E-shopping and lawn and garden equipment

Nearly a third (31%) of U.S. adult have gardened in the last 12 months.  Gardening has fallen off slightly since 2005, with participation rates dropping by a couple of percentage points.  Despite this longer-term slight decline, the percentage of people gardening held firm during the recession--as way to reduce stress, grow food, gain more sense of control over one’s life, or simply because consumers were at home more or more practical-minded in their leisure spending.

Gardeners tend to be 35 and over, with those 45 to 64 most heavily involved in the activity. They also skew affluent.  By household income, the highest participation rate in gardening is among making $150,000 or more a year, in part because this group is disproportionately likely to own single-family homes with surrounding yard or land.  Geographically, the Central and Pacific regions are the prime regions for gardening. The Southeast and Southwest are relative hold outs, such that participation in gardening doesn’t simply follow the Sun Belt, but reflects regional cultural forces.

Nearly two-thirds (65%) of American households own at least one piece of lawn and garden equipment, including power or non-powered, manual tools and implements.  Ownership rates for gardening tools and implements, despite their relatively low price points, are only slightly higher than ownership rates for outdoor power equipment, reflecting the idiosyncrasies of American yard culture and consumer spending.

The Internet plays an increasingly important role for researching and to a lesser extent for purchasing of lawn & garden equipment, and particularly for outdoor power equipment.  Research conducted for the OPEI by the Stevenson Company shows that more than a third of outdoor power equipment consumers shop online.  Higher-priced products such as snow blowers, tillers/cultivators, chippers/shredders and riding mowers tend to draw more attention from online shoppers.  These consumers use the Internet primarily to compare prices, product features, read reviews, and search for promotions or sales.  The retailer sites of Home Depot, Lowe’s and Sears are the most popular for online researching, over the sites of generalists such as Amazon or Walmart, although Amazon (where the option of Internet browsing but in-store buying is precluded) is the leader in online purchasing of outdoor power equipment.  Consumers shop or research less frequently on manufacturer sites.  In terms of actually making a purchase, about 15% of outdoor equipment sales came from the Internet or other non-retail source such as a catalog.

For more information on Packaged Facts’ report on Lawn and Garden Equipment in the U.S., please see http://www.packagedfacts.com/Lawn-Garden-Equipment-7676004/