ashley and Wilkinson Plus. In order to illustrate this we created two customer home retail sub-categories: as the chart below shows, both types of retailer have increased their share of Internet visits over the last 12 months.

UK Internet traffic to furniture and DIY retailers 2007 2008 chart.png

One of the factors behind the success of house and garden retailers online has been increase in online DIY queries as people look improve their accommodation on a budget. UK Internet searches for the top 10 DIY-related ‘how to’ queries have increased by 25% over the last 12 months. Here are the top 10 during August:

1. ‘how to plaster’
2. ‘how to lay decking’
3. ‘how to wallpaper’
4. ‘how to hang a door’
5. ‘how to lay a patio’
6. ‘how to lay laminate flooring’
7. ‘how to hang wallpaper’
8. ‘how to make curtains’
9. ‘how to make a canopy porch’
10. ‘how to tile a bathroom’

This is the first of a number of new credit crunch related insights that we’ll be putting out over the next couple of weeks, so keep an on the blog and our Twitter feed for updates.