Blog: Home and DIY retailers cannot ignore the power of online

It was widely reported last month that online shopping saved Christmas, with fashion and electricals retailers in particular benefiting from consumers’ rising confidence in the channel.

However, when it comes to home and DIY, online penetration is still incredibly low. The fact is, when making big-ticket purchases, most shoppers prefer to try out a £700 sofa in store before committing to it.

Take Homebase, for example. Its online sales accounted for just 6% of total sales in its first half, and that is typical of the major home and DIY retailers in the UK. Compare that with Marks & Spencer, which reported that online sales accounted for 16% of its general merchandise sales – largely comprising clothing – during its golden quarter.

A few years ago I remember being asked by the boss of a giant furniture retailer what I thought its online strategy should be. The chief listened intensely to my viewpoint, for what it was worth, and it really struck me the extent to which furniture and DIY retailers are in unchartered territory.

Yet with very notable exceptions such as Primark, the accepted rule in retail right now seems to be launch online or die.

So what are home retailers doing on the ecommerce front? Carpetright believes online will never represent a huge shopping channel for it, yet it is investing in its website because it has identified its power as a great tool for marketing and customer inspiration.

B&Q, meanwhile, believes the web can represent a serious sales channel for it, and is taking learnings from its more sophisticated sister company Screwfix to develop its offer. Dunelm too is ploughing money into its online offer, which represents 6% of total sales. The value homewares retailer opened a new web fulfilment centre in October and it is now selling 17,500 products through the channel compared with 11,500 a year ago.

At bed specialist Dreams online sales account for 7% of turnover and boss Mike Logue plans to double that over the next three years by targeting the value market in particular.

So, many traditionally bricks-and-mortar retailers are aiming to up the ante when it comes to online, with perhaps John Lewis at the forefront in the home sector. And there is activity at the other end of the spectrum too, with pure-plays Made.com and Sofa.com enjoying success in recent years.

Those etailers prove that people will purchase big-ticket products online, and that trend is only set to grow. It’s now up to home retailers to decide if they are happy emulating Primark by ignoring the web altogether, or if they would be better to take some of the pure-play’s market by investing in their online offer. As I said to the boss of the furniture giant some years ago, I know which one I would choose.

• Nicola Harrison is news editor at Retail Week