Comscore Snapshots: home decoration, DIY and gardening in Europe

Websites and apps that specialise on the topics of home decoration, DIY or gardening fit in either of two categories: (1) ‘Lifestyle’ media, which includes magazines and blogs that provide information, advice and reviews on architectural design, decorating, home improvements and gardening; or (2) ‘Retail’ media, where users can purchase furniture and decorative items. Examples of entities that pertain to the ‘Home/Architecture’ lifestyle category and ‘Home Furnishings’ retail category are included in the table below.

The period of March to June 2020 corresponds to the time of the first lockdown in most EU countries. Stuck at home, many consumers decided to bring forward their home improvement plans. Since then, traffic to home improvement websites and apps has subsided somewhat and remained stable (chart below).

One interesting feature of the home improvement ecosystem is that, contrary to other categories (such as Finance, Entertainment, or general Retail), few consumers access these websites and apps through both desktop devices and mobile devices: dual access audiences are but a fraction of the ‘Desktop-only’ and ‘Mobile-only’ audiences. Put another way, consumers who access these sites through mobile devices do so almost exclusively through mobile devices. The same applies for those who do so through desktop devices. (Table below.)