Familiarity rivals price in shower tray specification, says recent retailer survey

Nearly half of bathroom retailers default to familiar shower tray brands when specifying for a customer, with established habits proving almost as influential as price, according to new research from Tissino.

The survey, carried out among retailers at a recent BathCom event, explored what influences shower tray specification. When asked why they might choose one supplier over another, 53% pointed to whether the price suited the project, while 47% said familiarity with a particular brand often guided their decision. None of the respondents cited missing sizes, unsuitable styles or a limited range as the reason for going elsewhere.

The findings suggest manufacturers face a more complex challenge than simply expanding their portfolios. To win space in a specification, they must make their ranges easy to navigate and give showroom teams clear reasons to move away from the products they already know.

When asked where Tissino could offer more support, retailers placed greater emphasis on making the portfolio easier to navigate than on expanding it. A clearer 'good, better and best' structure was the most popular response, selected by 41%, while no respondents identified size availability as an issue.

Other priorities included a wider spread of styles and price points, followed by additional point-of-sale and showroom support and more colours and finishes. Together, the responses point to an opportunity to help designers identify and explain the right tray more quickly, rather than simply adding more products.

Richard Eaton, product development category manager at Tissino, said: “The easy answer would be to keep adding more trays, but retailers are telling us that the number of products isn’t the main issue. Showroom designers are busy. If they already know a particular brand, understand where it sits on price and feel confident talking about it, that product naturally becomes the one they return to. Asking them to specify something different means giving them a clear reason to do so and making that decision as straightforward as possible.

“Price is clearly important, especially in the current market, but it isn’t the whole story. A strong product can still be overlooked if its place within the range isn’t immediately obvious or the differences are difficult to explain to a customer.”

Anti-slip performance emerged as the product feature retailers believe matters most to consumers, followed by quality, price and tray height. Ease of cleaning, material, warranty, waste position and appearance were also raised.

For Tissino, this underlines the need to help showroom teams match products to individual priorities, rather than relying on an ever-growing list of specifications.

Tissino said it is set to introduce further additions to its showering portfolio in 2027.