Consumer Behavior

Pandemic year didn't hurt home improvement retail sector

Photo by istock.com

March 23, 2021

One bright retail spot in 2020, the year COVID-19 hit hard in the U.S., was the home improvement and repair segment which saw product sales spike 8.7% compared to the year prior.

Total product sales hit $440 billion, according to research from ComprarAcciones.com. In comparison, during the financial crisis in 2008-2009, the home improvement market saw a three-year decline in product sales, according to a press release on the research findings.

A Harvard University report predicts annual spending on home repair will grow 4.1% by the end of Q1 this year ,but that growth will taper off to 1.7% by Q3 of 2021.

In terms of specific retailers, Lowe's saw net sales spike 28% to hit $20.31 billion and Ace Hardware's net sales were up 39.2%, hitting $2.1 billion, according to the release.

Home Depot, which is the largest of U.S. home improvement chains, saw sales surge by 25%, from $25.78 billion in Q4 of 2019 to $32.26 billion in the fourth quarter of 2020.

The top three home improvement chains sold goods worth a cumulative $54.67 billion in Q4 2020. Comparatively, their collective sales for Q4 2019 totaled $41.88 billion.