Observed behaviour
AI has become the first port of call for planning works, before the salesperson, before the tradesperson.
⚠ Upstream advice is now captured by AI.
Sector expertise, Retail & Home
The home isn't
a market. It's
a life project
forever under construction.
From thermal comfort to buying a kitchen, from DIY to energy budgets: for 10 years, we've been studying how people live, furnish, renovate and equip their homes. And how retailers and brands can genuinely help them.
Signal · 10 years of home & retail fieldwork
55%
of customers leave a first kitchen design appointment in no position to buy, and are lost: retailers' sales processes are linear, while customers' mental journey is circular and iterative.
Dedicated quantitative study, furniture retailer
×10
the average basket of customers who used a project support service vs regular customers: supporting the project, not just selling products, creates value.
Ad hoc measurement during a new service trial in DIY stores
4
proprietary knowledge domains on the home: comfort & use, DIY & renovation, home design & living environment, buying & renting property.
unknowns knowledge base
Our experience
From the store
to the household, retail
& the home in depth.
Kitchens, DIY, renovation and energy budgets: we work both in the places where people shop and in the spaces where they live. Two fields that echo each other: what we buy is inseparable from how we live.
- IKEA
- Bricomarché
- EDF
- Carrefour
- Intermarché
- Property developers
20+
Studies on the home, non-food retail and home services
200+
Ethnographic interviews with households in their real living environment
1500h
In stores: observation, shop-alongs, sales staff interviews
4
Proprietary knowledge domains on the home
AI Observatory, Home & Living module
A dedicated module on “home design, renovation and home services”.
Part of our long-term research programme. Data updated twice a year.
What we know
Home is
where people are
most themselves.
Our research on the home covers four major domains, each with its own logic, tensions and opportunities.
Our core conviction
A home is never finished, and that's precisely what creates value.
The home is a perpetual project: we improve, repair and adapt it as life moves on. People aren't trying to “have a beautiful home”, they want to feel good in it, to be in control of their space, to make it reflect who they are.
What we've learnt: the main barrier isn't financial. It's the fear of getting it wrong, the perceived complexity of the project, uncertainty about the trade-offs. The value lies in the support, not in the product alone.
Our 4 domainsBuilding comfort & use · DIY & tradespeople's practices · home design & living environment · buying & renting property (including off-plan).
Examples of insights from our research
Behaviours the industry doesn't see, and that our studies have documented.
DIY & renovation
There are those who do it, those who delegate, and those who do nothing because they're afraid of getting it wrong.
The main barrier isn't budget or lack of skills: it's the absence of someone to guide the project. What needs selling isn't a product, it's confidence.
Off-plan property (VEFA)
Buying off-plan means turning detective, without the tools to do it.
Buyers navigate between plans, models and promises. Their strategy: pile up signals of trust in the developer, not in the property itself.
We share our full knowledge base on the home in a dedicated presentation.
Request a presentation →AI & the home
AI knows everything
about the home.
It doesn't know
what you
really want.
AI is becoming a renovation assistant, an interior design adviser, a materials comparison tool. It answers generic questions fast. But it doesn't know your household, your real habits, the constraints of your life.
Product tension
AI gives generic answers to deeply singular projects.
⚠ Personalisation remains the unsolved challenge.
Opportunity
AI can finally make renovation projects accessible to those who were afraid of getting it wrong.
✦ Project support services become scalable.
Product challenge
Home and energy apps need to talk about people's lives, not their equipment.
✦ Talk about people's lives, not energy or tech.
Case studies
Three engagements.
One finding:
the project beats
the product.
IKEA
Putting the immersive room to the test of real kitchen-buying journeys.
“The problem isn't the set-up, it's when it's used. The Immersive Room comes too late in the journey. Its real potential lies upstream, for the big aesthetic choices.”
In-depth biographical interviews + user testing + in-store observation and advisor interviews + survey of 50 customers.
Outcome
3 real value levers + 3 structural flaws in the sales process identified. Recommendations: repositioning within the journey, advisor guidelines, product roadmap.Bricomarché
From retailer to service provider: designing and testing “Plan Projet” in real-world conditions.
“What needed designing wasn't a DIY service, it was a project planning and management service that makes home improvement accessible to everyone, whatever their level of expertise.”
Ethnographic research + definition of a new brand mission + co-design of the service with sales staff + experimental roll-out in 3 test stores (startup mode).
Outcome
Average basket ×10 for Plan Projet customers vs regular ones. Foundations of Bricomarché's strategic pivot from retailer to service provider.EDF
The long-term vision for the EDF&Moi app: genuinely helping people manage their energy budget.
“People don't “go electric”, they change their ecosystem of objects. Energy is abstract. The app can't talk about energy, it has to talk about people's lives, area by area.”
Qualitative study on budgeting strategies + literature review + 6 design challenges + specification of 2 complete journeys + 12 UX tests with EDF customers.
Outcome
Formalised product vision + 2 journeys specified. Some of the highest satisfaction scores EDF has ever seen on this type of test.Opportunities
Four possible engagements
with your team.
- 01Retail journey & experienceUnderstand how your customers really make purchase decisions, and rethink the role of the store.
- 02Service & project supportMove from retailer to project companion.
- 03Product & digital appDesign the app or digital service that truly speaks to your customers, not to their equipment.
- 04AI & personalisationDesign the home AI service that genuinely supports projects, not just generic questions.
Frequently asked questions
What we're asked
most often.
By starting from customers' real decisions, not from the technology. unknowns designs solutions that support concrete uses: project support services made accessible by AI, personalised advice for one-of-a-kind projects, agents rooted in the real practices of in-store teams. All grounded in a detailed understanding of how people live in, furnish and renovate their homes.
AI is becoming the first port of call for planning works or a home design project, before the salesperson and before the tradesperson: upstream advice is now captured by AI. But it delivers generic answers to deeply singular projects. For a retailer, differentiation now hinges on the ability to genuinely support the project, an area unknowns has been working on for ten years.
Because a home is never finished: we improve it, repair it and adapt it as life moves on. The main barrier isn't budget, it's the fear of getting it wrong and the perceived complexity of the project. The value lies in the support, not in the product alone. unknowns has documented this project logic through ethnographic research, and it's what makes the shift from retailer to project companion possible.
unknowns is neither a communications agency nor a market research institute. We combine social sciences, design and generative AI to start from the real lives of households and in-store shopping journeys. This field knowledge, built up over ten years with households and retailers, is what makes our recommendations actionable.