Keeping pace with consumer buying habits

Wayne Heath joined Aluk in May as trade and residential sales director. With extensive retail experience in the window and door market, with the likes of Everest and Anglian, he has spent the last few years in the automotive sector, including a three-year spell with We Buy Any Car.

Here, Wayne offers real insight into how the retail landscape is changing, and how customers will need to keep pace with changing consumer buying habits if they want to continue to thrive.

Having spent the past couple of months meeting Aluk customers and talking to them about their plans and also their concerns, it’s clear that the market for many feels quite unstable, especially for those bigger B2C businesses.

The cost-of-living crisis is clearly reducing the amount that people have to spend and starting to undermine consumer confidence. The market reports we’re getting suggest that sales and enquiries are both down by as much as 25% over the equivalent periods in 2021, but that average order values are actually significantly up.

The real picture is a lot more nuanced than that, however. What customers are actually telling us is that they are seeing a decline in the commodity and single product purchases which made up a good portion of sales last year, and a shift towards whole house purchases at the more ‘premium’ end of the market.

That’s obviously good news for Aluk customers offering the aluminium bi-folds, sliders and slimline windows which are enduringly popular with affluent and aspirational purchasers. But, to really tap into this premium sector and maximise the opportunities which will still be there even if we tip into a recession, retailers need to understand that the way that homeowners buy any product – whether it’s a new car or new windows and doors – is fundamentally changing.

Gone are the days when customers’ first interaction with a business was a phone call, a showroom visit, or a face-to-face meeting. They will almost invariably start online – on a website, via social media or on a review site. It’s got to be about the digital first offering now and, however uncomfortable it might feel at first, being able to provide some kind of remote quoting facility and even an online ordering tool to facilitate an interaction.

Online retailers and automotive businesses are way ahead in this area, but if the window and door market continues to adapt in that way and successfully mimics much of what they are doing in terms of the online customer experience in advance of the sale, then I don’t think we will be too far off course.

I would advise anyone active in the retail market to be all over those various social media platforms – from Pinterest and Instagram to Facebook and YouTube and even TikTok. It’s also important to be open and transparent on price – from the outset. All of the fastest growing sectors of the automotive market have prioritised clear and simple costing and discount structures right across the supply chain and have now built that wider expectation amongst consumers.

Aluk’s new package of direct retail support under our Aluk Home banner has been designed specifically to work in this new retail landscape, and we’ll be continuing to invest in that as we get feedback from our customers as to what they find the most valuable, what best supports their growth plans, and what really helps them win new business.