
The disruption of the UK’s Do It Yourself market has been happening for some time now. Disguised by unprecedented demand during the Pandemic, a younger generation of Home and Garden shoppers with very different product, brand, channel, inspiration and payment preferences have not been following the
accepted rules.
They think differently, they buy different things, they don’t watch traditional TV, they think the established DIY Retailers are where old people shop and with far less of them owning cars, driving out of town is simply a conundrum to them. Let’s be honest, this generation can’t even be bothered to go to a McDonalds anymore, they’d rather pay to get a cold Double Cheeseburger delivered to their home, whilst they scroll for hours through TikTok with one eye watching Love Island.
When I say younger generations, let’s put that into some context – I’m not talking 20 – to 30-year-olds. The eldest Millennial was actually born around 1981 and if my maths are correct, that would already make them 43 this year. If they’re not already a homeowner, more than likely, they’re someone who aspires to own their own home, and in their mind anyway, one day very soon.
This different way of thinking is presenting a huge problem for the established DIY Retailers, and they simply don’t know what to do. The last 30 years has been so easy for them, they knew their customers and they knew them really well. They were almost all homeowners, they had plenty of money to spend on their homes and gardens and they looked forward to the regular visit to a DIY store at the weekend.
But attracting this new and increasingly important generation to want to buy from the established DIY stores is incredibly difficult. Under-employed and heavily indebted, this generation has a completely different mindset and motivations, so even reaching them with an appropriate advertising or promotional message is difficult.
So, what you see is established retailers trying their very best to be relevant, by posting increasingly frequently and informal reels on TikTok and Instagram, whilst the younger generations look on and, in their eyes, all they can see is their dad dancing.
There are so many cool and relevant new brands to buy from and with social media influencers recommending products and new retailers to this increasingly brand loyal generation, for businesses like B&Q and Wickes, they have a huge and growing problem.
With so much fixed cost tied up in staff and stores, if DIY demand continues to fall, then maintaining their slim margins is going to be tough, very tough indeed.
But there is a solution, one that has been staring them in the face all along, and that solution is the valuable Trade customer.
The UK Market is rather odd
In some ways, the UK Home Improvement market is a bit odd when compared to its international comparators. The remaining DIY Chains: B&Q, Wickes and Homebase have for years competed against each other, chasing the tail of the DIY consumer. I say remaining, because some of us will remember the days of Focus DIY, Texas Homecare, Great Mills, Do It All and Payless. It was just easier to attract the DIY consumer into their stores. All you needed to do was offer the biggest brands, plenty of stock (remember ‘Pile it high and sell it cheap’) and good discounts advertised on TV, and they just kept coming week after week. You could open a store at 8am on a Saturday morning and just know that by 10am there would be queues at every till.
And this unrelenting focus on the DIY customer had a fundamental impact on the look and feel of the UK’s Home Improvement stores. The Decorating, Gardening and Showroom Categories took over in terms of store space, promotions, range reviews and external communications, whilst the Trade and Building categories took a back seat, often relegated to the dusty back of the store.
UK Home Improvement retailing seems to struggle having two masters. What works for DIY customers isn’t really relevant for the Trade and what you decide to put at the front of your store, the look and feel of the website and what you advertise, really does matter. An over-focus on DIY destroys your credibility with the Trade, too much focus on Trade and the DIY consumer will look elsewhere for inspiration and help.
It’s why we’ve developed a very distinct Trade Channel in the UK dominated by Merchants and convenience Trade businesses like Screwfix, Toolstation and Howdens. These businesses have a laser-like focus on one master – the Trade customer and consistently provides exactly what the Builders, Painters, Tilers, Plumbers and Electricians are looking for – the magic quartet of Price, Quality, Availability and Convenience.
And yet over the pond, for whatever reason, The Home Depot seems to manage this two masters challenge perfectly well; attracting an ideal mix of Do It Yourself and Trade customers into their stores, as does Bunnings in Australia. I don’t think it’s down to basics like a different entrance to the store, Trade focused staff or even Trade only discounts, although that of course all helps.
Up until Covid times, the DIY Chains pretty much ignored or at least took for granted the Trade customer and let them go to the Trade outlets, while they focused their efforts on what was once the lucrative DIY consumer. But this is now changing and changing fast, as predominantly B&Q and Wickes have seen the light and are now charging back into the trade market at full speed.
Plenty of Work, Loyalty & Spend
The Home Improvement and Construction market is still tough in the UK and whilst inflation and the over-used term ‘cost of living crises’ continues to take its toll; the Trades are really busy. Recent statistics shared by Wickes indicate that the Trade work pipeline remains robust with 50% of trade customers having work lined up for more than three months.
With plenty of work on the horizon, with an average spend ten times that of the typical DIY consumer and with the kind of longterm, lucrative, loyalty available if you deliver on Price, Quality, Availability and Convenience, it’s no surprise that the established retailers have a new prize in their sights.
B&Q and TradePoint
TradePoint has been a sleeping giant, as successive Kingfisher CEOs weren’t quite sure of the right direction for the brand. Under-resourced and without strategic clarity, TradePoint floundered for over a decade, whilst sister company Screwfix enjoyed all the focus and accolades as it continued its meteoric rise from back-water catalogue business to the Trade monster that it is today. But the appointment of Thierry Garnier as Kingfisher CEO in September 2019, heralded a distinct change in direction.

TradePoint is now back in favour, already accounting for a surprising 25% of B&Q sales. Their store presence is being expanded (they now have 212 locations) and with 1.3m active members on their database and with plans to invest in more Trade Sales Advisors, there is a clear ambition and strategy to grow their trade sales to over £1bn.
At the most recent Kingfisher PLC Q1 Trading Results, their like for like Trade sales were up +8.5%, so the strategy is clearly working and they’re taking share.
Wickes
It’s a very similar story with Wickes, who recognised the need to focus on the Trade Customer slightly earlier than B&Q. They’ve taken a very simple view on both the opportunity and their approach. Ultimately, they believe they are serving the same end consumer, with the same product offering from the same stores and they simply had to attract and persuade the local trade customers to give them a chance.
To convince the Trade customer to shop with Wickes they devised a simple, but very effective promotion under the Trade Pro banner. As a Trade Pro member, you save 10% when you shop at Wickes, that’s 10% off every product, even promotional prices and there’s no minimum spend requirement.
The Trade Pro scheme is very successful, and Wickes has seen membership rocket from 450k members in 2018 to over 950k members today.
To evidence how important Trade is to the Wickes business, on 16th May this year, they held a Trade Pro Investor Insight Event, where they displayed their credentials to the investor community. As with B&Q, Wickes are clearly focusing on Trade for the long term and with deep pockets, they have the opportunity to change the market.
Summary
It’s not going to get any easier for the established retailers to target, persuade or even understand the younger DIY generation. They’re going to have to work hard, and I mean really hard with their brands, products, stores, service and communication to become relevant, interesting and acceptable.
But while they’re trying to figure that out, B&Q with TradePoint and Wickes with TradePro are making serious in-roads into the Trade Market. If they get the magic combination of Price, Quality, Availability and Convenience right and with over 550 stores between them, including B&Q’s nine inner-city local stores, the established merchants better take a long look over their shoulder.
Steve Collinge is an international speaker, influencer, retail commentator and is Managing Director of Insight Retail Group Ltd and executive editor of Insight DIY. You can follow Steve on LinkedIn and Twitter.