Organic search: The opportunities for growth in the home retail sector

We understand the challenges and opportunities faced by brands in the Home Retail space, having worked with online retailers such as AO.com, Wilko, JTF, United Carpets & Beds and Soak and Sleep, helping them drive digital marketing performance and enhance customer acquisition.

The impact of recent changes in consumer behaviour, combined with an acceleration towards ‘online’ has been particularly interesting across this sector for a number of reasons:

1. The Home Retail space has been booming due to a huge increase in demand – and the competition for this demand has certainly intensified.
2. Changing buying behaviours are particularly challenging for brands that sell ‘high ticket’ items like beds and sofas – things that customers have generally wanted to “try before they buy”.
3. Whilst bricks and mortar stores have been closed for the majority of the last 12 months, the dynamics are shifting once again as stores open back up.

As brands try to get to grips with what this means and how to tailor their marketing accordingly, one channel in particular remains of critical importance: Organic search.

More than any channel, organic search allows brands visibility and provides value to users throughout the customer journey, in a cost-effective way. Organic search also feeds and assists other channels, both online and offline. Often, organic search is the biggest driver of online revenue.

Our analysis on the home retail sector

We’ve undertaken comprehensive analysis of the organic search market across the home retail space, using our proprietary research tool, Sonar. Over the coming weeks, we’ll be publishing a range of reports, each focusing on different retail niches, from beds and mattresses to sofas and lighting.

The first of these reports is an in-depth look at the beds and mattresses category – using analysis of almost 700 domains in the UK.

Our report takes a deep dive into:

• The competitive landscape - which retailers are performing in SERPs and why.
• The importance of content – the need to please users as well as search engines.
• User intent - how optimisation based on intent drives performance.
• SERP features - how brands are getting the most out of available real estate.
• 3^rd party partnerships – aligning approach with KPIs.
• Core Web Vitals - the impact of page experience on rankings

Why is it useful?

Our comprehensive analysis will be a valuable tool in helping shape your SEO strategy, for this year and beyond:

• Get visibility of the organic search landscape in your sector, your brand’s and your competitors’ performance at both market and product levels, but also by user intent.
• Identify gaps and opportunities for growth.
• Define strategic focus and budget prioritisation and allocation.

You can download the report, here.

If your brand doesn’t feature in the report, it’s likely to feature in our wider analysis. If you would like to review the performance of your brand, please get in touch and we’d be happy to share our findings.