Beyond Renovation: Top 10 Luxury Home Improvement Websites for 2023 Reviewed
Nowadays, nearly everyone in the world investigates their next potential purchase on the internet first, and that includes purchases like home improvements. So, if you’re investigating a company to help improve your humble abode and are prepared to invest in an upscale product, you’d expect their home improvement website to be as appealing, functional and beautiful as your anticipated upgrade. But, are these home improvement websites offering that?
The KIJO team has reviewed the 10 most high-end, luxury home improvement websites including brands like Viking, Miele and Bosch. We’ve looked extensively at the online offerings of these renowned brands and we’ve comprehensively assessed everything from their key messaging, user experience (UX), user journey, their impact, memorability and distinctiveness.
Which Luxury Home Improvement Websites Did KIJO Review?
KIJO has reviewed 10 luxury home improvement websites:-
- Sub-Zero Wolf
- Wolf Kitchen
- Miele
- Gaggenau
- Thermador
- Dacor
- La Cornue
- Viking
- JennAir
- Bosch
KIJO has the utmost respect for these home improvement brands. When we put together our reviews, our aim is to simply deliver a clear idea of what to expect from these luxury home improvement websites, and ultimately unveil what makes a top-tier home improvement site overall.
Our KIJO review methodology is to provide a measured, expert opinion of the luxury home improvement website user experience (UX), help you understand how these brands could improve their sites, and we always ensure our reviews are intelligible, impartial and transparent.
Each luxury home improvement website has been marked out of 50 over 5 categories: Impact, Key Messaging, User Experience (UX), User Journey and Memorability.
KIJO’s Luxury Home Improvement Website Reviews
Sub-Zero Wolf
Reviewed by Jordan Thompson – Co-Founder of KIJO
Impact – 7/10
Key Messaging – 6/10
UX – 7/10
User Journey – 6/10
Memorability – 7/10
Total – 33/50“Sub-Zero Wolf’s luxury home improvement website has a good use of interactions, nice scroll effects, good animation, thoughtful product messaging and generally draws attention making it fairly memorable. However, it wasn’t the easiest site to navigate and I’d argue that the brand messaging wasn’t as clear as it could be – neither was it’s homepage’s calls to action (CTA). These would be areas of improvement I’d suggest addressing.”
Wolf Kitchen
Reviewed by Kirk Thompson – Managing Director
Impact – 2/10
Key Messaging – 1/10
UX – 1/10
User Journey – 1/10
Memorability – 1/10
Total – 6/50
“Unfortunately, the Wolf Kitchen home improvement website lacks any unique elements or features and overall is very plain, dull and lacklustre. Whilst the photography used is of a high standard, there’s an obvious need for more specific and targeted brand messaging on the site and a clearer value proposition. The products are hard to click on due to a difficult scroll effect and the navigation throughout feels cluttered and chaotic. There’s arguably much to improve here.”
Miele
Reviewed by Jordan Thompson – Co-Founder of KIJO
Impact – 6/10
Key Messaging – 5/10
UX – 6/10
User Journeys – 6/10
Memorability – 6/10
Total: 29/50
“Whilst this luxury home improvement website loads quickly, the header feels uninspired, the photography has been given a confusingly dark overlay, and the font is very small. Together these factors contribute to the site’s lack of distinctiveness and impact. I’d also argue that the current Miele site lacks brand messaging and there was no sign of any value proposition either. However, I did like the clarity of the site’s navigation and the mega menu.”
Gaggenau
Reviewed by Danny Findon-Kent – UI/UX Designer
Impact – 7/10
Key Messaging – 8/10
UX – 7/10
User Journeys – 7/10
Memorability – 8/10
Total: 37/50
“The Gaggenau luxury home improvement website is bold, clean and its black colour scheme feels luxurious and professional. The photography is also of a very high standard. However, there was no real call to action (CTA), navigation felt overly complex and there were arguably too many links. For me, improving the navigational functionality – and thus the user journey – would be a great first step in boosting the experience of this site.”
Thermador
Reviewed by Jordan Thompson – Co-Founder of KIJO
Impact – 7/10
Key Messaging – 7/10
UX – 6/10
User Journeys – 7/10
Memorability – 6/10
Total: 33/50
“Thermador’s luxury home improvement website has some notably good photography and art direction and there’s a nice use of video in the inner collection pages – this makes it memorable. The calls to action feel clear and obvious and the products are easy to access, however the main navigation arguably lacks anything unique. Key messaging, whilst attempted, is hard to read and this would be something I’d also recommend improving. ”
Dacor
Reviewed by Liam Terry – Website Service Leader
Impact – 6/10
Key Messaging – 9/10
UX – 6/10
User Journeys – 5/10
Memorability – 6/10
Total: 32/50
“The art direction of this luxury home improvement website is strong – there’s a very impactful video on the homepage – and it loads quickly, but I’d say that overall it lacks animation, unique elements and features. Dacor’s navigation design is easy-to-use, although arguably it requires too many clicks to reach products from the homepage, however there’s a good-use of sub navigation once you’re with the products. There are plenty of calls to action (CTAs) across the site but these need some support in standing out on the product pages.”
La Cornue
Reviewed by Danny Findon-Kent – UI/UX Designer
Impact – 2/10
Key Messaging – 6/10
UX – 4/10
User Journeys – 4/10
Memorability – 3/10
Total: 19/50
“Whilst the images used on the La Cornue luxury home website are of a good standard, they are weakly styled. The fonts used are confused and the styles are not consistent. The layout and colour scheme is basic and it’s worth noting here that the colour choice would be quite difficult for a visually impaired site visitor to use. Yes, the website loads in good time but navigation is incredibly basic and the site overall is not memorable or distinctive.”
Viking
Reviewed by Liam Terry – Website Service Leader
Impact – 3/10
Key Messaging – 6/10
UX – 5/10
User Journeys – 6/10
Memorability – 3/10
Total: 23/50
“Whilst the Viking site offers some nice, high-quality lifestyle photography and clear categories in its navigation, it falls down with its cluttered layout, inconsistent fonts, colour schemes and styling. The promotional banners do stand out, but they are aesthetically questionable. This luxury home improvement website’s key messaging is unclear and its brand messaging is weak – the story page in particular feels poorly executed. Overall, I would say the look of the site misses the mark and would be the first point of improvement I’d address.”
JennAir
Reviewed by Jordan Thompson – Co-Founder of KIJO
Impact – 8/10
Key Messaging – 8/10
UX – 7/10
User Journeys – 9/10
Memorability – 8/10
Total: 40/50
“Jenn-Air’s online offering is strong; there’s a clear font throughout, it hosts unique, impactful photography, and is generally easy-to-navigate with its obvious CTAs and menu categories. When compared to its competitors, this luxury home improvement website’s colours, font choice and overall art direction really do make it stand out from the rest. I’d personally look to improve and develop the animations and micro interactions to bolster and enhance that all important user experience (UX) though.”
Bosch
Reviewed by Danny Findon-Kent – UI/UX Designer
Impact – 5/10
Key Messaging – 6/10
UX – 5/10
User Journeys – 5/10
Memorability – 6/10
Total: 27/50
“The art direction of the Bosch site is consistent but it has a very corporate feel; its colour scheme is a touch boring and the layout is repetitive and cramped. Brand messaging is non-existent and there are limited calls to action. However, the load time of the site was fast and the landing page clearly offers all the product categories which promoted its usability. Overall though, the site certainly needs sprucing up – there’s no animation offering, the photography feels tired and the layout is dated.”
Why Some Luxury Home Improvement Websites Scored Better Than Others
These ten luxury home improvement website reviews aimed to compare what’s working for them and what isn’t. Through surveying and evaluating each site, it was clear to the KIJO team that certain sites were meeting user expectations more than others.
Here are the overall scores in descending order:
- JennAir 40/50
- Gaggenau 37/50
- Thermador 33/50
- Sub-Zero Wolf 33/50
- Dacor 32/50
- Miele 29/50
- Bosch 27/50
- Viking 23/50
- La Cornue 19/50
- Wolf Kitchen 6/50
JennAir was KIJO’s clear front-runner in our luxury home improvement website reviews. The site scored relatively highly when compared to the others because of its consistent, high-standard imagery and colour palette, its strong brand messaging and how it managed to be functional and easy-to-use whilst capturing a luxurious feel. Some key features that stood out to KIJO include:
- Excellent value propositioning
- A unique chat-bot offering
- Luxurious black and gold colour scheme
- East-to-access products and services
- Distinct brand messaging and vision for the brand
Wolf Kitchen’s site unfortunately fell flat in our evaluations. This luxury home improvement website design frequently displayed aspects to avoid:
- Poor legibility
- Brand messaging that only focussed on user’s that had pre-existing familiarity
- No obvious calls to action
- Cluttered and difficult navigation
- Poor scroll effect
In the online age, consumers will often look at a website before even enquiring with a brand. So, it’s essential that a home improvement website should match the quality and deluxe nature of their high-end products and services.
From our assessments, it’s clear that the best luxury home improvement website should provide brand-led, engaging information, and as well as detailing its top-tier products and services, it should clearly state its value proposition, be accessible, concise and functional, but it should offer this in a visually memorable and distinctive way.
In KIJO’s opinion, there are many ways each of these sites can improve their digital store fronts, particularly if they want to grab their potential clients at the first hurdle which is undoubtedly their website.
Posted on by Kirk Thompson