Shopping Category Growth & Product Feed Gap Analysis
Context
Total Shopping impressions declined 38% year-on-year (9.6M in 2024 to 5.9M in 2025). Impression share held steady at 70-76%, meaning the decline is in the total addressable market for these campaigns, not competitive position.
The question: is the market shrinking, or are the campaigns not capturing growth in adjacent categories?
The answer is both — but the fixable part is larger than the unfixable part.
This document cross-references two datasets:
- SEO trend data: 38 product keywords, 9-year Google Trends analysis (2017-2026) from core-product-trends.md
- Shopping campaign data: 26 months of search term and product performance from campaigns 67, 69, 71, and 78
Answer
Hairpin legs is the only product category in structural decline. Every other category in the Hairpin product range — table legs, desk legs, hooks, knobs, shelf brackets — is at or above pre-COVID search volume and growing. But the Shopping campaigns show declining impressions across almost every category, not just hairpin legs.
The Shopify catalog contains 156 listed products with ~996 total SKUs, though the real count is lower. Hairpin legs are listed twice — once by size (e.g. “71cm Hairpin Legs - Desk & Dining Table”) and once by colour (e.g. “Black Hairpin Legs”) — creating 14 duplicate colour listings with ~171 overlapping SKUs. After deduplication, the catalog is approximately ~825 unique SKUs across ~142 distinct products. Handles and knobs are 11 products but 76 unique SKUs across 4 finishes and multiple sizes.
The impression decline has four distinct causes, each with a different fix:
1. Handles/knobs collapsed because of a pricing gap, not a product gap. All 76 handle/knob SKUs are priced £6.95-£19.95 — under £20. Campaign 71 (Catch All >£20) cannot serve them. Campaign 78 (<£20) did not exist until January 2026. From mid-2024 through December 2025, these products had no Shopping campaign. A PMax test in Dec 2025 failed at 0.37x ROAS (even the Search-only channel returned 0.54x). However, order data shows a real AOV of £46-86 (customers buy 4-8 units), and these products reportedly performed well when first launched (before this dataset). The current poor performance likely reflects a mix of increased competition, offer positioning, and UX issues that need separate investigation. Campaign 78 is now serving handles with early results (3 conversions at 3.77x ROAS). See knobs-and-handles analysis.
2. Table legs and desk legs: products exist but feed titles don’t match how people search. The head term “table legs” collapsed -30% in Shopping (a Google SERP change), while specific terms like “dining table legs” (+81%), “oak table legs” (+910%), and “wooden table legs” (+461%) are surging. Product titles say “Square Industrial Legs | 71cm Table” instead of matching these growing queries. For desk legs, 38 products at desk height exist but none say “desk” in the title — the market is +123% above pre-COVID with zero intentional feed coverage.
3. Some growing categories exist physically but aren’t positioned for the search terms. The hairpin range includes 10cm legs (sold as “Furniture Feet”) and 20cm legs (sold as “Cabinet”). These heights serve as sofa legs and cabinet legs respectively, but the product titles say neither “sofa” nor “cabinet leg” — so Google cannot match them to “sofa legs” or “cabinet legs” searches. This is a feed optimisation / product positioning issue, not a manufacturing gap.
4. Some growing categories genuinely don’t exist in the range. Bed legs, chair legs, wardrobe handles, kitchen door handles, cupboard handles — these require different products, not just renamed variants. The fastest-growing hardware categories (wardrobe handles +97%, cabinet handles +58%) need dedicated product development.
The Market: What’s Growing and What’s Declining
Source: core-product-trends.md — 38 keywords, DataForSEO Google Trends API, UK market, Jan 2017-Feb 2026.
Categories relevant to the current product range
| Category | 2025 vs 2019 | 2024 to 2025 | Status | In Shopify? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Table legs | +22% | +3% | Growing | Yes (15 products + 42 box section + 9 frames) |
| Desk legs | +123% | +6% | Booming | Partially (1 desk leg product, plus some table legs serve this) |
| Coffee table legs | +29% | +5% | Growing | Yes (table legs serve this) |
| Dining table legs | +52% | +8% | Growing | Yes (table legs serve this) |
| Bench legs | +48% | +7% | Growing | Yes (2 products) |
| Coat hooks | +9% | +4% | Stable | Yes (10 wall hooks) |
| Shelf brackets | +27% | +2% | Growing | Minimal (1 product) |
| Furniture knobs | +35% (cabinet knobs) | +8% | Growing | Yes (7 products) |
| Furniture handles | +58% (cabinet handles) | +9% | Growing | Yes (4 products) |
| Hairpin legs | -57% | -22% | Declining | Yes (28 products) |
Categories NOT in the product range but in growing markets
| Category | 2025 vs 2019 | 2024 to 2025 | Status | In Shopify? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sofa legs | +60% | +8% | Booming | No |
| Bed legs | +53% | +10% | Booming | No |
| Cabinet legs | +66% | +8% | Booming | No |
| Chair legs | Not measured | — | Unknown | No |
| Wardrobe handles | +97% | +14% | Booming | No |
| Kitchen door handles | +15% | +11% | Growing | No |
| Cupboard handles | +23% | +7% | Growing | No |
| Drawer handles | +15% | +0% | Stable | No |
| Wall shelves | +44% | +7% | Growing | Minimal |
| Towel rail | +18% | +9% | Growing | No |
| Toilet roll holder | +12% | +3% | Growing | No |
The product catalog has 28 hairpin leg SKUs (the declining category) and zero SKUs in sofa legs, bed legs, or cabinet legs (the three fastest-growing leg categories). This ratio is inverted relative to market demand.
Shopping Performance by Category
Search terms from campaigns 67, 69, 71, and 78, categorised and compared year-on-year.
Year-on-year Shopping impression trends
| Category | 2024 Impressions | 2025 Impressions | YoY | SEO Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hairpin | 180,519 | 93,632 | -48% | -57% decline |
| Table legs | 374,338 | 336,730 | -10% | +22% growing |
| Desk legs | 45,362 | 40,767 | -10% | +123% booming |
| Handles/knobs | 93,167 | 7,930 | -91% | +58-97% booming |
| Hooks | 55,954 | 41,955 | -25% | +9% stable |
| Furniture legs (sofa/bed/cabinet/chair) | 20,944 | 9,445 | -55% | +53-66% booming |
| Shelf brackets | 3,680 | 2,042 | -45% | +27% growing |
| Coffee table legs | 17,534 | 19,798 | +13% | +29% growing |
| Knife racks | 1,926 | 66,180 | +3,336% | New product |
Every category except knife racks is underperforming its market. The Shopping campaigns are capturing a shrinking share of a mostly-growing market. The causes are different for each category — pricing gaps, feed title mismatches, head term SERP changes, and missing products — but the pattern is consistent: the campaigns are not adapting to where demand is moving.
The disconnect between SEO trends and Shopping performance is clearest in three areas:
- Handles/knobs: Market growing 58-97%. Shopping impressions collapsed 91%. Products exist (76 SKUs) but ALL priced under £20 — no campaign served them from mid-2024 to Jan 2026.
- Furniture legs: Market growing 53-66%. Shopping impressions down 55%. Products do NOT exist in Shopify (though hairpin variants at 10cm/20cm serve the use case).
- Table legs / desk legs: Market growing 22-123%. Shopping impressions flat to slightly down. Products exist but the head term “table legs” is collapsing in Shopping while long-tail terms are surging. Desk legs: 38 products at desk height exist but none say “desk” in the title.
Only coffee table legs tracks its market reasonably (+13% Shopping vs +29% SEO). Knife racks are the success story: new product added mid-2024, Shopping impressions exploded, now generating £10,869 revenue (2025) at 4.6x ROAS. This demonstrates what happens when a new product category enters the Shopping feed in a growing market.
Quarterly performance by category
Hairpin legs — SEO vs PPC: two different decline rates
Hairpin legs: the market is declining ~20-25%/yr. The campaigns made it worse (-49%). Half the Shopping impression decline is real market contraction. The other half is campaign structure — C67 narrowing, C69 wind-down. Consolidation would close the gap, but won’t reverse the underlying trend.
The SEO trend data (Google Trends annual averages) shows hairpin legs declining -22% from 2024 to 2025 (index 5.6 → 4.3). The Shopping impression data shows a -49% decline over the same period (198K → 102K). Shopping is declining at more than double the market rate.
However, the trajectory tells a different story. Comparing start-of-2024 to end-of-2025 (the endpoints rather than the averages):
| Period | Shopping Impressions | vs Jan 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| Jan 2024 | 10,275 | baseline |
| Apr-May 2024 | 22-25K | +115% to +143% (seasonal peak) |
| Aug-Sep 2024 | 22-23K | +118% to +125% |
| Nov-Dec 2024 | 5-8K | -23% to -49% (seasonal trough) |
| Jan 2025 | 11,412 | +11% (higher than Jan 2024) |
| Apr-May 2025 | 5-6K | -42% to -54% |
| Aug 2025 | 14,867 | +45% (strong recovery) |
| Dec 2025 | 8,109 | -21% |
Jan 2024 to Dec 2025 = -21% decline, which aligns closely with the SEO market decline of -22%.
The reason the annual totals diverge (-49%) is that 2024 had a strong Apr-Sep seasonal peak (22-25K impressions/month) that did not repeat in 2025. This peak was driven partly by Campaign 67 having more hairpin products at the time and partly by Campaign 69 contributing additional hairpin impressions. As both campaigns narrowed/paused, the 2025 seasonal peak was suppressed.
YoY same-month comparison:
| Month | 2024 | 2025 | YoY |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 10,275 | 11,412 | +11% |
| Feb | 9,500 | 5,494 | -42% |
| Mar | 13,943 | 7,473 | -46% |
| Apr | 22,111 | 5,982 | -73% |
| May | 24,968 | 4,766 | -81% |
| Jun | 21,286 | 7,390 | -65% |
| Jul | 17,471 | 8,732 | -50% |
| Aug | 23,149 | 14,867 | -36% |
| Sep | 22,430 | 10,647 | -53% |
| Oct | 19,954 | 9,722 | -51% |
| Nov | 7,863 | 7,397 | -6% |
| Dec | 5,287 | 8,109 | +53% |
| Total | 198,237 | 101,991 | -49% |
The pattern is striking: Nov, Dec, and Jan show minimal decline or even growth — months when campaign budgets were lower and structure mattered less. The biggest drops (Apr-Jun: -65% to -81%) coincide with the period when Campaign 67 was actively narrowing and Campaign 69’s contribution was declining. This confirms that roughly half the Shopping impression decline is campaign-related, not market-related.
Summary: SEO says -22%, PPC says -49%. The true market decline is ~20-25%. The rest is campaign structure.
Quarterly Shopping performance (hairpin terms):
| Quarter | Impressions | Clicks | Cost | Revenue | ROAS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 2024 | 33,718 | 1,511 | £1,275 | £6,918 | 5.4x |
| Q2 2024 | 68,365 | 2,125 | £2,359 | £13,833 | 5.9x |
| Q3 2024 | 63,050 | 1,958 | £2,574 | £12,381 | 4.8x |
| Q4 2024 | 33,104 | 1,439 | £2,165 | £8,369 | 3.9x |
| Q1 2025 | 24,379 | 1,087 | £1,352 | £6,100 | 4.5x |
| Q2 2025 | 18,138 | 1,013 | £1,172 | £4,963 | 4.2x |
| Q3 2025 | 34,246 | 1,488 | £1,665 | £8,788 | 5.3x |
| Q4 2025 | 25,228 | 1,191 | £1,378 | £6,231 | 4.5x |
| Q1 2026 | 16,200 | 757 | £836 | £3,591 | 4.3x |
Despite the impression decline, ROAS remains strong (4.0-5.9x). The declining market reduces volume but does not reduce profitability — fewer auctions, but the people searching are serious buyers.
Handles/knobs — the disappearing category:
Handles/knobs: a real gap, but not straightforward to fix. 76 SKUs priced under £20 had no Shopping campaign for 18 months. A PMax test (Dec 2025) returned 0.37x ROAS — and even Search-only was 0.54x ROAS, so this wasn’t just Display waste. These products reportedly performed well when first launched (before this dataset), so the decline likely reflects increased competition, offer positioning, or UX issues rather than fundamental product economics. Order data shows a real AOV of £46-86 (multi-unit buying). Shopping <£20 has early results at 3.77x ROAS on 3 conversions — too small to draw conclusions. Needs separate investigation. See knobs-and-handles-analysis.
| Quarter | Impressions | Clicks | Cost | Revenue | ROAS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 2024 | 59,647 | 4,896 | £5,952 | £7,367 | 1.2x |
| Q2 2024 | 28,846 | 2,302 | £3,009 | £4,705 | 1.6x |
| Q3 2024 | 3,439 | 349 | £570 | £553 | 1.0x |
| Q4 2024 | 1,235 | 245 | £662 | £1,566 | 2.4x |
| Q1 2025 | 3,608 | 701 | £804 | £1,277 | 1.6x |
| Q2 2025 | 2,032 | 645 | £644 | £1,476 | 2.3x |
| Q3 2025 | 1,521 | 433 | £624 | £1,620 | 2.6x |
| Q4 2025 | 769 | 232 | £440 | £542 | 1.2x |
| Q1 2026 | 243 | 59 | £48 | £208 | 4.4x |
The drop from 59K to 3.4K impressions between Q1 and Q3 2024 suggests products were actively removed from the Shopping feed. ROAS improved as the category shrank (from 1.2x with broad coverage to 2.4-4.4x with minimal coverage), which could mean the remaining products are genuinely better, or that the volume is too thin to be meaningful.
The Shopify catalog has 4 handle products (48 SKUs: Knurl Pull, Bar Trim Pull, Spiral Pull, Knurl Knob — each in 4 finishes x 3-4 sizes, priced £9.95-£19.95) and 7 knob products (28 SKUs: Bowl, Hex, Disk, Conical, Knurl, Square — each in 4 finishes, priced £6.95-£8.95). All 76 SKUs are priced under £20. Before Campaign 78 launched on January 26 2026, no Shopping campaign covered products under £20 — Campaign 71 (Catch All >£20) explicitly excluded them. This pricing gap, not product removal, is the primary cause of the impression collapse.
Table legs — the biggest revenue category, hiding a structural shift:
The head term “table legs” is collapsing in Shopping (-30% YoY), but long-tail terms are surging. “Dining table legs” +81%, “outdoor table legs” +151%, “wooden table legs” +461%, “oak table legs” +910%. The net result is only -10% overall — but the campaigns are not adapting to where the growth actually is.
| Quarter | Impressions | Clicks | Cost | Revenue | ROAS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 2024 | 62,814 | 2,741 | £2,967 | £8,105 | 2.7x |
| Q2 2024 | 117,958 | 4,381 | £6,803 | £21,150 | 3.1x |
| Q3 2024 | 101,124 | 3,228 | £5,808 | £13,952 | 2.4x |
| Q4 2024 | 89,974 | 3,236 | £6,971 | £15,507 | 2.2x |
| Q1 2025 | 78,432 | 3,012 | £4,644 | £8,345 | 1.8x |
| Q2 2025 | 71,765 | 3,049 | £3,773 | £11,981 | 3.2x |
| Q3 2025 | 90,983 | 3,448 | £3,957 | £14,454 | 3.7x |
| Q4 2025 | 92,803 | 3,488 | £3,937 | £14,785 | 3.8x |
| Q1 2026 | 46,510 | 1,869 | £1,814 | £5,973 | 3.3x |
This is the largest Shopping revenue category (£63K in 2024, £51K in 2025). Total impressions are only down -10%, but that modest decline hides a fundamental shift in how shoppers search:
Head term vs long-tail split:
| Quarter | ”table legs” (head) | All other terms | Head term share | Distinct long-tail terms |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 2024 | 33,756 | 19,606 | 63% | 492 |
| Q2 2024 | 64,520 | 37,131 | 63% | 667 |
| Q3 2024 | 59,518 | 25,922 | 70% | 589 |
| Q4 2024 | 53,331 | 24,002 | 69% | 548 |
| Q1 2025 | 44,663 | 24,324 | 65% | 529 |
| Q2 2025 | 29,679 | 31,603 | 48% | 516 |
| Q3 2025 | 36,315 | 42,090 | 46% | 570 |
| Q4 2025 | 36,230 | 42,756 | 46% | 585 |
In 2024, the generic “table legs” query drove 63-70% of all table leg impressions. By mid-2025, it dropped to 46% — long-tail terms now generate more impressions than the head term. This is a structural change in how Google handles Shopping queries: fewer generic Shopping results, more product-specific matches.
Growing table leg search terms (2024 → 2025):
| Search term | 2024 | 2025 | Growth | 2025 Revenue | Present in 2024? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| dining table legs | 11,661 | 21,128 | +81% | £1,706 | All 12 months |
| outdoor table legs | 2,975 | 7,456 | +151% | £1,489 | All 12 months |
| wooden table legs | 830 | 4,655 | +461% | £779 | 10 months |
| oak table legs | 403 | 4,070 | +910% | £831 | 6 months |
| steel table legs | 2,308 | 3,593 | +56% | £424 | All 12 months |
| black table legs | 1,849 | 2,637 | +43% | £728 | All 12 months |
| table legs wood | 885 | 2,285 | +158% | £520 | — |
| stainless steel table legs | 414 | 1,339 | +223% | £230 | All 12 months |
| white table legs | 116 | 1,486 | +1,181% | £155 | 11 months |
| chrome table legs | 553 | 1,316 | +138% | £40 | 11 months |
| dining table legs metal | 728 | 1,115 | +53% | £1,004 | — |
| metal dining table legs | 588 | 1,184 | +101% | £382 | — |
| trapezium table legs | 98 | 669 | +583% | £414 | 7 months |
| a frame table legs | 21 | 585 | +2,686% | £246 | 4 months |
Important caveat: these are our Shopping impressions, not total market search volume. A term going from 116 to 1,486 impressions could mean:
- The market for that term genuinely grew (more people searching)
- Google’s algorithm got better at matching our products to these queries
- Campaign structure changes (C71 replacing C67/C69) served broader queries
- Some combination of all three
We cannot separate these factors with the data available. However, every term in the table was already being served ads in 2024 (most for 6-12 months), so this is not a “new listing” artifact — our products were showing for these terms in 2024, just at much lower volumes. The SEO trend data confirms the overall “table legs” category is growing +22%, which is consistent with long-tail growth within the category. The extreme growth rates on individual terms (like +1,181% on “white table legs”) are partly our impression capture improving, not purely market demand.
The growth terms reveal what shoppers are increasingly searching for: material-specific (oak, wooden, steel, stainless steel), colour-specific (black, white, chrome), and use-case-specific (dining, outdoor) queries. Whether the growth is market-driven or algorithm-driven, the implication is the same: products with titles matching these qualifiers will capture more traffic.
The opportunity is in feed titles. The products exist — box section legs in black, stainless steel, brass, etc. — but if the Shopping feed title says “Square Industrial Legs | 71cm Table” instead of “Black Metal Dining Table Legs - Industrial Square Design”, Google is less likely to match the product to these specific search terms. This is a feed optimisation opportunity, not a product gap. The magnitude of the opportunity depends on how much of the growth is genuine market demand vs improved matching — but either way, better-titled products will perform better.
Why impressions are flat despite a growing market (+22% SEO):
Three factors explain the ~32% gap between +22% market growth and -10% Shopping trend:
- Google SERP changes — Google is showing fewer standard Shopping ads for the generic “table legs” query (head term down -30%), potentially favouring PMax results and organic Shopping. This accounts for most of the gap and is not directly fixable through campaign settings.
- Campaign transition turbulence — Table legs were served by C67 (190K imps in 2024) and C69 (128K imps). In 2025, C67 halved to 89K and C69 wound down to 31K, while C71 picked up 168K. Some impressions were lost in the handover.
- Feed title mismatch — The fastest-growing terms are material/colour/use-case specific, but many product titles use generic names like “Square Industrial Legs” rather than terms shoppers actually search for.
CPCs are falling, meaning the algorithm is being conservative:
| Period | Avg CPC | ROAS |
|---|---|---|
| Q1 2024 | £0.91 | 2.7x |
| Q2-Q3 2024 | £1.64-£1.95 | 1.6-3.0x |
| Q4 2024 | £2.15-£2.55 | 2.2-3.2x |
| Q1 2025 | £1.25-£1.63 | 2.0-2.3x |
| Q2-Q3 2025 | £1.10-£1.43 | 3.0-4.1x |
| Q4 2025 | £0.96-£1.26 | 2.7-5.3x |
CPCs dropped from £1.95 peak (Jul 2024) to £0.96 (Oct 2025). ROAS improved from 2.7x to 3.8x over the same period. This is the tROAS bidding strategy working as designed — bidding lower, winning cheaper auctions, improving efficiency — but it means the algorithm is not bidding on higher-value competitive auctions where some of the market growth is happening. C71 impression share of 61-75% means 25-39% of eligible Shopping auctions are being forfeited.
Desk legs — the biggest missed opportunity in the existing catalog:
38 products with 207 SKUs exist at desk height (71cm) but none say “desk” in the title. The SEO market for “desk legs” is +123% above pre-COVID and still growing. Shopping captured only 41K impressions in 2025 — entirely through accidental matches on the generic “desk legs” head term, not through intentional product-query matching.
| Quarter | Impressions | Clicks | CPC | Cost | Revenue | ROAS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 2024 | 8,610 | 465 | £1.19 | £551 | £2,645 | 4.8x |
| Q2 2024 | 12,149 | 569 | £1.82 | £1,037 | £4,009 | 3.9x |
| Q3 2024 | 12,338 | 474 | £1.92 | £909 | £5,259 | 5.8x |
| Q4 2024 | 12,595 | 543 | £2.14 | £1,160 | £3,252 | 2.8x |
| Q1 2025 | 10,311 | 462 | £1.66 | £767 | £1,199 | 1.6x |
| Q2 2025 | 7,128 | 371 | £1.08 | £402 | £2,021 | 5.0x |
| Q3 2025 | 11,661 | 508 | £1.29 | £653 | £3,782 | 5.8x |
| Q4 2025 | 12,134 | 465 | £1.11 | £518 | £1,562 | 3.0x |
Desk legs revenue was £8K in 2025 at 3.5x ROAS — from products that are not even titled as desk legs. The Shopify catalog has:
- 24 Box Section Leg products at 71cm (desk height) — A-Frame, Square, Trapezium, V-Frame, X-Frame
- 6 Table Leg products at 71cm — Box Hairpin, Wireframe, Tapered Oak, Single Pin
- 4 Table Leg Frame products at 71cm — Quad Frame, Square Industrial Frame
- 2 Hairpin Leg products at 71cm — standard hairpin desk legs
- All titled as “71cm Table” or “71cm Table Wide” — none say “desk legs”
With “desk legs” as a search term generating 32,679 impressions in 2025 (and growing), plus material-specific queries like “metal desk legs” (999 imps), “white desk legs” (576 imps), and “wooden desk legs” (219 imps), renaming or supplementing product titles to include “desk” would capture significantly more of this booming market.
Knife racks — the growth template:
| Quarter | Impressions | Clicks | Cost | Revenue | ROAS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q2 2024 | 1,247 | 43 | £24 | £40 | 1.7x |
| Q3 2024 | 670 | 25 | £13 | £39 | 3.1x |
| Q1 2025 | 8,678 | 397 | £269 | £740 | 2.8x |
| Q2 2025 | 23,822 | 904 | £783 | £4,056 | 5.2x |
| Q3 2025 | 24,156 | 1,093 | £912 | £4,203 | 4.6x |
| Q4 2025 | 9,524 | 507 | £461 | £1,869 | 4.1x |
New product, new category, immediate Shopping traction. From zero to £10,869 revenue in its first full year. This is what happens when the catalog expands into a market where demand exists.
The Product Catalog: Products vs Variants
The Shopify catalog contains ~142 distinct products with ~825 unique SKUs (after removing duplicate colour-based hairpin leg listings — see note below).
| Product Type | Products | SKUs | Price Range | Market Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hairpin Leg | 12 unique (28 listed*) | ~242 unique | £35-£190 | -57% |
| Box Section Leg | 42 | 120 | varies | +22% (table legs) |
| Table | 3 | 80 | varies | — |
| Table Leg Frame | 9 | 64 | varies | +22% |
| Wall Hook | 10 | 55 | varies | +9% |
| Furniture Handle | 4 | 48 | £9.95-£19.95 | +58% |
| Table Top | 9 | 46 | varies | -19% (stable) |
| Table Leg | 15 | 34 | varies | +22% |
| Furniture Knob | 7 | 28 | £6.95-£8.95 | +35% |
| Planter | 2 | 24 | varies | — |
| Stool | 5 | 20 | varies | — |
| Other | 22 | 64 | varies | — |
~242 of ~825 unique SKUs (29%) are hairpin legs — the one declining category. 14 of the 28 listed hairpin products are colour-based duplicate listings (e.g. “Black Hairpin Legs” duplicates the black variants from the size-based listings like “71cm Hairpin Legs”). The 12 unique size-based listings contain ~242 distinct SKUs. The catalog is weighted toward the declining product, though the box section legs (120 SKUs, growing market) and table leg frames (64 SKUs) partially offset this.
Hairpin legs: hidden category coverage
The hairpin leg range covers 9 heights, each named for a specific use case:
| Height | Product Name | Potential Search Categories |
|---|---|---|
| 10cm | ”Furniture Feet” | Sofa legs, cabinet feet, furniture feet |
| 20cm | ”Cabinet” | Cabinet legs, low furniture |
| 25-30cm | ”Low Coffee Table” | Coffee table legs |
| 35cm | ”Coffee Table” | Coffee table legs |
| 40cm | ”Bench” | Bench legs |
| 71cm | ”Desk & Dining Table” | Table legs, desk legs, dining table legs |
| 86cm | ”Countertop” | Breakfast bar legs, counter legs |
| 102cm | ”Bar” | Bar table legs, poseur table legs |
The 10cm “Furniture Feet” and 20cm “Cabinet” variants functionally serve as sofa legs and cabinet legs, but the product titles do not include those terms. Someone searching “sofa legs” will not be matched to a product titled “10cm Hairpin Legs - Furniture Feet” in Shopping unless the feed description or custom labels include “sofa”. This is a feed positioning gap — the products exist, but they are invisible to the search queries that would find them.
Each height comes in up to 15 finishes (Black, Raw Steel, Copper, Gold, Satin Brass, Chrome, Stainless Steel, plus colours) and 2-3 rod configurations, creating the 413 variant count.
Handle/knob pricing: the campaign gap
All handle and knob SKUs fall under £20:
| Product | Variants | Finishes | Sizes | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Knurl 15mm Pull Handle | 16 | 4 (Brass, Nickel, Black, Copper) | 140mm, 180mm, 300mm, T-Bar | £9.95-£19.95 |
| Bar Trim Pull Handle | 12 | 4 | 165mm, 260mm, T-Bar | £9.95-£19.95 |
| Spiral 12mm Pull Handle | 16 | 4 | 140mm, 180mm, 300mm, T-Bar | £9.95-£19.95 |
| Knurl 40mm Knob | 4 | 4 | one size | £8.95 |
| Bowl 40mm Knob | 4 | 4 | one size | £8.95 |
| Hex/Disk/Square 30mm Knobs | 12 | 4 each | one size | £7.95 |
| Conical/Knurl 18mm Knobs | 8 | 4 each | one size | £6.95 |
Campaign 71 (Catch All >£20) cannot serve these. Campaign 78 (<£20) only launched January 26 2026. For the 18 months from mid-2024 through December 2025, these 76 SKUs had no Shopping campaign. The impression collapse from 59K (Q1 2024) to near-zero was structural — not a market change or feed issue.
Campaign 78 should now be serving these products. Whether it is doing so effectively needs verification.
Categories not in the catalog
These categories have no products in Shopify but represent growing or booming search markets:
| Category | Market Growth (vs 2019) | YoY Trend | Estimated Monthly UK Search Volume |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bed legs | +53% | +10%/yr | ~7,300 |
| Chair legs | Not measured | — | ~1,300 |
| Wardrobe handles | +97% | +14%/yr | ~2,600 |
| Kitchen door handles | +15% | +11%/yr | ~2,700 |
| Cupboard handles | +23% | +7%/yr | ~4,000 |
| Drawer handles | +15% | +0% | ~2,800 |
| Towel rail | +18% | +9%/yr | ~5,300 |
| Toilet roll holder | +12% | +3%/yr | ~5,100 |
| Kitchen roll holder | +13% | +0% | ~4,500 |
Note: Sofa legs and cabinet legs are absent as named products but partially served by hairpin variants at 10cm and 20cm heights (see above). Bed legs, chair legs, and the broader handle categories require genuinely new products.
Search volumes are indicative from DataForSEO research. See core-product-trends.md for methodology.
Underdeveloped categories: products exist but underperforming
| Category | Products | SKUs | Market Growth | Shopping Imps (2025) | Issue |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Handles | 4 | 48 | +58% | 7,930 (was 93K) | All <£20 — no campaign until Jan 2026 |
| Knobs | 7 | 28 | +35% | Included above | All <£20 — same pricing gap |
| Shelf brackets | 1 | 4 | +27% | 2,042 | Only 1 product, needs range expansion |
| Bench legs | 2 | 3 | +48% | In table legs data | Minimal range |
| Sofa/cabinet legs | 0 named | ~26* | +60/+66% | 1,507 / 3,587 | Exist as hairpin variants but not titled for these searches |
* Hairpin leg variants at 10cm (“Furniture Feet”, 13 SKUs) and 20cm (“Cabinet”, 13 SKUs) serve sofa/cabinet use cases but product titles don’t include “sofa leg” or “cabinet leg” terms.
What Explains the Impression Decline
Decomposing the 38% YoY decline in total Shopping impressions:
Factor 1: Hairpin legs market decline (~15% of total impression loss)
Hairpin legs impressions dropped from 180K (2024) to 94K (2025), losing ~87K impressions. Against a total loss of ~3.7M impressions, this accounts for roughly 2.3% directly. However, hairpin legs had an outsized share of Campaign 67’s impressions early on (when C67 had 985K/month), so the indirect effect through C67’s narrowing is larger — estimated at ~500-600K additional impressions lost as C67 shed non-hairpin products. Combined direct and indirect: ~15% of total loss.
Factor 2: Campaign 67 structural narrowing (~25% of total impression loss)
Campaign 67 went from 111 products to 14, losing ~97 products and their associated impression pools. This removed entire product categories from Shopping auctions (handles went from 59K impressions in Q1 2024 to near-zero). These products still exist in Shopify but are no longer served by any campaign except the Catch All (which may not cover all of them effectively).
Factor 3: Shopping Testing (C69) wind-down (~15% of total impression loss)
Campaign 69 was paused in Jul 2025, removing a campaign that contributed 130-510K impressions/month in 2024. Campaign 71 (Catch All) absorbed some of this traffic but not all — C71’s impressions grew from 127K (Jan 2025) to 407K (Jan 2026), a gain of ~280K, while C69’s last full month was 63K (Jul 2025). The transition lost some impression volume.
Factor 4: Budget and tROAS constraints (~15% of total impression loss)
Total Shopping spend dropped from £83K (2024) to £57K (2025). At similar CPC levels, this naturally reduces impression volume. Combined with tROAS tightening on C71 (seven changes in four months, ending at 400%), the algorithm became more conservative, bidding on fewer auctions.
Factor 5: Google SERP changes + feed title mismatch (~20% of total impression loss)
For table legs, the head term “table legs” collapsed -30% in Shopping while specific terms (“dining table legs” +81%, “oak table legs” +910%) surged. This is a Google SERP behaviour change — fewer generic Shopping results, more product-specific matches — combined with a feed title problem. Product titles say “Square Industrial Legs | 71cm Table” instead of including the material/colour/use-case terms that shoppers now search for. The SERP change is unfixable; the feed titles are fixable. For desk legs, the gap is even wider: +123% market growth, -10% Shopping, with 38 products at desk height that don’t say “desk” in the title.
Factor 6: Missing product categories (~10% of total impression loss)
The catalog does not include products for sofa legs, bed legs, cabinet legs, chair legs, wardrobe handles, or numerous other growing categories. These categories generate search demand that cannot be captured by Shopping because the products don’t exist. This is technically fixable but requires product development, not PPC changes.
Summary
| Factor | Estimated Share | Fixable? |
|---|---|---|
| Hairpin legs market decline | ~15% | No — market trend |
| C67 structural narrowing | ~25% | Partially — consolidation into C71 helps |
| C69 wind-down | ~15% | Absorbed by C71, mostly complete |
| Budget/tROAS constraints | ~15% | Yes — budget and tROAS adjustments |
| SERP changes + feed title mismatch | ~20% | Partially — SERP change is external, feed titles are fixable |
| Missing product categories | ~10% | Yes — product development needed |
Roughly 50% is fixable through campaign consolidation, budget/tROAS adjustments, feed title optimisation, handles back in the feed, and new product development. Roughly 25% is market reality (hairpin decline + unfixable SERP changes). The remaining 25% is transitional (C69 wind-down, C67 narrowing) and already largely absorbed.
Growth Opportunities
Three immediate actions require zero product investment: verify handles in C78, rewrite table leg feed titles, and add “desk” to 71cm product titles. Combined potential: £20-35K additional annual revenue from products that already exist. The medium-term product development opportunities (sofa legs, bed legs, expanded handle range) are larger but require manufacturing decisions.
Immediate: Monitor handles/knobs in Campaign 78 (already in progress)
All 76 handle/knob SKUs are priced under £20. Campaign 78 (<£20) launched January 26 2026, so these should now be eligible for Shopping auctions for the first time since mid-2024.
A dedicated PMax campaign tested handles/knobs in Dec 2025 and was correctly paused (0.37x ROAS). Importantly, even the Search-only channel returned just 0.54x ROAS — this was not simply a Display waste problem. These products reportedly performed well when first launched (before this dataset begins in Jan 2024), so the decline raises questions about whether increased competition, offer positioning, or UX issues have eroded the category’s paid search viability.
Shopping <£20 has picked up 3 conversions at 3.77x ROAS in its first two weeks — but 3 conversions is not a meaningful sample. See full cross-campaign analysis.
Action: Continue monitoring Campaign 78 for handles/knobs. Wait for 15-20 conversions before drawing conclusions. Do not restart PMax. Separately investigate why paid search performance declined from the reportedly strong early results — competition, product page conversion rate, pricing relative to competitors, and search term match quality all need review.
Potential impact: Unclear. At their Q1 2024 peak, handles generated 59K impressions and £7.4K revenue per quarter. Whether that’s recoverable depends on what changed since then. The market is larger now (handles +58-97% vs pre-COVID), but the recent PMax test suggests the category has problems beyond just campaign structure. The real AOV (£46-86 from multi-unit purchases) is solid, so the economics should work — but something is preventing conversions at scale.
Needs separate investigation: Why did handles/knobs perform well initially but fail in Dec 2025? Possible factors include increased competition (B&Q, Screwfix, Dunelm competing on generic terms), product page UX (are multi-unit purchases easy to make?), pricing relative to competitors, and whether the Hairpin design-led range matches the intent behind generic searches like “copper kitchen handles”.
Immediate: Table legs feed title overhaul (£0 product investment)
Table legs is the £51K/yr revenue category with the most fixable growth gap. The products exist and perform well. The problem is that Google can’t match them to the fastest-growing search terms because the feed titles use generic names.
The head term “table legs” is declining in Shopping (-30%) but specific terms are exploding: “dining table legs” +81%, “outdoor table legs” +151%, “oak table legs” +910%, “wooden table legs” +461%. Long-tail terms now account for 54% of all table leg impressions (was 30-37% in 2024). Product titles like “Square Industrial Legs | 71cm Table” don’t match any of these queries.
Action: Rewrite Shopping feed titles to lead with material, colour, and use-case qualifiers. Examples:
- “Square Industrial Legs | 71cm Table” → “Black Metal Dining Table Legs - Square Industrial Design, 71cm”
- “Trapezium Industrial Legs | 71cm Table Wide” → “Industrial Trapezium Table Legs - Steel, 71cm Dining Height”
- “A-Frame Industrial legs | 71cm Table” → “A-Frame Metal Table Legs - Industrial Steel, 71cm Desk & Dining”
Also: Campaign 71 impression share is 61-75%, meaning 25-39% of eligible Shopping auctions are being forfeited. Consider whether the tROAS target (currently 400%) should be relaxed to capture more volume. Table legs ROAS improved from 2.7x to 3.8x as CPCs fell — there is room to bid higher on competitive auctions without going below break-even.
Potential impact: Table legs generated £51K revenue in 2025 at 3.5x ROAS despite a -10% impression decline. Closing even half the gap to the +22% market growth rate and recovering some of the 25-39% IS forfeit could add £10-20K annual revenue. This is the single highest-value feed optimisation available.
Immediate: Desk legs feed title fix (£0 product investment)
38 products and 207 SKUs at desk height already exist. Not a single one says “desk” in the title. The market is +123% above pre-COVID. This is the easiest win in the document.
The Shopify catalog has 24 Box Section Leg products, 6 Table Leg products, 4 Table Leg Frame products, and 2 Hairpin Leg products — all at 71cm (standard desk height). Every one is titled “71cm Table” or “71cm Table Wide”. Someone searching “desk legs” is unlikely to be matched to “Square Industrial Legs | 71cm Table” in Shopping.
Action: For 71cm products, add “desk” to the Shopping feed title alongside “table”. Examples:
- “Square Industrial Legs | 71cm Table” → “Metal Desk & Dining Table Legs - Square Industrial, 71cm”
- “A-Frame Industrial legs | 71cm Table” → “A-Frame Steel Desk Legs - Industrial Design, 71cm”
- “71cm Hairpin Legs - Desk & Dining Table” → already correct, keep as-is
This can be done in the Merchant Center feed rules without modifying Shopify product titles, keeping the existing site presentation unchanged.
Potential impact: Desk legs generated £8K revenue in 2025 from incidental matches. The market is +123% above pre-COVID with ~32K Shopping impressions on “desk legs” alone. With intentional feed coverage across 38 products, this could realistically double to £15-20K — adding £7-12K revenue from a feed rule change.
Short-term: Shelf bracket expansion (low product investment)
Only 1 shelf bracket product (Prism Wall Desk Brackets). The market is +27% above baseline and growing. Shelf brackets are a natural extension of the existing product range.
Action: Evaluate product development for shelf brackets in materials/finishes consistent with the existing range. This category overlaps with the existing wall shelves and hooks product lines.
Short-term: Position hairpin variants for sofa/cabinet searches (feed optimisation)
The 10cm hairpin legs (“Furniture Feet”) and 20cm hairpin legs (“Cabinet”) already serve the sofa leg and cabinet leg use cases physically. But the product titles, descriptions, and Merchant Center feed don’t mention “sofa legs” or “cabinet legs” — so Google can’t match them to those searches.
Action: Update product descriptions and Merchant Center custom labels to include “sofa legs” and “cabinet legs” where appropriate. Consider whether a separate collection page titled “Sofa Legs” linking to the 10cm variants would help both organic and Shopping visibility. The same applies to “cabinet legs” for the 20cm range.
Potential impact: Sofa legs has ~4,700 monthly searches (growing +8%/yr) and cabinet legs ~1,700 (growing +8%/yr). Currently capturing effectively zero of this. Even modest capture rates would add new revenue from existing products.
Limitation: Hairpin legs are a specific aesthetic. Someone searching “sofa legs” may want a tapered wooden leg, not a hairpin. Conversion rates on these terms may be lower than on “hairpin legs” searches. Worth testing but don’t expect hairpin-level ROAS.
Medium-term: Leg category expansion beyond hairpin (product development)
The fastest-growing leg categories — sofa legs (+60%), bed legs (+53%), cabinet legs (+66%) — are overwhelmingly non-hairpin. The hairpin variants cover some of this demand, but the market is for replacement legs in various styles: tapered, square, turned, mid-century, etc.
Key question: Does Hairpin want to expand beyond its current leg styles into categories like replacement sofa legs, bed legs, and cabinet legs in non-hairpin designs? The box section and table leg ranges already show this diversification working. The market data is strongly supportive — these are growing categories with structural demand (replacement/repair, not trend-driven).
If manufacturing allows, these represent a combined market larger than hairpin legs at its peak.
Medium-term: Handle/knob range expansion (product development)
The handle and hardware market is growing faster than any other category in the dataset. Wardrobe handles (+97% and still accelerating at +14%/yr) is the single fastest-growing keyword. Cabinet handles (+58%), kitchen door handles (+15%), and cabinet knobs (+35%) are all above baseline.
The current range (4 handles with 48 SKUs, 7 knobs with 28 SKUs) covers four finishes across multiple sizes. This is a coherent starting range but small relative to market demand — competitors typically offer 50-200+ handle/knob designs.
Key question: Does Hairpin want to scale the handles range? The existing 4-finish approach (Brushed Brass, Industrial Nickel, Matt Black, Satin Copper) is distinctive and could extend to more designs without new manufacturing setups. The market data says expansion here would be well-timed.
The Knife Rack Precedent
The magnetic knife rack launch demonstrates what happens when a new product enters a receptive market via Shopping:
| Metric | Knife Rack Shopping Performance |
|---|---|
| Launch | Mid-2024 (first impressions Jun 2024) |
| 2024 impressions | 1,926 (6 months) |
| 2025 impressions | 66,180 |
| 2025 revenue | £10,869 |
| 2025 ROAS | 4.6x |
| Time to profitability | Immediate (2.8x ROAS from Q1 2025) |
One product, one category, £10K revenue in year one. If sofa legs, bed legs, or cabinet legs followed a similar trajectory, the combined revenue potential would dwarf the hairpin legs decline.
Impression Decline: Is It the Market or Us?
It is mostly us. The only genuinely declining market is hairpin legs (-22%/yr). For everything else — table legs, desk legs, handles, hooks — the market is growing but the campaigns are not capturing it. The causes are fixable: feed titles that don’t match search terms, a pricing gap that locked out handles for 18 months, and conservative tROAS bidding that forfeits 25-39% of eligible auctions.
This was the original question. The answer, with all data assembled:
For hairpin legs specifically: it is mostly the market, but campaign structure made it worse. SEO trend data shows -22%/yr decline (-57% vs pre-COVID). Shopping impressions fell -49% YoY — roughly double the market rate. The gap is explained by campaign structure changes (C67 narrowing from 111 to 14 products, C69 wind-down). Month-by-month comparison confirms the underlying market decline is ~20-25%/yr; the rest is self-inflicted through campaign narrowing. Consolidating campaigns (as recommended in the catch-all vs top performers analysis) would close this gap.
For handles/knobs: it is a campaign gap, but fixing it may not be straightforward. The products had no Shopping campaign from mid-2024 to January 2026, and a PMax test in Dec 2025 failed at 0.54x ROAS even on Search-only. These products reportedly performed well when first launched (before this dataset), so something has changed — likely a mix of competition, offer positioning, and UX. Campaign 78 is now serving them (3 conversions at 3.77x early ROAS) but the sample is too small to conclude. Needs separate investigation into why paid search performance declined. See full analysis.
For sofa/cabinet legs: it is a positioning gap. The products exist physically (hairpin variants at 10cm and 20cm) but the feed titles don’t match the search terms. Feed optimisation could capture some of this demand. Expanding beyond hairpin-style legs into these categories would capture more.
For table legs: it is a combination of Google SERP changes and feed title mismatch. The head term “table legs” collapsed -30% in Shopping (Google serving fewer generic Shopping results), but specific terms like “dining table legs” and “oak table legs” are surging. Product titles don’t include these qualifiers. Additionally, C71 is forfeiting 25-39% of eligible impressions through conservative tROAS bidding. Feed title rewriting and a modest tROAS relaxation would capture more of the +22% market growth.
For desk legs: it is entirely a feed title gap. 38 products with 207 SKUs at desk height (71cm) exist, but none say “desk” in the title. The market is +123% above pre-COVID. A Merchant Center feed rule change would capture this with zero product investment.
For bed legs, chair legs, wardrobe handles: these are genuinely missing from the catalog. Product development required.
The market for “furniture hardware” is not shrinking. Of 38 product keywords tracked, 34 are at or above pre-COVID levels. The market for “hairpin legs” is shrinking. The Shopping campaigns have not adapted — but much of the adaptation needed is feed and campaign configuration, not product development.
Data Sources
- SEO trend data: core-product-trends.md — 38 keywords, DataForSEO Google Trends API, UK, Jan 2017-Feb 2026
- Shopping search term data:
google_ads_search_term_dailytable, campaigns 67/69/71/78, Jan 2024-Feb 2026 - Shopping product data:
google_ads_product_raw_dailytable, same campaigns and period - Campaign performance:
google_ads_raw_dailytable, campaign-level, same period - Product catalog:
productsandproduct_variantstables (Shopify sync), user_id=3, ~142 distinct products / ~825 unique SKUs (after removing colour-based duplicate listings) - Handles/knobs PMax test: knobs-and-handles-analysis — cross-campaign analysis including order data (3,033 orders)
- Cross-reference: Shopping Catch All vs Top Performers analysis