The “New Normal” and ecommerce: the most popular products of the summer

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How to predict shopping trends in COVID summertime

From the beginning of the lockdown in March of 2020, a golden era for ecommerce appeared to be opening up.

Nevertheless, after the end of lockdown in many countries, shopping trends started to change again — revealing that sales trends and demand in this situation will be more unpredictable than originally foreseen.

Now that people can easily access face masks, citizens are returning to brick-and-mortar stores and resorting to online purchases less than before.

In general, the figures for digital commerce have been — and continue to be — positive, with incredible ecommerce penetration rate among Internet users.

The surprise has been seeing how fast consumers’ priorities shift, with new flagship products for summer that have nothing to do with those that quickly sold out during the spring.

Consumers’ greatest interests and concerns related with the “new normal”

According to Google Insights, users have modified their online searches since the start of the global health crisis and seem to have new concerns that impact their purchases.

Reopening of shops and schools

The availability of online shops during their normal hours and the conditions under which they can be visited influence the trust that consumers have when deciding to hit the streets to go shopping again.

Depending on the offerings of each region, buyers will return to physical shopping or continue making purchases online.

Moderate spending

Financial worries continue to have a lot of influence over online users. Instability brought on by the crisis — an instability that seems to be here to stay for the near future — is making many buyers spend less and be more in tune with special offers and promotions, especially this year as sales will basically be online.

Wellbeing priorities

Queries on products related with a healthy lifestyle, sport, and finding calm at home have increased — from vitamins and white noise machines to gym accessories.

Do it yourself

Over the last few months, consumption of tutorials online has shot up, especially video tutorials. That provides clues about the popularity that DIY products will continue to enjoy — especially for the house and garden or terrace, as these areas will become places to relax and have vacations during the summer.

Local products

Online “near me” searches have also increased. This interest in local buying is due to the fact that consumers prefer nearby shops that ensure faster shipments or that they can visit in person under more stringent safety measures than large shopping centers with a greater number of visitors and which require traveling a farther distance.

The most successful products during the summer

As we were saying before, the main big change has been passing from mass sustenance purchases (focused on groceries and cleaning and pharmacy products) to the inclusion of non-essential items.

For example, it is interesting that in Finland searches for “pools” or in Poland “lawn mowers” have resurfaced.

In terms of online sales, interest has been steady for sporting goods, furniture, garden care, technology, and appliances. Although the most impactful surge has been that of fashion and footwear, a sector that many analysts thought would be dead for the next few months and which has grown by 50% in terms of online sales since the end of the lockdown.

Summer equipment

Amongst the most sought after products are inflatable pools, as public and private pools will be kept closed or have capacity limits. The same is true with loungers and beach umbrellas: of course they can be used at beaches, but many buyers are planning to put them on balconies, terraces, and in gardens to avoid contact and overly busy beaches.

Fashion and footwear

While this is a product category that is less essential during times of crisis, perhaps the increase in online sales of clothing, shoes, and accessories is due to the fast fashion fad that most of the members of the population follow, and due to the attractive discounts launched by almost all clothing brands and retailers.

DIY and furniture

In terms of equipment for the summer, buyers continue to be quite interested in improving their homes to enjoy the time spent there. Remodeling of indoor spaces is slowly giving way to outdoor spaces and to garden and terrace furniture and accessories like fences and lattice, awnings, tables and chairs, hammocks and loungers, DIY flooring, portable grills, and plants.

School and learning materials

After months of learning from home, families need to keep their children entertained. This summer there won’t be the traditional camps and summer activities, or these things will be held but with less capacity and attendees — meaning more time at home that should not be spent solely with technology.

Online sales of educational materials and games have kept up with the good figures they had during the lockdown.

Sports

Despite an increase in temperatures, it doesn’t seem that the population is going to give up on the new exercise habits that were formed during the quarantine. Having said that, interests have changed: for example, purchases of static bicycles, treadmills, and yoga products for home have gone down compared with bicycles and scooters for outdoors, running shoes, and sports clothing for outdoor activities.

Conclusion

The desire to foresee trends has always been high amongst manufacturers and sellers, but in unstable and unpredictable times like these, this hope should be taken with a pinch of salt. The best recommendations are to pay attention to the evolution of the relaxation and safety measures in each region in accordance with the sales area and the distribution of the brand or retailer, and observe consumer interests closely.

Summer trends seem as obvious, but with small subtleties that bring indoor and home products to the fore. Adjusting the catalog’s offerings, applying strategies to get rid of less popular stock, and improving your product content with the most searched keywords will keep many companies from suffocating during the unpredictable and hot summer months.