Consumers share their views

-- Casual Living, 8/4/2008 8:01:00 AM

What do you get when you ask more than 13,000 Americans how they shop for outdoor furnishings and grills?

Plenty of useful information our industry needs to know.  

When Casual Living, Telescope Casual Furniture and cable television’s HGTV teamed up to conduct an online survey in April through HGTV’s weekly Ideas newsletter, responses poured in from about 13,880 people who are highly interested in home improvement and outdoor living areas. Half of those respondents have annual household incomes between $50,000 and $100,000.

Casual Living will publish several reports drawn from the survey’s exclusive data, starting in the August issue with a look at how consumers shop for outdoor dining sets or conversation groups. The first in this series of research reports will cover many home decorating themes and include valuable answers to such questions as:

Where do consumers shop first for outdoor furniture?

How much do consumers expect to pay for those purchases?

What kind of product information do they want to help them feel confident with their outdoor furniture purchases?

Reports planned for future issues will provide consumer answers to similar questions about grills, spas and other outdoor products. They shared what products they desire for their dream outdoor living space.

“This will be a great way for us to share some valuable information with our readers,” said Kay Anderson, director of research at Casual Living, who worked with Dana French, senior research specialist, to analyze the data.

The research collaboration between Casual Living and HGTV also will provide valuable information to help consumers buy outdoor furnishings with confidence, according to Cherie Oswald, HGTV senior vice president, business development.