The housing market is key

Home improvement and gardening stores in the US have recently benefited from an improved housing market and consumer willingness to invest in long-term durables over short-use goods. Housing starts and home prices have started to rise slowly, but remain below traditional levels. Consumers have viewed these marginal rises very positively and begun investing in their homes. This investment has resulted in positive growth for home improvement retailers.
Home improvement and gardening stores are more insulated than other outlet types because of the special nature of many of this channel's products. Consumers prefer to do most of their shopping in one location and, when tackling home improvement and gardening projects, they turn to this channel. DIY is performing strongly in the US as individuals look to tackle projects large and small on their own in order to save money.
In Canada, DIY is also becoming more popular. With the economy remaining somewhat uncertain, more Canadians are undertaking work on their homes themselves rather than contracting it out. A quick perusal of TV programmes on channels such as HGTV in Canada, as well as magazines in stores across the country, demonstrates that the building craze in Canada is continuing, and learning to build on one's own is increasingly popular. This, along with a somewhat better outlook for the Canadian housing market, helped to marginally increase sales through home improvement and gardening stores in 2014.

As so much of the home improvement category is dependent on the Canadian housing market, the mixed growth in housing and the constant fears of a potential housing bubble in many of Canada's major cities have meant a number of retailers in this channel are reassessing their strategies: Canadian Tire and Rona, for example, are seeking to focus on smaller locations, rather than large, costly stores.
Home Depot remained the largest home and garden specialist retailer in the US in 2014, with its sales growing by 6% to reach US$49.4 billion. Home Depot was able to achieve strong growth despite only opening one new store. The company is firmly committed to improving its internet retailing: online sales in 2014 increased by around 40% and already account for 6% of total revenue. Many products…