New right-to-repair laws make the retailer’s connection with customers even stronger. Here’s what appliance brands can do to win those customers back.
Summary
Most appliance brands don’t have a direct relationship with their customers. They control the product design, engineering, and branding, but not the customer connection. About 92% to 98% of appliance sales happen through retailers or third-party partners. Of these, 60% to 70% are through physical stores, and 25% to 35% are through online marketplaces like Amazon. Only 2% to 8% of sales are direct-to-consumer. Even when customers visit a brand’s website, McKinsey data shows that while 32% research there, just 1.6% actually make a purchase.
In practice, the customer has always belonged to the sales channel. Brands have tried to win them back with manuals and spare parts, but new EU and UK regulations will make it even harder for brands to regain that relationship.
Who is responsible for statutory warranties and right to repair workflows?
This is the point that reframes everything. Under both the UK and EU regimes, the statutory warranty is the seller’s responsibility, meaning the retailer that took the payment, not the brand or manufacturer. When a machine develops a fault, the customer’s legal claim is against the retailer, not the brand.
Right to Repair laws make this responsibility even more demanding. Starting in 2026, faulty appliances must be registered, tracked by serial number, repaired or replaced according to local rules, and given a 12-month warranty extension if the customer chooses repair. Someone needs to set up systems to handle all of this. Retailers usually have the tools to manage this complexity, but it comes at the cost of the brand’s relationship with customers.
Retailers have always been the ones with access to customer details. Now, the law gives them both a reason and a system to use that information.
Why appliance brands should care about warranty and right to repair, not relieved.
It might seem like good news that the retailer is liable, but it isn’t. This means the retailer now controls every important moment after the sale.
The retailer takes care of product registration, handles repairs, and offers warranty extensions when coverage is about to end. Since it keeps the full record, the retailer knows exactly when a machine is getting old and can guide the customer toward a replacement. Nothing is forcing the retailer to recommend any particular brand for that replacement.
Brands used to see warranty as just a cost and were happy to let retailers handle it. Now, with Right to Repair, warranty is how retailers can keep the customer relationship for the entire life of an appliance, which can be ten years or more. Smart retailers can use this to build stronger relationships and influence future purchases.
What is an appliance brand’s competitive advantage?
But brands are not powerless in this situation, even though many people overlook this.
Two obligations already sit with the manufacturer, not the retailer. Under Ecodesign rules, the brand has to supply spare parts and technical documentation for years after the sale. And the brand builds and accredits the repair network the whole system depends on. The parts, the schematics and the service capability are already yours.
What brands are missing is a reason and permission to contact customers directly. Warranty provides that reason. Manufacturers already have the parts and service networks that the repair economy depends on, but they still let someone else own the customer relationship.
Why an appliance brand wants to own the warranty and repair and maintenance services.
If the brand runs its own warranty and maintenance program, it can be present at every post-purchase moment that retailers usually control:
- Registration at unboxing, through a QR code on the machine, reaching the customer before the retailer’s own prompt does.
- Maintenance and consumables, the filters, seals and descaling kits that keep the brand in the customer’s home between purchases.
- The repair itself, run through the brand’s accredited network rather than a third party.
- The warranty extension, offered by the brand at the moment the legal cover would otherwise run out.
- The trade-in and win-back at end of life, timed to the upgrade, steering the next purchase back to the brand.
Each of these touchpoints is a chance for the brand to connect with customers it might not otherwise reach. Together, they create a valuable first-party data asset, based on the same obligation that retailers want to use for themselves.
How appliance brands can use warranty, repair and maintenance to drive direct-to-consumer sales without compromising on the distribution benefits of third party retail.
When only a small percentage of sales are direct, the brand’s whole first-party relationship depends on the few customers it can reach after the sale. This makes post-purchase the most valuable way for the brand to gain new customers, not just a minor opportunity.
Warranty registration is the easiest and most reliable way to increase that number. Customers have a real reason to share their details—they want coverage for a product they already own. This turns an anonymous sale through a retailer into a direct relationship with the brand. Plus, when a registered owner gets a service message, it gets through the filters that block cold marketing, since the customer agreed to be contacted when they registered.
The calculation is straightforward. Shifting even a small portion of the 92% to 98% of indirect customers into direct relationships is much more valuable than trying to get more from the 2% to 8% who already buy directly from the brand’s site.
The conclusion: Whoever owns the post-purchase relationship owns the next purchase.
At the moment, the default is for the retailer to own the customer relationship. Right to Repair laws make this even stronger by turning a legal requirement into a way for retailers to register and connect with what could be the brand’s customers.
Appliance brands can compete for this same ground. They already have the parts, the repair network, and the product. What’s missing is the choice to see warranty and repair as a way to connect with customers, instead of just a cost to pass on. The customer doesn’t have to belong to the retailer—the brand has to decide to keep them.
About Circulo
This is the work Circulo does: helping appliance brands move post-purchase out of the compliance column and into the growth one, so warranty, repair, maintenance and trade-in build a direct relationship, increase renetion and drive new sales.
If the 2026 Right To Repair deadline is on your desk, the most useful next step is to see what your post-purchase experience looks like today and where the revenue sits inside it. Circulo offers a free as-is mapping and gap analysis session.
Contact us at hello@circulo.tech
Sources: McKinsey channel benchmarks · EU Directive 2024/1799 · UK Ecodesign Regulations 2021 · Circulo brand intelligence research