New Retail Approaches To Home & Garden

Retailers and brands in the Home & Garden category hold a great opportunity to help consumers create oases in their personal spaces, ranging across a mix of themes including health & wellness, personal development, recreation, family time, and home design & aesthetic. Many of these trends also tie into consumers’ larger goals to reevaluate their relationships to the environment and material culture: doing more, buying less, learning skills, living more mindfully, and caring for the communities and spaces they occupy.

This research paper explores how consumers’ apartments, homes, and lawns become spaces for expression, meaning-making, personal growth, and community-building. We also review how retailers and brands can authentically engage in the space, offering support, education, guidance, and resources to people as they make their residences into homes. Gathering research across a variety of industries including real estate, consumer goods, agriculture, and DIY, we identify key themes of what consumers need and expect from brand partners in the space.