The Q2 2024 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 Q2 2024 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 Q2 report, click here. To get a copy of the full report and the key takeaways, please complete the enquiry form or schedule a call.

Q2 2024 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;

Continue reading for further detail on this quarter's best and poorest-performing UK kitchen retailers or request a copy of the report for the full review.

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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 style/ colour options, pricing and payment information, and installation guides, are clearly signposted, so prospective customers can get all the information they need to place an order.

In our last audit, Howdens flagged 599 4xx errors, and it’s reduced this to 39 in Q2 2024. Currently, the kitchen retailer with the highest total 4xx errors (180) is deVOL Kitchens. This retailer should assess its internal links and update URLs for products and pages that are no longer available.

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.

The site speed range for this quarter is between 49 and 3, with zero kitchen retailers scoring the minimum 50%. However, Kesseler reported the lowest score. This brand has lots of text on its website, which it should reduce to help increase its site speed. Additionally, eliminating image transition effects would help to fix its site speed.

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. The DA range for this quarter ranged between 73 and 6, with Moores Furniture Group reporting the lowest DA. This kitchen retailer could incorporate a blog onto its website to help increase its DA rating, and this would allow them to incorporate more longtail keywords into its website, organically.

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.

Nine of the 12 kitchen retailers reported a loss in organic traffic for mobile users, while eight reported a loss in organic traffic for desktop users. On the other hand, Sigma 3 Kitchens reported a huge increase in traffic for both (1155% for mobile and 169% for desktop).

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.

Howdens continues to outperform its competitors for overall Universal Search results (53,781 — an increase from 35,993 in our previous audit). This kitchen retailer reported most of its searches in the ‘image’ category. All retailers can improve their discovery in Universal Search results by generating content that readers will want to engage with and share.

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.

Howdens remains at the top, reporting 4,452 longtail keyword appearances in positions 3. On the other hand, Kutchenhaus saw the lowest number of keyword appearances and should look to optimise appearances in 4–10 to help improve its ranking.

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. For UK kitchen retailers, Facebook ads are an opportunity to ensure customers see availability, products, and deals.

Below, we’ve provided examples of Kesseler’ 3 sponsored Facebook posts. All three posts advertise their bespoke kitchens, which will help to increase the chances of sales through social media. However, it should adopt shorter sentences in the future to make its posts more eye-catching for scrollers.

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.

Wickes has the largest Facebook page with 209,700 Likes, while deVOL Kitchens has the largest Instagram account, with 778,100 followers. However, an important social media metric to measure is total engagement, as this informs you if followers interact with your posts. For this audit, Tom Howley reported the highest total engagement. From taking a look at this retailer’s Facebook page, it showcases images of its kitchen designs and uses picturesque language.

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.

In our last report, Magnet reported 117 accessibility alerts and 168 errors. In Q2 2024, this kitchen retailer has increased its alerts to 178, though saw 66 errors. Upon closer inspection, the majority of its alerts are due to redundant links, which it should amend to prevent frustration for those using a screen reader.

GET THE FULL 70-PAGE Q2 2024 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.

Photo by Jason Briscoe on Unsplash