A 25% jump in sales of bathroom mirrors prompted Bathrooms.com to research the growing trend for selfies. And from markets to changing rooms, it seems commerce locations are a likely spot for a shared self-portrait.
By analysing 387,820 photos tagged ‘selfie’, the pureplay’s blog team discovered that the market was the most likely place to take a self-portrait, with 31,300 pictures taken between 2010 and 2015. Planes (30,600) and the lounge (27,300) also ranked highly. Some 13,700 selfies were taken in mirrors, while retail changing rooms (11,400) were the 13th most likely place to take a picture.
Ian Monk, chief executive of Bathrooms.com, said: “We never expected markets around the world to be the number one spot for taking selfies, however considering the popularity of markets in general as well as their cultural significance in many countries, it’s not as unusual as people might first think.
“Reflecting Bathrooms.com’s 25% increase in mirror sales over the last two years we weren’t surprised by the number of vainselfies taken in front of mirrors. It was however interesting to see rooms in the home ranking as popular selfie spots too, with the kitchen and lounge making the top 10, with bathrooms lower down the list.”
Our view: At Internet Retailing we’ve seen the utility of smartphone photography in retail. Very.co.uk , for example, enables customers to research products choices by taking photographs of an item they want through its app. The recently-debuted Face by Holition app that enabled shoppers to take their own picture and see how different kinds of make-up would look on them. Meanwhile, social sharing of potential outfits has been a staple for some time. The rise of the selfie in retail locations from markets to changing rooms suggests wider potential for brands to enable both them and social sharing through their mobile apps.
