A growing number of people have given in to the DIY trend in confined times

A growing number of people have given in to the DIY trend in confined times

Since the beginning of the French lockdown in mid-March, there have been rumours of a roaring increase in DIY-related purchases. Our data team digged deep into the (anonymous) bank transactions of thousands of users, to try and understand if these assumptions were true!

Noémie Kempf
Noémie Kempf

Our data team recently added a new category to the PayLead Pulse Index: do-it-yourself. Since the beginning of the lockdown in France, which started on March 17th, there have been rumours of a roaring increase in DIY-related purchases. After all, some people now have more time to tend to their homes and gardens!

At PayLead, we believe data always tells the truth, which is why we decided to dig deeper into the (anonymous) bank transactions of thousands of users, to try and understand if these assumptions were true. Here's what we found:

Newbies are getting into DIY

We started by splitting our different users into segments, based on the frequency of their purchases in DIY stores* (both online and offline) :

  • Beginners, users who made 1 or 2 purchases prior to the lockdown, or their first purchase during the lockdown
  • Regulars, users who made between 3 and 6 purchases prior to the lockdown
  • Experts, users who made over 6 purchases prior to the lockdown

We then took a look at their activity over the past 6 months:

The above chart illustrates the market share for each type of user between January 2020 and April 2020.

Interestingly enough, right after the beginning of the French lockdown, we can see that there was a surge in Beginners and Regulars:

  • Beginners have jumped from 12% to 29% of the total market
  • Regulars are now making up 36% of the DIY market (compared to 29% in January)

Meanwhile, the share of Experts seems to have collapsed, representing only 36% of all transactions, compared to 60% in January!

We could infer from these results that Experts were ready and stocked up before the lockdown, while newbies had to purchase all the necessary equipment to get started with their manual activities.

People spend more than ever before on gardening and DIY items

Besides the frequency of purchases, we found an interesting pattern when it comes to the average basket of shoppers of all types:

No matter how often they purchase from DIY stores, each categorie's average spend has significantly increased, illustrating how consumption patterns have been impacted by the crisis.

The above chart illustrates the differences in average basket before and during the lockdown

Besides a drastic increase in all consumers' average basket, the crisis also seems to have homogenized the amounts spent by the different categories of DIY shoppers :

  • Back in November, there was a gap of 66% in average spend between Beginners and Experts, while it is only 30% now
  • Similarly, the November gap in average spend between Regulars and Experts was 27%, but has plummeted to reach 14% today
The above chart illustrates the average basket for each type of user between November 2019 and April 2020.

Contrary to our initial assumption, the DIY market has not recorded a booming growth, however, it has been able to attract new customers, who could remain loyal after the lockdown. It has also recorded a major increase in average basket, regardless of the shoppers' profiles. This might pave the way to new consumption patterns for this industry!

* Our analysis was conducted based on the anonymous transactional data from consumers shopping at the following DIY stores : Leroy Merlin, Castorama, Bricomarché, Brico Depot, Jardiland, Truffaut, Mr Bricolage, Bricoman, Gamm Vert, Bricorama, Botanic, Weldom, E.Leclerc Brico, ManoMano.


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