What’s trending?

In this week’s newsletter I will endeavour to offer up some market insights. Usually, I would have some expert advice to rely on from the likes of Business Pilot or Tommy Trinder, both of which supply glazing industry data on a monthly basis.

But not this time. Instead, I have been playing around with Google Trends, and while the statistics are not nearly as accurate or detailed, it has delivered one or two interesting results.

For starters, I searched for some obvious things such as ‘double glazing’, ‘composite doors’ and ‘aluminium windows’, with the results showing the peaks and troughs of Google searches over the last five years.

None of these were particularly remarkable, and revealed a fairly consistent search history over that time period.

Then I typed in ‘conservatories’, which revealed roughly twice as much interest in England than Scotland, but a general downturn in searches since 2019. In fact, other than a peak during March 2021, it seems that Google searches for conservatories are only heading one way.

As for ‘triple glazing’, there was a notable upturn in activity during the winter of 2022/23 and a significant spike in November last year. Perhaps not surprisingly, demand for triple is a lot higher in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

I also noted that in a section called ‘related queries’, searches for ‘triple glazing cost calculator’ had increased by 300%. It will take someone with more experience of Google Trends to determine how accurate that is…

Should we read too much into these findings then? Probably not too much – although they do resonate with recent feedback I’ve received regarding conservatories and also demand for energy efficient products, including triple glazing.

For a more detailed – and accurate picture – I would refer you to our monthly Business Pilot Barometer and Tommy Trinder reports. And for anyone wanting to know what products to bank on for 2024, then previous market research would suggest it’s a safe bet to assume those higher value items that performed well in 2023, will continue to do so for the next 12 months.

That includes flush, heritage style casements.

Affordable Window Systems, for example, has just announced that it has fabricated its 65,000th Timberlook window, a unique product that incorporates the Aluplast system and Timberweld joints.

According to Affordable, the potential for installers to engage in the flush/heritage market is ‘enormous’ and ‘growing yearly’…