Black Friday has come and gone, and the world was momentarily awash with a deluge of offers and discounts for almost everything from the anything store.
However, the excitement of the annual shopping extravaganza was almost entirely absent in our world of kitchen retail.
Why is that?
Because what we do is different. Very different.
Kitchens aren’t impulse buys, bought on a whim or because of an offer. They’re big-ticket purchases, bought with thought and consideration.
I spend a lot of time talking to kitchen retailers about how to sell more kitchens, and I’ve been spending plenty of time recently talking to Mrs Barker about buying one. (Yes, still!) So, I write this from the vantage point of recent, personal experience on both sides of the fence.
Buying a kitchen is unique. There are few things quite like it.
Cars are about as close as it gets to an obvious comparable, and we didn’t see many ‘half-off’ offers in that industry either!
There are plenty of purchases that are ‘impulse’ buys – a snack, a Starbucks, a new pair of trainers or a weekend away—all spur-of-the-moment decisions.
Buying a kitchen or a car isn’t a spur-of-the-moment decision like that. But once someone’s made a decision to buy, they take action on that decision swiftly.
Some research in the motor industry years ago highlighted that when someone decides to change their car, on average, they’ll be on a forecourt in just three days.
Kitchens are not wildly different from that—lots of thought followed by rapid action.
The economy also plays an important role in consumer behaviour; the Chancellor might have trimmed some taxes as we move into an election cycle, but the economy isn’t booming yet.
During periods of economic fragility, people don’t stop investing in their homes. Still, when the economy is weaker, they become more discerning, take even more time and give even more consideration to significant investments. (Surely, one of the hallmarks of 2023!)
Future kitchen buyers won’t have been splashing the cash over Black Friday; they’ll have been reading articles about two-dishwasher kitchens, kitchen islands, Quooker taps and considering how they’ll fund their new kitchen.
Kitchen buyers are always out there; we just don’t know who they are until they’re ready to reveal themselves. All you can do is be visible and ready for them when they turn up.
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If you’re thinking you could do with taking your kitchen sales and marketing to the next level in 2024, contact me at david.barker@inspirekbb.com and let’s arrange a chat.