As it’s coming to the end of the year, I thought it might be worth having a quick scan on Google Trends to see how some of the industry’s best selling products have performed when it came to people Googling them. The search produced some mixed results, and one very poor one if you’re betting on triple glazing next year.
You can see from the graph above, the search results for triple glazing have never really got going at all. It’s worth pointing out that these are purely results from the UK, no other country’s results are included in this. The search terms are also very generic, I wanted to capture as many results for each of the terms. But I would think that most typing in “double glazing” or “orangery” are actually looking to buy those products at some point. This isn’t the most scientific method of research, however it does give us a flavour of what people are searching for when it comes to home improvements and how each products is performing.
Typical seasonal trends
The results for “double glazing and “conservatory” are about what you would expect. Quickly rising at the start of the year, plateauing somewhat during the middle, then falling off a cliff as we approach Christmas and New Year. Though it is worth pointing out that since mid-2008, the levels of searches on Google for double glazing aren’t anywhere near it’s peak which you can see was around 2004. Whether it will ever recover to that isn’t known. The causes for the drop on the other hand could be down to the economic slump which occurred mid-2008.
The search term for “conservatory” in yellow had a similar drop, but unlike double glazing, it has recovered a lot this year to almost reach the peaks in 2004. Perhaps a sign confidence is returning to the wider glazed extensions market? Possibly. If you look at the green line indicating the “orangery” search term, it does show a steady rise over the past couple of years. It’s not quite at yellow levels, but add the two together, and it does show for quite a strong sector. However, all is not well when it comes to triple glazing…
Predicted searches show struggle for triple glazing
If you’ve put money on triple glazing taking off in 2015, this is a graph that won’t make for exciting reading:
The dotted lines indicate Google’s predictions for each of the terms for 2015. Orangeries look like they’re going to have another solid year, as do conservatories. Double glazing remains flatter than I think we’d like, and triple glazing fails to get off the ground once again. These predictions (according to Google) are based on how many people used the search term in the past, so of course these could change. But given the patterns you can see over the past ten years, it’s likely that if there is to be any changes, they will be small.
All in all, not good news for triple glazing. As an industry we have been shouting a lot about it, even two of the biggest nationals have been on TV talking about it. But as these graphics suggest, the message perhaps isn’t getting across. Tough times are ahead I think for triple glazing.
Shall we rephrase the title sentence “A Tough Birth For Triple Glazing”? It’s positively middle aged in window materials other than plastic!
Fair point Ginty ;-) but you know where I’m coming from. The birth of modern triple glazing being pushed to compete with double on a regular basis has struggled. Yes triple glazing has been around for ages in one form or another, but “standardising” triple glazing so that it is seen on the same level as double for homeowners has struggled. That’s my point ;-)
The only people to benefit from Triple glazing are the glass manufacturers, spacer bar and edge sealant suppliers , to everyone else it is just a cost.