Pricing in Home Improvement and Gardening: Managing Seasonal Fluctuations Without Eroding Margins
A garden center generates 20 to 50 percent of its annual revenue over a 2- to 3-month period. In this context, pricing is driven not by competition but by the calendar. 2025 Market: €32.5 billion, down 2.7% (FMB/Inoha). The right approach: a pricing schedule established before the season begins, with anticipated markdowns, rather than reacting as events unfold.
A garden center doesn't generate sales evenly throughout the year—most of its sales occur over just a few weeks. The rest of the time, it manages inventory that's waiting for the right moment. A price set incorrectly at the wrong time of the season costs more than a poorly managed competitive price gap.
This guide explains how to create a budget plan in advance for home improvement and gardening, rather than just going with the flow as the season unfolds.
A sector where demand is not spread out, but concentrated
The French home improvement and gardening market is experiencing mixed results. After a sharp decline in 2024, the downturn slowed in 2025.
€32.5 billion is the cumulative revenue of the home improvement and gardening market in France in 2025 (home improvement: €24.2 billion, down 3.2%; gardening: 8.3 billion euros, down 1.1%), a 2.7% decline year-over-year (FMB/Inoha study, reported by L'Info Durable, 2026).
20–50% is the share of annual revenue that a garden center typically generates during two to three months of peak season (industry data).
How Seasonality Affects Pricing Strategies
In an industry with smoothed demand, pricing reacts: when a competitive gap is detected, adjustments are made. In an industry with concentrated demand, this reactive approach is invariably too late. The right approach reverses this logic: it starts with a pricing schedule established before the start of the season. This topic is closely related to the issue of end-of-season leftover inventory: “Forecasting Leftover Inventory” details the forecasting method. This guide focuses on the pricing schedule to be applied once that forecast is in place.
Create a projected pricing schedule
- Before the season starts, plan ahead, don't react: set introductory prices based on demand forecasts.
- During peak periods, stability and precise price adjustments: little price movement on high-demand items.
- At the end of the season, planned markdowns—based on specific time or inventory thresholds—rather than a last-minute decision.
A price reduction decided too late is almost always deeper than a proactive, phased price reduction.
At Booper, the GENIUS Predict module allows you to simulate, before the start of a season, the impact of a pricing schedule on sales and inventory, using Conservative, Balanced, and Aggressive scenarios. Learn more about our AI-powered sales forecasting approach.
Home improvement and gardening do not follow the same seasonal pattern
Gardening follows a very distinct pattern: a dominant peak in the spring, followed by a second, more moderate peak at the end of the year. Home improvement, strictly speaking, has a more diffuse seasonal pattern, but also experiences a surge in the spring.
10% is the share of annual revenue that large home improvement stores generate with the arrival of spring (FMB industry data). This difference in sales patterns justifies separate pricing schedules by product category, even within the same retail chain.
Mistakes That Ruin the Margin at the End of the Season
- Waiting for a signal of excess inventory to mark down items, when a proactive schedule allows for gradual sales.
- Apply the same schedule to all families, without distinguishing between high and low seasonality.
- Confusing end-of-season markdowns with a one-time reaction.
- Underestimating the difference in customer profiles between home improvement and gardening within the same retail chain.
- Do not keep the same schedule from one season to the next, given that the weather and circumstances change every year.
In the DIY and gardening sectors, you don’t protect your profit margin by reacting quickly—you protect it by planning ahead. To get an objective view of your pricing trajectory for the coming season, check out our markdownsolution.
FAQ
Because demand is tied to short weather and calendar windows. A garden center generates 20 to 50 percent of its annual revenue over a period of two to three months.
Not necessarily without planning ahead. A poorly timed price reduction erodes profit margins that could have been preserved with a well-thought-out schedule planned in advance.
By establishing, before the start of the season, price tiers linked to specific time frames or remaining inventory levels.
No. Gardening sees a very sharp spike in the spring; home improvement has a more diffuse seasonal pattern with a notable uptick in the spring (~10% of revenue).
By categorizing families based on their profiles, planning ahead rather than reacting to the schedule, and relying on a reliable forecast of remaining inventory.
Forecasting answers the question, “How much inventory will remain?” Seasonal pricing answers the question, “What pricing schedule should be used to avoid or sell off excess inventory without eroding the margin?”
The home improvement sector features an extensive product catalog, strong seasonality, and prices that vary from one market to another. The system must therefore handle tens of thousands of SKUs, manage seasonal fluctuations, and set store-specific rules. BOOPER supports retailers such as Castorama, Brico Dépôt, Bricomarché, and Kingfisher in this area.
In the garden center industry, the sales window is short and depends on the weather: a price that’s right in April may no longer be right in July. The tool must integrate sales forecasts, remaining inventory, and markdown levels to clear out stock before the end of the season. Gamm Vert is one of the retailers supported by BOOPER.
See also
- Pricing in the Retail Sector: What's Changing (and What Isn't)
- Forecasting Remaining Inventory: Anticipating Seasonal Trends to Avoid markdown
Sources: FMB & Inoha, 2025 DIY and Gardening Study, reported by L'Info Durable.
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