Method

Method and sources

Every figure in these reports comes from the public pages of Lowe’s, The Home Depot, Wayfair and Ferguson, as a shopper sees them. This page says what is counted, how, and what is left out.

The five measures

Every report shows these five, in this order. Each term is defined in the glossary.

Where the figures come from

Retailer	How it shows ads	What we count there	Figures start	What limits them
Lowe’s	Marks ads inside its results.	The part of the top results that are ads, and the brand on each advertised product.	September 2026	Results depend on the shopper’s store. Who paid for an ad is not visible.
The Home Depot	No product in its results is marked as an ad. Banner ads sit above the results.	The brands on the banner ads above each category.	September 2026	A paid place that carries no mark cannot be seen, so these reports do not call its results unpaid. Many banner ads name no brand, so brands on banners are understated.
Wayfair	Marks ads inside its results.	The part of the top results that are ads, and the brand on each advertised product.	September 2026	Who paid for an ad is not visible: the brand shown is the brand on the product.
Ferguson	No product in its results is marked as an ad. Banner ads sit above the results.	The brands on the banner ads above each category.	September 2026	A paid place that carries no mark cannot be seen, so these reports do not call its results unpaid. Many banner ads name no brand. Some of its categories are narrower than the others’; the report names them.

The source is each retailer’s own public category and search pages. Nothing comes from the retailers’ private reports, and no figure is bought from anyone else.

How each figure is counted

Top results: Top results are the first 24 products a shopper sees in a category or a search, in the order the retailer shows them, ads included. Nothing is filtered or sorted.
Brand share: Each brand’s share of the top results, averaged over the days of the period. Shares are whole percents that add to 100. A retailer’s weekly figures are the average of its categories, each counting the same.
Ads: Where a retailer marks ads inside its results, the ad share is the part of the top results that is paid, and the rest is unpaid. The brand shown is the one on the product; who paid is not visible. Where no product is marked as an ad, the banner ads above the results are counted instead, by the brand each one is for.
Changes: The same shares, compared with the week or month before, written as “from 27% to 17%”. Where a category has no month before it, its first seven days of the month are compared with its last seven, and the chart gives the dates.
New products: A product is new when it was in the top results on at least two days of the period and on no day in the four weeks before. “New to the category” means it was nowhere in that category’s results in those four weeks. Where a category has no earlier weeks, the first half of the month stands in for them and the page gives the date.
Searches: We choose plain search words for each category and run them at each retailer. For each: the brand with the most of the top results and, where the retailer marks ads in results, how much of them is ads. Each search carries its date. We do not know how many people make a search, so nothing here says what shoppers search most.
One scale for every bar: A percent bar always runs from 0 to 100, so bars can be compared across retailers and across pages. Changes run right of the centre line for a gain and left for a loss.

The retailers’ own brands

A brand counts as the retailer’s own when the retailer owns it, checked against the retailer’s own pages, trade press or trademark records. A brand a retailer only sells exclusively is not counted as its own.

The brands counted as each retailer’s own

Lowe’s: allen + roth, Project Source, Style Selections, Origin 21, Harbor Breeze, Kobalt, Blue Hawk, Utilitech, Portfolio, RELIABILT, Garden Treasures, Holiday Living, Sta-Green, Severe Weather, Top Choice, Lowe’s Essentials and Heart & Herd
The Home Depot: Glacier Bay, Home Decorators Collection, Hampton Bay, Commercial Electric, Husky, HDX, Everbilt, Lifeproof, TrafficMaster, Defiant, EcoSmart, Vissani, StyleWell, Stonemark and Vigoro
Wayfair: Ebern Designs, Latitude Run, Wrought Studio, Rebrilliant, Mercer41, Winston Porter, 17 Stories, Wade Logan, Gracie Oaks, The Holiday Aisle, Ivy Bronx, Red Barrel Studio, Bungalow Rose, George Oliver, Symple Stuff, Lark Manor, Orren Ellis, Charlton Home, August Grove, Everly Quinn, Birch Lane, Joss & Main, Breakwater Bay, Alwyn Home, AllModern, Ophelia & Co., Beachcrest Home, Williston Forge, Bay Isle Home, Willa Arlo Interiors, The Party Aisle, Trent Austin Design, Primrue, Hokku Designs, East Urban Home, Rosalind Wheeler, Alcott Hill, Millwood Pines, Dakota Fields, Corrigan Studio, Astoria Grand, Rosdorf Park, Three Posts, Mercury Row, Harriet Bee, Andover Mills, Wildon Home, Highland Dunes, East Grove Home, Basics by Wayfair, Brayden Studio, The Twillery Co., Mistana, Loon Peak, Zipcode Design, Sand & Stable, Mint Pantry, Etta Avenue, Eider & Ivory, Canora Grey, Laurel Foundry Modern Farmhouse, Darby Home Co, Union Rustic, Rosecliff Heights, Foundry Select, World Menagerie, Sleep by Wayfair and House of Hampton
Ferguson: ProFlo, Signature Hardware, Miseno, Avallon, EdgeStar, Landmark, PROSELECT and Durastar

What is compared in each category

A retailer appears in a category only when it sells the same kind of product there. Where its category is narrower, the report names it.

The category compared at each retailer

Category	Lowe’s	The Home Depot	Wayfair	Ferguson
Bathroom vanities	Bathroom vanities	Bathroom vanities	Bathroom vanities	Bathroom vanity cabinets
Bathroom sink faucets	Bathroom sink faucets	Bathroom sink faucets	Bathroom sink faucets	Bathroom sink faucets
Toilets	Toilets	Not compared	Toilets	Not compared
Vanity lighting	Vanity lights	Not compared	Vanity lights	Bathroom wall sconces
Cabinet knobs	Cabinet knobs	Not compared	Not compared	Not compared
Kitchen faucets	Kitchen faucets	Kitchen faucets	Kitchen faucets	Not compared
Kitchen sinks	Kitchen sinks	Kitchen sinks	Kitchen sinks	Undermount kitchen sinks
Shower doors	Shower doors	Shower doors	Shower doors	Shower doors
Shower heads	Shower heads	Shower heads	Shower heads	Shower heads
Shower systems	Shower systems	Shower systems	Shower panels	Shower systems
Bathtubs	Bathtubs	Bathtubs	Bathtubs	Alcove bathtubs
Toilet seats	Toilet seats	Toilet seats	Toilet seats	Toilet seats
Medicine cabinets	Medicine cabinets	Medicine cabinets	Medicine cabinets	Traditional medicine cabinets
Garbage disposals	Garbage disposals	Garbage disposals	Garbage disposals	Garbage disposals

Editions and timing

A week runs Monday to Sunday and belongs to the month that holds its Thursday. The weekly report is due every Monday; the monthly category reports on the first Monday of the next month. Every report carries the date it was published; four of the weekly editions so far came out on another day, and an edition added after its week says so beside its date. A published edition keeps its address. Ads in the top results and Who sells Lowe’s top results, the two studies, use the same definitions across every category a retailer has, not only the ones in the monthly reports.

Latest weekly report: 3rd week of October 2026
Next weekly report: 26 October 2026
Latest monthly reports: September 2026
Next monthly reports: 2 November 2026

What we do not claim

We see what a shopper sees, not what sells: a bigger share of the top results is more visibility, not more sales.
We do not know how many people make a search, or how many open a category. The searches are words we chose.
A change says that a share moved. It does not say why.
Where no product is marked as an ad, we do not say the results are unpaid: a paid place without a mark cannot be seen.
A few brands are not named; they count in every total, under other brands.
Lowe’s results depend on the shopper’s store.

Using these reports

How to cite: Every report ends with a line to copy, in this form: Altavane Research, the title of the report, the date it was published, and its address. The reports are free to quote with a link.
Corrections: If a figure looks wrong, email levi@altavane.com with the address of the page and the number. We check it against the retailer’s page and correct it.
Outside sources: No outside figures are used in these reports. If one is ever used it is named and dated beside the figure.

See your own brand in this view

Email Levi