The DIY sector in France has been tough over the last few years; weak consumer spending, falling prices and a sluggish housing market have made it hard for retailers to grow sales. The French economy shows few signs of any significant upswing and we expect conditions to remain difficult for some time to come. Most growth in the market is coming from the big box stores and from e-commerce. However, there are only very few opportunities to open more large-scale stores and e-commerce remains underdeveloped, despite there being many online retailers to choose from.

This report provides data on spending on DIY goods, DIY specialists' sales, leading specialists' sales performance and online activity. In our consumer research for this report we asked which retailers consumers had bought DIY goods from in the last year, both online and in-store, and we asked which factors determined their choice of DIY retailer. We also asked what DIY our respondents had carried out over the previous year and what DIY plans they had for the coming year.