Shift in trend from Zoom to groom as shops open
With offices and shops back open, the UK’s workers are keen to inject some colour back into their lives, with sales of bright make-up on the up.
New data reveals searches for lipstick in the energising and positive shade of red have risen by 30 per cent, with searches for foundation up by 22 per cent, eyeliner by 242 per cent, highlighter 266 per cent and primer by 120 per cent.
In March official figures on the impact of COVID-19 on the economy showed that more British people returned to offices after schools in England reopened on March 8.
“The pandemic has evolved many of our habits from how we work, to what we wear, to how we shop,” said NearSt co-founder Nick Brackenbury.
“Lounge wear replaced formal wear, slippers overtook heels and with minimal real life interactions, makeup increasingly made its way to the back of the bathroom cabinet.
“With many discovering untouched items have seen better days, this snapshot reveals a burst of activity as the loosening of lockdown started to take effect.
“Whether it was sharpening up our look for the school run or a return to the office, the data paints a picture of Zoom to groom.”
As the government’s
‘stay at home’ order relaxed, workers started to return to the square mile at the beginning of April.
According to the retail technology firm NearSt’s data, ablutions are also taking place as the nation de-fuzzes.
Paired with spikes in rising temperatures, shoppers have increasingly hunted for razors (plus 66 per cent), hair removal cream (plus 400 per cent) and waxing strips (300 per cent) on local high streets.
There has also been a burst of enthusiasm and appetite for fragrances - with perfume searches up 480 per cent.
Mr Brackenbury added: “Technology has totally changed how shoppers think
about finding products nearby over the past 12 months.
“We all know about the boom in ecommerce sales, but what’s been largely overlooked is the even bigger surge in shoppers going online to hunt out products in nearby high streets.
“We saw a seven fold jump in local product searches in places like Google last year, with 2021 settling on four times the volume of pre-pandemic levels.
“Google also reported an 8,000 per cent increase in searches for “who has ... in stock” last year.
“This emerging consumer behaviour of searching and discovering products online to buy in nearby physical stores presents an exciting new opportunity for small and large retailers alike.”
The company founded in 2015 by Max Kreijn and Nick Brackenbury, allows people searching for products
online to see where they are stocked in nearby shops – making it as convenient to shop on your local high street as it is on Amazon. Shops install software that automatically connects to their point of sale or inventory system so that stock shows up in Google search results.
Each month the NearLIVE platform captures over three billion local data points covering almost every corner of retail.
Shop owners who are interested in making their stock visible online should visit near.st to begin their simple setup. The data used above was identified by analysing localised product search data for England, Scotland and Wales between March 1 and March 15 2021 through its platform. It is a measure of people looking to find products in local shops that are showing stock instore in places like Google.