Buying Habits

The nation’s housing and kitchen/bath markets may currently be more sluggish than at any time in the past several years, but kitchen and bath dealers seemingly remain highly ambitious when it comes to their product-purchasing plans, as well as their efforts to hone their business to meet the demands of a changing market.

That’s one of several conclusions gleaned from an exclusive survey of kitchen and bath dealers and designers sponsored by Kitchen & Bath Design News in an effort to determine 2008 product usage and buying plans, while gauging relationships with suppliers and studying other key business activities (see related Editorial).

The e-mail survey, conducted early this year by The Wayman Group, Inc., a Cedarhurst, NY-based independent marketing research firm, involved more than 400 dealers and designers – a sample which ensures that the results reflect an accurate picture of the general opinions of the kitchen and bath industry.

Among its other findings, the survey revealed that dealer-designer respondents currently carry an average of 12.2 separate product lines for kitchens and 11.4 product lines for bathrooms.

However, survey respondents are apparently not sitting pat when it comes to the product lines they carry.

In fact, nearly two-thirds (66%) reported to KBDN that they plan to add or change product lines during the next 12 months (see Graph 1). Nearly two-thirds (62%) report they are likely to add a new line to their current product mix, while 38% say they will change out an existing line.

More specifically, survey respondents report they are planning during the next 12 months to add or change an average of 7 separate products/services. More than half (57%) indicate they will add or change kitchen cabinets. In addition, slightly more than half have plans to add or change bathroom sinks, lavs, faucets, bathroom hardware and accessories, bathroom vanities, and countertop surfacing materials. Similarly high on dealers’ product buying wish lists are decorative and functional cabinet hardware and kitchen sinks and faucets (see Graph 2).

When changing a product line, over half (57%) of those surveyed say they will likely try a product that has been on the market awhile, while 43% say they are willing to try a brand new product.

Product-purchasing patterns have also clearly changed as the industry has evolved from its former structure in which dealers purchased a high percentage of their products through two-step distribution.

Although more than half (51%) of surveyed dealers say they still purchase from wholesale distributors, more than two-thirds (70%) report they purchase products directly from manufacturers, while 17% say they buy from merchants and/or lumber yards.

And the tendency to buy direct from manufacturers is likely to increase somewhat in the future, surveyed dealers say.

Specifications Factors

Dealers and designers are also resoundingly clear about the reasons they tend to specify one product over another.
In fact, the vast majority of survey respondents (83%) indicate that “overall product quality” is, far and away, the single-most important factor in their decision to specify a kitchen or bath product.

A wealth of other factors plays into specifying decisions, as well – but those pale by comparison to product quality. For example, 41% of the surveyed dealers reported that “price/profit margin” is their most important factor in the specification process, while 33% identified “accurate and timely deliveries” as the most important factor. Well down the list, in contrast, were such factors as sales incentives, promotional literature and brand name (see Graph 3).

In today’s softer housing market, it is also not surprising that consumers are more sensitive to price than they were three years ago, when the new construction and remodeling sectors were far more robust.