The German DIY building materials distribution market continues to grow, attracting people's attention. As of 2018, the market size is approximately 18.8 billion euros, an increase of 1.6% over the previous year, and has shown a slow growth trend since 2014. Following the offline stores, the active development of e-commerce has continued to expand the market.
DIY—"Do It Yourself", originated in Europe and America, has a history of more than 50 years. In European and American countries, due to the very high wages of workers, home repairs, furniture, and decorations are usually done by themselves.
According to a report by the European Hardware Association, the global hardware products market has an output value of 510 billion euros, of which North America and Europe account for more than 80% of the market. The world's top five hardware importers are the United States, Germany, China, France and Mexico. Foreign DIY home improvement companies are very similar to the domestic building materials market, with a complete range of building materials and tools.
The German DIY building materials company started from IKEA in Sweden and mainly sells modular furniture. Refers to companies that operate various materials and tools necessary for repairs and construction of kitchens, roofs, floors, terraces, and courtyards. German is called Baumarkt.
According to the statistical results of the German DIY Building Materials Distribution Industry Association (BHB), the sales of the DIY building materials circulation industry in Germany in 2018 increased by about 1.6% over the previous year, reaching about 18.8 billion euros.
From the perspective of the sales status of the product category in 2018, the products with the highest sales share were construction materials and chemical products, which increased by about 3.4% year-on-year, and achieved sales of 1.889 billion euros.
Bathrooms, heating equipment and related accessories ranked second in sales, with sales of 1.751 billion euros in 2018.
In third place is gardening equipment, with sales of 1.319 billion euros. In addition, in the order of tools machinery (1.36 billion euros), paint (1.246.7 million euros), and electronic equipment (1.238.9 million euros).
Representative companies of German DIY building materials companies include OBI, Bauhaus, Hornbach, and Hagebau. These companies have not changed significantly since 2014 and have continued to grow.
The company that ranks first in sales is OBI, with sales of approximately 3.85 billion euros in 2018. As of 2018, the total number of stores was 668, an increase of 13 from the previous year.
The second largest company in sales is bauhaus, with sales of approximately 3.75 billion euros in 2018. As of 2018, the total number of stores was 276.
The Cologne Institute for Economic Research (IFH) conducted a questionnaire survey on consumers of German DIY building materials companies in 2018. The results showed that the biggest reason for German consumer entities to buy DIY building materials is convenience (53%). According to analysis, the main reasons for visiting physical stores are having sufficient inventory (50%), reasonable prices (40%), and long-term customer discounts (33%). The biggest reasons for choosing online purchases are reasonable prices (58%), long-term customer discounts (44%), convenience (37%), and product diversity (33%).
Although physical stores and online stores have their own advantages, German consumers are more interested in online stores, and there is an increasing trend through online shopping. The online sales scale of German DIY building materials companies has continued to increase since 2010. By 2018, the sales of construction, gardening materials, and public equipment have increased by about 3.4 times, 3.6 times, and 4 times, respectively. At the same time, this increasing trend continued in 2019.
