The Q3 2023 benchmarking report for UK kitchen retailers has just been published. Learn how the top 12 UK kitchen retailers perform across the digital space.

The latest Q3 2023 benchmarking report for UK kitchen retailers has just been published.  It covers the largest 12 national kitchen retailers, including Magnet, Benchmarx Kitchens & Joinery, Harvey Jones Kitchens, Tom Howley, Wren Kitchens, deVOL Kitchens, Kutchenhaus, Kesseler, Howdens, Wickes, Moores Furniture Group, and Sigma 3 Kitchens.

The research gives an inside track on who is winning the biggest share of voice online and quantifies the gaps, risks and missed opportunities for other kitchen retailers to win brand exposure, generate online views and drive in-store footfall, where relevant. The report highlights quick wins that will improve enquiries from your online strategy and identifies the barriers that may be reducing your site’s ability to optimise digital performance.

To see a preview and contents page of the Q3 report, click here. To get a copy of the full report and the key takeaways, please complete the enquiry form or schedule a call.

What The Industry Research Report Covers

The 70+ pages of research benchmarks each retailer based on 50+ metrics and indicators of successful digital strategy, including organic visibility, domain authority, paid media ads, conversion performance, technical performance, site speed, universal search, content, social ads, accessibility, and mobile performance.  

Driving Optimal ROAS from Paid Media Channels

Some of the leading players in the space are high spenders on paid media channels such as Google, Bing & Facebook - but have a poor or sub-optimal conversion improvement strategy. Without an optimised, sophisticated conversion strategy that maximises the conversion rate, the return on investment is unsustainable or will underperform. Scaling spend on paid media is not achievable unless the conversion rate delivers optimal performance in the sector. Some in the space have paid media spend levels from 30k+ per month but dedicate minimal resources and budgets to conversion testing.  Given the cost per clicks on ad networks will continue to rise, we recommend spending at least 10% of your paid media budget on ongoing conversion optimisation testing schedules to ensure your paid media ROI maintains long-term viability, competitive advantage, and sustainability.

Technical Website Compliance

Savvy digital marketers know that having a technically sound website is an essential component of a successful fully integrated digital strategy - plus a site capable of maximising conversion performance. Kitchen retailers will want to ensure that key pages, such as pricing and payment information, and installation guides, are clearly signposted, so prospective customers can get all the information they need to place an order.

Generally speaking, kitchen retailers are performing well when it comes to technical site compliance, with most sites recording very few 4xx or 5xx errors. The highest level of 4xx errors is being seen by deVOL Kitchens, who returned 183 in our crawls. deVOL must ensure that no key pages are being blocked for consumers. Our crawl of Sigma 3 Kitchens returned 193 5xx errors. Though 5xx errors indicate a server problem, as opposed to issues on the site itself, Sigma 3 should be reviewing whether its site server is sufficient for its content. 

Site Speed & Conversion Rate Performance

When 62% of consumers are less likely to convert if they have a negative mobile site experience, ensuring that your site is quick and easy to load makes a significant improvement on your overall conversion rates. As with ensuring their site is easy to navigate with limited 4xx errors, kitchen retailers will want to provide a seamless, fast site experience for their users.

Mobile page speed scores for kitchen retailers ranges from 4 to 55. Magnet, which has scored only 5 points, must review whether high-resolution images or videos on its homepage are hindering the site's user experience. 

Building Competitive Advantage with Domain Authority

Domain authority is an essential metric for measuring the effectiveness of SEO performance, and helps create a reliable overall gauge of how effective your site is at achieving organic traffic, i.e. ‘free’ traffic that isn’t gained through sponsored ads. Kitchen retailers can look to creating content that home, food, and lifestyle publications will want to engage with, something that a digital PR specialist can assist with.

A ‘good’ DA really comes down to how your competitors are performing, however it’s generally considered average between 40 and 50, good between 50 and 60, and excellent above 60. DAs for kitchen retailers range from 4 to 73, with Howdens coming out on top. Moores, which scored the lowest overall and sits well behind its closest competitor, must review whether this low score is the result of a penalty or long-term neglect of its digital PR strategy.

Organic Performance – Mobile & Desktop

A strong organic performance is strategically important as it ensures your site ranks above competitors for key, transactional keywords. When 93% of your customers won’t go past the first page of Google, your absence or lack of targeting for essential keywords will cost you conversions. Due to the cost of living crisis, we'd expect to see a fall in traffic to the kitchen retailer sector, due to consumers holding back on non-essential purchases, such as new kitchens.

Moores is the only kitchen retailer to be securing any increase in organic traffic, having seen 16% more digital footfall than in 2022. The biggest loss in Q3 was seen by Sigma 3 Kitchens, which dropped by 63%. Though a fall in digital footfall is near-universal, kitchen retailers must ensure they're tapping into topical content to minimise drops and avoid losing ground to competitors.

Universal Search Opportunity

Google Universal Search Results is an evolving opportunity to make your pages visible on a SERP (Search Engine Results Page). Universal results often appear before traditional listings and are eye-catching for users. Universal search results refer to rankings on a SERP that are not the traditional ‘blue line’ Google link, and a retailer can appear for universal search results without being strong in standard rankings. For kitchen retailers, 'image pack' is a strong opportunity to sell products directly from the SERP, with high-quality product images that engage prospective customers.

'People also ask' is the widest-used Universal Search result for kitchen retailers, with Howdens making the most appearances with 3,700 results. A strong performance for 'people also ask' results usually points to a good performance for longtail keywords too.

The Longtail Keyword Opportunity

Longtail keywords are often considered high intent and potentially more likely to convert as a searcher is being more specific. Optimising for longtail keywords also puts your content strategy in a strong position to rank for retailer new search terms as they enter Google’s index. Kitchen retailers should look to consider phrases that include high-conversion intent terms, such as 'installation next week' or 'payment plan options', as a way to secure traffic from visitors specifically looking to buy.

Wren Kitchens are ranking for the most longtail keywords overall, by a comfortable margin. Moores and Kutchenhaus are both ranking for a very small volume of longtail keywords, with 12 and 15 appearances in the top three (respectively). Though Moores has proven to have excellent organic visibility, they may be losing out on the high-conversion potential traffic that comes from longtail phrases.

Facebook Adverts

With the number of Facebook users in the United Kingdom (UK) forecast to hit over 42 million users by 2022, it is not surprising that companies have jumped at the opportunity to advertise on the social media platform. Facebook’s UK digital advertising revenue has been estimated to have breached 2.6b GB pounds in 2019.

We've included examples of Kesseler's Facebook ads below. Kesseler has used a range of ad formats, including carousels, videos, and static images, to appeal to a wide range of Facebook users. By keeping copy the same across all ads, Kesseler can effectively test which ad format is the most successful, and apply these learnings to future campaigns.

Top Social Shares & Content

When it comes to social media and on-site content strategies, it is important to release content that has a longer shelf life. An article is considered 'Evergreen' if it has maintained its relevancy to an audience for longer. It's great for your retailer engagement, but great for Google too, who will recognise content which achieves traffic over a long period of time. As with developing their digital PR strategy, kitchen retailers can look to developing content that fits with home, food, and lifestyle, in order to appeal to a wide variety of users.

We can see that five kitchen retailers are favouring Pinterest as a social media platform. This is an excellent approach for any brand operating within the homeware space, as it is known as the go-to space for home inspiration. Kitchen retailers' content can fit seamlessly into the platform, and funnel users to brand sites. deVOL is one of these retailers with a preference for Pinterest and has secured the most content engagements across all social media platforms, with 91,995.

Website Readability & Accessibility

20% of people in the UK have a disability – 2 million of which are people living with sight loss. In addition, 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women have some degree of colour vision deficiency. When websites are not designed to meet these needs, retailers lose customer interest as they turn elsewhere. For brands operating within the home improvement space, accessibility should be a key consideration for their site, as it will help convey that accessible design is also part of their approach to home solutions.

Magnet is recording the highest level of accessibility errors, flagging 116 in our audit, along with a further 63 contrast errors. The most accessible site is Benchmarx Kitchens & Joinery, which has shown only for 4 alerts, with no errors being flagged.

Q3 2023 WINNERS LEADERBOARD

For a glance into just 6 of the metrics we evaluated these top 12 kitchen retailers on, check out our quick-look table below;

GET THE FULL 79-PAGE Q3 2023 REPORT

To get a copy of the full report, please complete the enquiry form. If you want to talk to us about accelerating your digital performance, please call us on 01543 410014 or schedule a call with Mike Movassaghi.

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