The online DIY stores coming out on top this Spring.
This month, we’ve used our ASK BOSCO® Index, our competitor benchmarking feature that is part of the ASK BOSCO® platform, to run the league table for the DIY online sector. The ASK BOSCO® league table compares your ASK BOSCO® Index score against your closest competitors. The index uses trusted third-party data to evaluate performance across paid and organic media channels, giving a combined score out of 1000. The higher the score = the higher the market leader.
What does the online DIY sector currently look like?
The online DIY sector has experienced significant transformation in recent years, helped by technological advancements and changing consumer behaviours.
In the past, the only way to buy DIY items was to visit a store or order from a catalogue. Now, with the convenience of digital platforms, customers can easily access a wide range of DIY products, tools, and resources from the comfort of their homes. This shift has democratized the DIY industry, both in terms of empowering people to tackle home improvement projects on their own, but also levelled out the playing field for online retailers who don’t want to (or don’t have the capacity to) open hundreds of stores across the country. Online retailers in the DIY sector can now also offer a wide range of SKUs online, held at a central warehouse and further support DIY-ers with information guides and video tutorials to help with their projects – further helping their online presence.
Here’s how we scored the DIY online retailers:
We scored the leading UK DIY retailers using the ASK BOSCO® index feature. Here’s how the top five ranked on the ASK BOSCO® Index league table.
Who’s top of the league for online DIY Retailers?
For the 2nd year in a row, Screwfix has come out on top of the ASK BOSCO® League Table for online DIY retailers in the UK. The reason for this is no accident. Recently mentioned in the Retail X report as an ‘Elite’ retailer, Screwfix has strategically embraced digital retailing over the last few years, particularly post-covid times. Pre-covid, about a third of its sales were online, but during the pandemic, digital channels became the sole means of sales, fulfilled through delivery and store collection. Screwfix has managed to keep this digital engagement high, despite the pandemic now in the past, and it states that 75% of its sales are now digitally enabled.
Replacing its catalogue in August 2022 was a significant shift for Screwfix, who instead installed over 4,500 in-store digital browsers in their stores. Furthermore, Screwfix’s mobile app has emerged as its fastest-growing channel, boasting over 4 million downloads offering features such as 60-minute Sprint delivery and store check-in functionality, with the aim of putting the company at the heart of everything they do.
Its digital presence is also reflected in its profits, with Kingfisher Group, Screwfix’s parent company, reporting a retail profit of £603 million in the UK. According to Screwfix’s Digital, Proposition and Data Director, Sue Harries, the retailer is continuing to prioritize digital transformation, leveraging data science to better inform their customers online.
Who missed out on the top 5?
DIY online retailers who missed out on the top 5 include Homebase (whose ASK BOSCO® index score is 700) and Robert Dyas (whose ASK BOSCO® index score is 697).
Want to know more?
If you’d like to learn more about the ASK BOSCO® index and other functionality within the ASK BOSCO® platform include the reporting suite and the AI forecasting and optimization tool Budget Planner, please get in touch with the team at team@askbosco.io.
