Penny Andrews
Helping customers get to a confident yes, sooner
Last updated: October 15, 2026
For at least the last three years, KBB surveys have highlighted retailers' concerns about consumer confidence, falling enquiries and customers taking longer to commit to purchases. In kbbreview's 2025 analysis, “consumers are still taking a long time to make decisions” was identified as the number one issue facing independent kitchen and bathroom retailers.
A potential customer can find you, visit your showroom, go through an in-home survey, like everything they see, and still take months to feel confident enough to commit. That takes time, and time costs.
It seems obvious to me that helping customers get to a confident yes sooner is exactly where retailers should be focusing.
I think there are two ways retailers can convert faster.
Be in the mix earlier
The first is to be in the mix earlier in the customer's journey, adding value and building trust before you try and sell to them. The moment someone starts thinking about planning their renovation, they're searching for tools to help them, prefixed with “free”. Providing them with genuinely useful tools, for free, makes you part of the plan from the start, long before they're comparing products or retailers.
Design with them collaboratively
The second is to design with them collaboratively - create artefacts that work with their wider project and planning.
Right now, most retailers hand customers a pdf of a CAD drawing that took ages to put together, maybe with a snazzy 3D render included, and neither one can be edited by the customer, or collaborated on directly together. The customer has to print it, email it to a partner or a builder, try to lay it over the rest of the plan, and work out by eye how everything fits together.
What actually builds trust
What actually builds trust, and shortens that decision window, is being able to collaborate on the design together, and having that design connect directly into the wider project they are already planning.
I believe retailers providing this kind of experience are the ones that will see higher numbers of quality enquiries leading to faster sales, ultimately thriving in this crowded market.
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