Different to their neighbours?

Italy has always been a country with a strong home improvement market. When looking at the total construction volumes in Italy, almost 72 per cent consist of renovation. With the European Home Improvement Monitor, USP Marketing Consultancy has been tracking the Italian home improvement market from 2013 onwards.
This article zooms in on the results of the fourth quarter 2016 report for Italy. This report is based on online interviews with 26 400 European consumers and this research provides key insights into the home improvement market in eleven European countries, of which Italy is one of them.

First of all, a general overview of the home improvement market is given. Around eight per cent of the European consumers have purchased a home improvement product online in 2016. The ratio is lower in Italy: here it was 5.9 per cent.
We have asked the consumers reasons to purchase a home improvement product online or not. The most important reasons not to buy online are the difficulties in getting a good feel of product, getting proper advice and delivery times. The main reason for buying online is price. The second one is the fact that consumers do not have to leave the house, and availability is the third most important reason for purchasing online.
In Europe, the most purchased products online are lamps and light fixtures (22 per cent), followed by furniture (21 per cent), outdoor and garden products (19 per cent), and tools and equipment (18 per cent). The products that are purchased the least online, are building supplies (eight per cent), flooring and tiling products (five per cent), heating and insulation products (five per cent) and home automation products (three per cent).
In Italy, the top three product categories are very different. They consist of power tools (11.4 per cent), garden tools (8.7 per cent) and HVAC (heat, air, ventilation, cooling, 5.1 per cent). The least amount of online purchases are conducted in the product categories of safety (3.7 per cent), insulation (3.6 per cent) and paint (1.9 per cent).
DIFM versus DIY
Another key European trend is Do-It-For-Me (DIFM) opposed to DIY. This means that consumers let professionals do the home improvement jobs for them. Drivers for this trend are, amongst others, the aging society and less willingness of younger generations to conduct DIY jobs. When we look at all home improvement jobs that have been done in and around the house we can conclude that most of them are being done by the…