Whenever we go out may it be for work, for holiday or function at the end of the day or at the end of the tour we all say that, now I need to go home. Besides the four walls and the people residing in it, what makes home a home is some of the artifacts and some house ware items that gives comfort and please our heart. And specially in this lockdown period house is the only place we can be. Let’s have a look on this major fact that was observed during lockdown.
Home furnishing brands have done very well out of lockdown, with locked in consumers seeking to make their cage more gilded. In fact, online furniture has become a big hit.
According to personal finance experts at money.co.uk, searches for furniture and homewares was up 75% between 1 April and 31 May, with Independent furniture retailer Furniture Village tops the list as the most-searched brand with 307% more searches during lockdown.
Its Brand-a-Lust Report takes 375 of the UK’s top brands from YouGov’s Consumer Popularity Ratings and applies Google Trends and Google Search Volume data, to reveal the UK most lusted-after brands during lockdown.
Homeware and Interior brands within the report saw an average increase of 75% and a whopping 29,190,600 searches per month.
Home furnishing fans in Plymouth made the most searches, followed by Ipswich, Stoke-on-Trent, and Newton-le-Willows.
Carpetright came in second place with a surge in searches of 238%, with the majority of shoppers searching for the brand based in Ipswich.
Dunelm takes third position with a search increase of 180% and the top searching location for the popular homeware brand was Stoke-on-Trent.
In fact, the top seven homeware and interior brands including; Furniture Village, Carpetright, Dunelm, Sofology, Marks & Spencer, HomeSense, and Ikea all saw an increase in searches above 100% when compared to pre-lockdown levels.
However, it was a different story for Topps Tiles, Howdens, and Loaf as all three homeware brands saw a decrease in searches. Tile specialists Topps Tiles saw a -8% decrease in searches when compared to pre-lockdown. As well as Howdens, which saw a 10% decrease and Loaf with a 30% decrease in searches.
With many more shops reopening, the temptation may be there to head out a splurge on the brands we have been longing after. However, as money.co.uk’s personal finance expert Salman Haqqi, explains: “With non-essential shops slowly beginning to reopen their doors to the general public, it might be tempting to head out and splash the cash on some of our favourite brands to celebrate. However, it’s worth making sure that you are getting the best deal possible and sticking to a budget, no matter how enticing the prices may look.”
Haqqi concludes: “The novelty of visiting a bricks and mortar store is appealing, but it’s likely that better deals and lower prices can still be found online. Try visiting the virtual high street first to do your research, before you head out onto the physical high street; especially if you’re using a credit card to fund your purchases.”
Here we can majorly see the shift in trends from bricks and mortar to click and mortar. As many are used to buy products after actually feeling and handling the products by their hands but this shift is again another way to enter the new normal. Change your mood with slight redesigning your home environment and make it more interesting and comfortable.
