The main drivers behind the lockdown growth
The main drivers behind the lockdown growth at the start of the year were led by four key trends:
working from home
For many product groups, we have already achieved the same value in weeks 1 - 39 this year that we achieved in the whole of 2019. This includes product groups such as Freezers, Monitors, Keyboards and Mice.
In many other cases we have even surpassed the year to date sales of post- Black Friday, with the best performing categories so far being Hair Clippers (growing 80% in 2020), Core Wearables (+30%), Freezers (+60%) and Coffee Machines (+58%).
These are all products that are useful during lockdown, and illustrate the abrupt change from considered purchasing to 'I need it now' purchases, to get us through this time.
One area that was hit hard by the lockdown period was the Smart phone market.
This sector experienced a decline in sales, as it didn’t fit with the "immediate needs" purchasing that we saw during the first lockdown -especially as communication through laptops and tablets increased, given the better video experience.
However, this sector could now boost Q4 further, as we see sales start to pick up again and new launches in the final few months of the year. There is also potential for an increase in promotional activity to try and entice customers to buy a new handset or upgrade from their existing contract.