What Retail Categories Are Booming Due To Coronavirus?

As the world enters another week of lockdown, life as we knew it has changed. From; where we work (most commonly now our kitchens) to what we do with our leisure time (bars and cafes are closed but alcohol and cookbook sales are up) to how we exercise (gyms and clubs are closed but there are more runners and cyclists on the streets than ever before)..

Because of these changes purchasing behaviors globally have been heavily impacted as long-established norms have been eradicated.

While the coronavirus pandemic has proved catastrophic for many retail categories there are others that are positively booming, especially online.

In the past 2 weeks, Amazon has announced that it will hire an additional 175,000 employees to allow them to keep up with demand, but it’s not just the global retail giant that has seen a huge jump in online sales. 

According to research from Stackline these are some of the online categories that have seen significant increases since lockdowns were put in place around the globe. 

Bread Makers – 652% Increase 

With people in lockdown, there has been an explosion in people buying bread makers to produce their own bread. This has also seen increases in orders for products like flour. 

Toilet Paper – 190% Increase  

During the peak of panic buying many stores ran out of toilet paper so consumers turned online for their needs, with a near 200% increase in orders. 

Computer Monitors – 172% Increase 

With offices closed people have been snapping up computer monitors to improve their home office setups and increase their productivity while working from home.  

Hair Colouring – 115% Increase 

With hair salons closed across the world, consumers are attempting to keep the grey away themselves with at-home hair colorants soaring.  

Ping Pong – 89% Increase 

With kids stuck at home Ping Pong seams tables?/sets? have seen a near doubling in sales, either that or the office Ping Pong tables from tech companies are being replicated in home offices. 

There are also plenty of categories that have seen significant decreases in sales due to the lockdown too. Not surprisingly these include luggage which has dropped 77% and has seen leading brands like AWAY furlough staff. While Bridal Clothing sales have dropped by 63% with venues being closed and weddings being postponed till later in 2020 or 2021.  

Not included in the research are alcohol sales, but data from Edinburgh based Flavourly, who sell craft beer by the case, shows a 400% increase in sales for the month of April so far, with the business on course to deliver over 1m beers. Assean Sheikh, Co-founder at Flavourly, said “We’ve seen demand skyrocket as consumers are forced to stay at home. This has resulted in us doubling our customer service and warehouse teams to enable us to keep up with demand as well as introducing social distancing measures in our warehouse. We’re grateful to be able to support our brewing partners and customers during the shutdown.” 

Whilst the above  categories have seen increases in the last couple of weeks unfortunately as consumer spending slows due to job losses, online sales have the potential to slide back and shouldn’t be looked at as a replacement for offline sales for many companies.