UK consumers are seeking a balance between the online and offline world as they purchase more physical games, says eBay’s third annual UK retail report.
Shopping behaviour is reflecting consumers’ values
In fact, searches for ’mindfulness’ have increased by 25% on eBay UK over the past two years, and searches for ’fishing,’ ’board games’ and ’colouring-in’ peaked in January 2018 as UK shoppers bought these products to support their New Year’s resolutions, according to the eBay report. It analysed how different factors are influencing consumers’ purchasing behaviour on ebay.co.uk.
British shoppers are now choosing more sustainable items: sales for re-usable straws have increased six-fold in July, compared to May this year.
Tech classics including typewriters, pagers, iPods and Polaroid cameras have triggered ’nostalgic shopping,’ with these items ranking as the most popular ’retro’ devices for UK shoppers. eBay cites one consumer that searched for Nokia 3310 every three minutes on eBay UK.
Media effect remains influential
Searches on eBay UK for ’African dress’ saw a hike of 25% following big screen hits like Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Avengers: Infinity and Black Panther.
Meghan’s, Duchess of Sussex Givenchy wedding dress saw a 60% growth in searches for the designer in May. Sales of terrarium saw a 229% growth in searches when compared to last year as Instagram influencers posted inspirational pictures around the trend.
Love Island-related purchases such as the named water bottles used by the contestants saw a 95% spike, with 22 bottles selling every minute over the course of the series. Sales of S’well, re-usable bottles that are supported by Emily Ratajkowski and Reese Witherspoon experienced double-digital sales, with more 80% of purchases made via mobile. This suggests that shoppers are motived to shop by inspiration on the big screen.
Rob Hattrell, vice president of eBay in the UK says: “When it comes to shopping trends if it’s happening in Britain, we’ll see it happening on eBay. Our UK Retail Report 2018, eBay’s third in the UK, gives unparalleled insight into how the nation has shopped over the last year.”
“With 23 million Brits searching and shopping on eBay every week, we have rich data that reflects the trends influencing our nation’s trends and habits. Today’s eBay Retail Report reflects the value and variety that the 200,000 entrepreneurs operating on our UK marketplace bring to shoppers, both at home and abroad.”
Photo credit: Screenshot of eBay
