DIY and DIFM hand in hand

Home improvement in Italy remains stable in current value terms at € 2.7 bn in 2016. While there are positive factors supporting the growth of home improvement sales, the trend for Do-It-Yourself is not particularly common in Italy, as the market research company Euromonitor International discovered. Per household spending on home improvement in Italy compared to most other Western European countries is much lower than its potential.
One reason for this is the Do-It-For-Me (DIFM) habit. Local consumers purchase all of the required equipment and products needed for a home improvement project and then, due to lack of time or because of a specific required skill, hire a workman to carry out the task.
Retailers were starting to improve their offer of services and customer assistance in 2016. This trend is positively affecting home improvement's value growth because consumers see the possibility of saving money by purchasing the home improvement products themselves, while they feel reassured by the possibility of hiring professional help when needed at a later date.
According to Euromonitor International, the situation for home improvement in Italy improved in 2016 in comparison to previous years. Low-priced goods did not meet with much success in 2016, leaving greater space for quality products and encouraging manufacturers to face innovation challenges. For Italians, DIY is becoming increasingly popular as a leisure activity, both for women and men. According to one of the leading internet retailers in Italy, one third of its customers are women.
Overall, renovation works in 2016 were fairly dynamic while the building industry continued to present some difficulties, so Italians faced a higher number of issues linked to old houses than new ones. While already living in a house, consumers can decide to carry out some repair work in their spare time on their own. Young couples in particular enjoy taking care of their own improvements; this gives space for personalisation and greater creativity.

2016 was a positive year for most categories within home improvement, as indicated by the figures from Euromonitor International. Floor covering grew marginally in current value terms in 2016. Power tools performed strongly with a ten per cent current…