In the pandemic, it was holidays – or a lack thereof – that was one of the main drivers for sales in the industry’s retail sector.
Stuck at home, and sitting on a pile of cash that would have otherwise been spent on two weeks relaxing on a beach, consumers decided to cheer themselves up by spending it on home improvements instead, including new windows, doors and more space to WFH.
And now, with the pandemic all but a distant memory, it is the cost of heating those homes that is maintaining strong sales despite inflationary pressures and rising interest rates.
According to the latest Business Pilot Barometer, which analyses trends in the retail sector, sales in March were up 2% on February but average order values increased by 13%.
Year on year, those figures are plus 4% and 5% respectively.
The cost of energy presents both a challenge and a big opportunity for the industry. On the one hand there is the additional cost to manufacturing, especially for glass, but on the other there are a significant amount of households that are prepared to invest in ‘whole house’ upgrades in order to keep a lid on heating bills.
And according to Business Pilot’s senior analyst, Neil Cooper-Smith, this could prove to be a long-term trend as consumers have been left ‘psychologically scarred’ from the winter months.
This underlines the importance then of partnering with suppliers who can deliver the best performing products but also those that have invested in ways to explain the benefits to consumers with tools such as an energy performance calculator.
Energy efficiency also leads us into the expected uplifts in U values for the Future Homes Standard in 2025 – the consultation for which is scheduled for this spring – something that may trigger a step change in the way windows and doors are designed and installed.
But that is a conversation for another day…we will have more on what to expect from the Future Homes Standard in a special supplement that will be published alongside the May issue of Glass Times.
Energy costs fuelling retail sector
In the pandemic, it was holidays – or a lack thereof – that was one of the main drivers for sales in the industry’s retail sector.
Stuck at home, and sitting on a pile of cash that would have otherwise been spent on two weeks relaxing on a beach, consumers decided to cheer themselves up by spending it on home improvements instead, including new windows, doors and more space to WFH.
And now, with the pandemic all but a distant memory, it is the cost of heating those homes that is maintaining strong sales despite inflationary pressures and rising interest rates.
According to the latest Business Pilot Barometer, which analyses trends in the retail sector, sales in March were up 2% on February but average order values increased by 13%.
Year on year, those figures are plus 4% and 5% respectively.
The cost of energy presents both a challenge and a big opportunity for the industry. On the one hand there is the additional cost to manufacturing, especially for glass, but on the other there are a significant amount of households that are prepared to invest in ‘whole house’ upgrades in order to keep a lid on heating bills.
And according to Business Pilot’s senior analyst, Neil Cooper-Smith, this could prove to be a long-term trend as consumers have been left ‘psychologically scarred’ from the winter months.
This underlines the importance then of partnering with suppliers who can deliver the best performing products but also those that have invested in ways to explain the benefits to consumers with tools such as an energy performance calculator.
Energy efficiency also leads us into the expected uplifts in U values for the Future Homes Standard in 2025 – the consultation for which is scheduled for this spring – something that may trigger a step change in the way windows and doors are designed and installed.
But that is a conversation for another day…we will have more on what to expect from the Future Homes Standard in a special supplement that will be published alongside the May issue of Glass Times.
Glass Times
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