What, Americans even do DIY decoration? ! That’s right, Americans have always had the habit of DIY, and decoration is no exception. Houses in the United States are often large, but labor costs are very expensive, so you can save a lot of money if you do it yourself. No wonder home improvement products are so popular in the United States!
The overall size of the U.S. home improvement market exceeded US$300 billion in 2016, equivalent to Israel’s national GDP that year. Among them, Amazon's home improvement market in the United States accounts for 5 billion US dollars and maintains an annual sales growth rate of 35%, increasing by hundreds of millions of dollars each year, which is much higher than the 6% growth rate of the offline market. Amazon's home improvement third-party seller business accounts for the bulk of its sales, and its growth rate far exceeds Amazon's own retail. (Data source: www.oneclickretail.com)
In addition, home improvement products are also a major focus of corporate procurement and one of the four major categories that Amazon Business is recruiting in China. Amazon Business is Amazon's one-stop corporate procurement service. Through Amazon Business, corporate buyers can access a large number of related products, enjoy exclusive corporate discounts, and even simplify the procurement review process and manage procurement expenses. Through Amazon Business, sellers can sell home improvement products directly to corporate and institutional buyers in the United States.
In recent years, Chinese sellers have grown rapidly. Their high-quality products and strong operational capabilities have given them the opportunity to gain a foothold in the U.S. home improvement market. In fact, the share of Chinese sellers in this category on Amazon’s US site has been growing.
If you choose these categories, it’s hard not to be hot-selling!
Good product selection is the first step to success. Among home improvement categories in the United States, five subcategories, namely lighting, electrical heating equipment, hardware tools, plumbing equipment and home accessories, performed outstandingly and sales have been increasing.
Let’s take a look at the detailed analysis of some key categories.
Lighting related
Americans have a demand for a variety of lamps, and often replace them with new ones after using them for about a year. Therefore, lamps that are easy to disassemble and install by themselves are more popular with them. A stronger sense of design and distinctive features can be used to increase product prices and avoid low-price competition. In the B2B market, corporate buyers prefer to purchase distinctive light sets and bulbs with quality certification.
Americans' bedrooms are very large, and when they get up in the middle of the night and turn on the main light it is too bright, so a soft bedside lamp becomes very necessary. The hot-selling bedside lamp products are priced at around US$30 per unit, leaving a huge profit margin. Sellers can try features such as adjustable color temperature or design more personalized bedside lamp products, or they can launch combination products of bedside lamps and aromatherapy diffusers.
Desk lamps have long been at the top of the best-selling list, with the hot-selling items priced at around US$70. If your product has energy-saving, eye-protection or other technological features, you can ensure profits by taking the high-quality route. In addition, chandeliers that are easy to disassemble and install by yourself, with simple styles, and colorful lights for holiday decorations are also products that sellers can try.
Power tool accessories
In home improvement DIY, high-quality electric home improvement tools are indispensable, including high-speed steel pagoda drills, drill batteries, and welding tool sets. Since electric drills and drilling rig batteries are consumables, their market potential is further increased. Power tool accessories are also very popular among foreign corporate buyers. Sellers can use Amazon Bussiness to sell directly to corporate and institutional sellers.
Other categories
In addition to the popular categories above, there are also some hot-selling products that you may not expect. For example, a telescopic ladder that is small in size, easy to carry, has low logistics costs, and can be raised to 4 meters. Fully sealed, self-closing insect screen. DIY furniture and customized wallpaper require a precision laser rangefinder.
Smart Home
Looking into the future, smart home is also a trend in the home decoration category. Nowadays, there are many relatively mature smart homes, such as smart sockets, smart curtains, sweeping robots, etc.
Amazon echo is a speaker equipped with Alexa intelligent voice service. Users can play music, query information, and even control various smart home devices through simple voice commands. The Echo series of products are very popular on Amazon's US site and are often out of stock. They include echo, echo show, echo look, echo dot, echo plus, echo spot, etc. Sellers can develop and produce more innovative hardware products around Alexa, which will make your products more competitive and gain more customer attention.
In fact, just like the US site, the consumer demand for home improvement products on the European site is also rising rapidly and has huge potential. The growth rate in 2017 was twice or even three times that of 2015 and 2016 (data source: Amazon). Therefore, in addition to business in the United States, sellers can also take into account the European market. The more popular categories of home improvement in Europe are fire alarm and security, plumbing and bathing supplies, electrical appliances, hand tools, and power tool accessories.
Let’s take a look at the detailed analysis of some key categories.
Fire alarm and security
Due to the frequent occurrence of terrorist incidents abroad in recent years, the fire alarm and security product category has grown rapidly. The following products are needed at home, in hospitals, supermarkets, offices and other places where people gather.
The first is CCTV, or closed-circuit surveillance system. With the development of technology, many CCTVs have achieved cloud storage, and users can view them anywhere through their mobile phones. In the future, it may be combined with facial recognition technology to automatically identify the identity of visitors.
Secondly, smoke alarms and combination locks priced around 5 Euros also have good sales. Smart security equipment that can be connected to apps is popular among foreign consumers, and 4-channel, 8-channel, and 16-channel security equipment are selling well.
Bathroom
There is considerable market demand for both simple and complex faucets. Among them, the simple ones are priced at less than 20 euros, while the complex ones may have functions such as wifi control, timing, temperature measurement, and pure water filtration. In addition to functionality, unique design and appearance can also add a lot of points to your product. Simple, classic styles with adjustable splash size are more popular among foreign consumers.
In addition, sellers can also try bathroom accessories sets, including towel racks, coat racks, toilet paper rods, etc. It should be noted that the pipe thread standards in different European countries are different, so it is recommended that sellers provide adapters for bathroom products.
Electrical
For electrical products, safety always comes first, and special attention should be paid to complying with local electrical standards and safety issues. Electronic doorbells, wire terminals, and cable strips, although these products may look inconspicuous, they actually sell very well. If you have relevant resources, you can consider expanding.
