As the High Street begins to re-open, businesses are getting to grips with how to safely allow buyers in. This typically involves safety screens and sanitisation processes but above all much lower levels of footfall in store to allow for safe social distancing.
The key questions are around the mitigation of risk. The social risk of keeping everybody safe but also the commercial risk of opening stores with reduced and unpredictable footfall.
This means it is critical that you get the customers in through your doors who are most likely to buy and likely to spend the most when they do. For any retailer of home furnishing products, homemovers should be firmly in the spotlight.
There are 3 significant opportunities for retail marketers to generate immediate results
No 1 – nearly 300k house moves had occurred in Q1 before the enforced lockdown many of whom have been thwarted in the opportunity to furnish their new home whether this was with carpets, curtains, decorating, furniture, kitchens, bathrooms or soft furnishings.
No 2 – nearly 350k homeowners had sold their property but were unable to progress the transaction during the lockdown & If you think the property market had evaporated during this period then think again. Fall through rates for March & April are lower than in 2019, whilst May has edged only slightly higher than last year.
This large audience who have been “held back” will want to progress their move quickly and will be putting the finishing touches to their move before commencing an intense spending period on furnishing their new house to make it a home.
No 3 – ironically those homemovers whose transaction has fallen through or been withdrawn provide a significant opportunity to Retailers. From our extensive experience we know that when this occurs and the homeowner decides to stay put, their initial frustration is replaced by needing to fall back in love with their existing home. Without the need to fund removers, conveyancing and stamp duty their budget to stay & improve will unlock spending across almost every home furnishings category.
So, if you think the property market has evaporated then think again.
Here at TwentyCi we are the leading data & insight provider for the UK property market and compared to our next best competitor, TwentyCi have 67% more households. We are also multi-channel with engagement available across direct mail, email, social, digital display, mobile and television. We can help you engage with new audiences that you haven’t engaged with before, and tell you who of your existing customers are in the home move journey so you can change the communications you send them, making them more relevant.
For the marketing programmes we support, our data & insight typically delivers an ROI of over £20 to every £1 spent.
So, if you are looking for the best bet to boost your business post lockdown we can help you make sure the right people come through your doors...
TwentyCi | enquiries@twentyci.co.uk | 01908 829300