Why Homemovers are a Golden Opportunity for SME Retailers

If you’re looking to find a valuable and lucrative consumer segment, you’ve come to the right place. Who is that customer? It’s the homemover! 

Moving home sparks a surge in retail spending. Let’s put some numbers of that. How does a whopping £29 billion annually sound? That figure makes targeting homemovers a no-brainer. 

At TwentyCi, we track 99.6% of all residential property moves, which means we know exactly who is in the moving home journey and their stage. And we put you in the know too!

Why should you target homemovers?

Moving home sparks a fresh start for consumers. A homemover’s aspirations are never higher than when they get the keys to a new property. Consumers want to create a living space that they are proud of and that reflects their personality. This means they spend. A lot! 

They are willing to invest in a wide array of products and services, whether it involves purchasing new furniture or undertaking a full-room renovation. Old properties are tainted with the previous residents’ taste, so homemovers are eager to put their stamp on their new space. It’s not just older properties that result in increased spending, new builds do too. They’re often blank canvases that desperately need character injected into them. New builds also commonly don’t include flooring, which makes them an instant target for flooring companies. There’s ample opportunity for wallpaper, furniture and home décor retailers to make a killing with new build homeowners.

Homemovers are motivated to spend

A homeowner is never more motivated to renovate or redecorate than when they move into a new property. This is the optimum time for them to splash out to create their dream home. You have a key opportunity to tap into this enthusiasm by offering products and solutions to homemovers. 

For many homemovers, their new home requires a renovation to get it to align with their vision. Moving home is also a key time to throw out the old and buy new. Homeowners will prolong the use of their worn sofa or outdated sideboard, anticipating the chance to invest in fresh furnishings when they move. Additionally, some may postpone such purchases to ensure their new items fit into their new living spaces.

In terms of renovations, kitchens, bedrooms, and bathrooms are often the first targets for renovation because they play such a big role in daily life. KBB retailers can position themselves as an indispensable part of their renovation journey, bringing the expertise and the inspiration to create a home the consumer can be proud of.

How to market to the homeowner

In your marketing, you could let the homemover know how much a renovation can increase the value of their home by encouraging them to take the plunge. According to Fin Space, a full re-decoration can increase the property value by 3.1%. A big renovation, such as an extension, can add 11.2%. They state that a bathroom remodel can increase value by 4% while a kitchen renovation adds the most value, at 10%. Towergate Insurance has a handy calculator to find out how much value each type of renovation can add. For a £300K house, a new bathroom can add £15K, a new kitchen £18K and a new garage as much as £60K. 

Retail spending doesn’t start at the home move though. We see a lot of spending pre-move. Many consumers want to get their current home in tip-top condition before they put it onto the market. They’re conscious of how their home looks in their photos on Rightmove and want to make it as appealing as possible to potential buyers. It’s very exposing opening your home up to the public, so the mover may invest in a fresh lick of paint, a repair that’s been put off or even a full redecoration to get their home in ship-shape condition.

Some homemovers may have relocated to a brand-new area. They may not be aware of the trusted local retailers, so marketing to these movers gives you a great opportunity to get your brand name in front of them.

When do homemovers spend more on retail goods and services?

As homemover experts, we see the retail spending of a homemover start six months before the move and continue over a year after they’ve moved into their new property. This is a huge timeframe so plenty of marketing opportunities! We also see this audience as being inclined to spend more frequently and in larger amounts than non-movers do. This makes them a highly desirable marketing target!

The homemover opportunity

Knowing the right time to target people in the home moving process is key to a successful marketing campaign. The below graphic outlines when retailers should ideally be targeting the homemover. A DIY retailer should target pre-movers and those settling in, whilst a furniture retailer should market to those who have just moved in and during the settling-in phase.

How do we track homemovers?

We know which properties are at the following stages: 

• For sale 
• Withdrawn 
• Sold Subject to Contract (SSTC) 
• Fallen Through
• Exchanged

We put each industry in touch with the relevant home moving stage for them. Take a cleaning company, for instance. They would benefit from targeting those moving soon, as the occupant may wish to employ a cleaner before handing over the keys to the new buyer. A homemover may also want their new home thoroughly cleaned before they moves in. Many landlords also expect tenants to instruct an end-of-tenancy clean, so the cleaning company could target rental movers. 

You could also choose to target fallen-through or withdrawn properties. These properties have failed to sell, so people may either put them back on the market or choose to stay in the home. If they fail to sell, the homeowner will be more motivated to spruce up their home to make it more attractive to buyers. No one wants their property languishing on the market for months on end. You can target these homes to offer products or services to help improve the property’s appeal to potential buyers. This would work well for home improvement retailers or landscapers. If the homeowner has had second thoughts about moving and decided to stay in their existing property, they may only stay on the premise of doing their home up to make it more appealing for them to remain rather than move. This could be a lucrative stage to target for a wide range of retailers. 

Our DOMUS property database

We can filter our data to make it as relevant as possible for your industry. Our property database called DOMUS features over 350 different property attributes of all UK residential properties. This includes things like the age of the property, the number of bedrooms, square footage and much more.

There may be specific property attributes that you’d want to target that are relevant to your business. If you’re a gym equipment provider, we can tell you which houses have home gyms for instance. If you’re a garden retailer, we can tell you which properties have gardens and which of those have ponds or even hot tubs and swimming pools!  If you’re a high-end kitchen retailer, we can refine the audience to only properties over a certain value or the square footage of their kitchen – or even if they have a kitchen island or not!

Final thoughts

When someone puts their property on the market, they become a key target for retailers because this life event triggers a substantial increase in retail spending. A homemover spends a lot more than a non-mover. BuyerAlerts is a self-serve marketing platform, created for SME retailers, the KBB industry and the home improvement sector to target home movers, home improvers and homeowners with their goods and services, whilst opening yet unexplored revenue channels. 

We provide access to postal addresses to people in their moving journey, combined with optional direct mail fulfilment service and mobile advertising (available soon), helping to amplify local reach and brand awareness. All within a single login to a user-optimised and intuitive online platform.  

BuyerAlerts leverages over 12 years of retail experience at a local, regional and national level including managing marketing programmes for brands in the flooring, kitchens, bathrooms, bedrooms and home furnishings categories. We also successfully provide similar marketing platforms and homemover data for both the Estate Agency and Removals sector.