Shoppers buying housewares brands favor the high street shopping experience, according to our latest insight.

As part of our Shopping Uncovered series of reports, today we’re launching a special edition on housewares – spanning linens, decorative accessories, lighting, cookware, tableware, curtains, blinds.

After asking more than a thousand home and leisure shoppers about how and where they prefer to shop as well as what influences them to buy, we’ve crunched the data for housewares shoppers. From more than 300 respondents, here’s what we found.

Shopping Uncovered: Housewares – the findings

  • A resounding 70% of shoppers visit a store at some stage when buying housewares
  • Furthermore while 30% of people prefer to buy online, 44% solely shop instore – 10% higher than all home and leisure shoppers.
  • The report looked at how different generations view the category. It found that where people choose to shop is heavily linked to their experience of buying for the home.
    • Millennials, normally biased towards online shopping, are the most likely age group to do the whole experience instore.
    • The more experienced Generation X, having learned more about what suits their needs, favour shopping online and are less likely to need to see products or want advice.

Shopper Forces model

Our unique Shopper Forces model enabled us to map the relative influence on buying decisions of price, need to touch, shopping experience, need for education, brand, and social approval.

Having the opportunity to see and touch products before buying is the most influential force in this category. The overall experience was also important to housewares shoppers, particularly women who – unsurprisingly – enjoy this type of shopping much more than men. Men, in uncertain territory on the other hand, are more likely to look for social validation.

While getting a good price was important, shoppers were less likely to expect a sale or bargain when buying housewares compared to other categories.

Successful housewares brands will be those that give shoppers an enjoyable high street experience while making it easy to get close to products and imagine them in their own homes.


Shopping Uncovered: Housewares
is available to download here