The past decade has seen the uprise of the DTC trend, greater demand from new generations and AR tech making its way into our homes - all of which have impacted the sector - resulting in multiple opportunities for new marketing suppliers.
Household names have traditionally dominated the UK's homeware market. The likes of Dunelm and IKEA attracted customers with large-scale showrooms and store layouts, offering every imaginable product for the home, while more specialist retailers like DFS, ScS and Oak Furnitureland leveraged nationwide TV ads and press coverage to embed themselves in consumers’ minds.
The last decade has seen the DTC trend impact the sector as advances in technology and new generations of buyers demand more from brands. Innovations such as augmented reality have enabled homeware brands to overcome some of the purchase obstacles faced by online-only retailers, forcing brick-and-mortar brands to increase investment in digital. Habitat now sees 85% of its customers shop online while Dunelm saw ecommerce sales increase by 32.1% during the second half of 2019.
That is not to say that offline retail is in decline in this competitive sector. Fashion brands such as Zara, Next and H&M continue to expand into homeware - H&M Home launched its first standalone store outside of London in November, while Zara aligns its Zara Home brand more closely with its fashion portfolio. IKEA is also banking on the high street, expanding its ‘small’ store concept this year to increase inner city penetration.
With opportunities spanning multiple marketing disciplines, both online and offline, there is currently plenty of potential for agencies to win work in the homeware sector. John Lewis saw its Home sales drop over the peak Christmas period and, with its Customer Director stepping down in January, new ideas are likely to be welcomed - it announced in March its plan to advertise its spring/summer season on TV for the first time ever. For performance marketing specialists, Made.com is expanding its SEO team while Loaf focuses on paid social media ads to support its online presence - providers with retail and merchandising expertise may also look to H&M, Ikea and Zara, the signals for which point to further expansion of brick-and-mortar footprints.
For this briefing we profiled 18 brands in the homeware sector, evaluating the challenges, strategies and potential buying signals at DTC disruptors, traditional homeware retailers and fashion brands expanding into homeware to build a lifestyle image.
