Number of people shopping for home
and garden products online rises
Betterware believes the sector will continue
to grow with more choosing online shopping because it provides better deals and
is more convenient
The number of searches for home and garden items over the Q3
2014 increased by 15 percent on the same period last year, recently released
figures from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) show.
The BRC and Google’s Online Retail Monitor suggest that
people are getting more comfortable when it comes to shopping online, buying a
more diverse selection of products, especially for home and garden. It’s also
thought that a strong housing market has acted as encouragement to consumers.
There was a 15 percent jump in retail search volumes from Q3
2013 and Q3 2014. The majority of searches were for vacuum cleaners,
blenders/juicers and beds.
BRC director general, Helen Dickson, said: “Given this
trend, it’s not surprising that we’re seeing people take to the internet to
decorate and furnish their homes as well as finding the funds to purchase them.
Search volumes in the home and garden category have risen 15 percent compared
with the same period last year. This is likely due to an increasingly health
housing market as sales in these categories tend to be directly impacted by
house sales.”
She also believes that the figures show “consumers are
becoming more and more comfortable searching for a wider variety of products
on-the-go than has previously been the case.”
Weather could have also played a part, with bad weather
leading to more to shop from the comfort of their own home.
Google retail director, Peter Fitzgerald, said: “Home and
garden continues to be one of the fastest growing online retail sectors with
15% year on year growth in the third quarter. A warm July led to slower
year-on-year growth but that changed in August when ex-hurricane Bertha came to
the UK leading to a marked increase in home searches.”
Betterware said the findings tie-in with their own
experience. They say that they’re receiving a growing number of people visiting
their online store via homeware and gardenware search results.
A spokeswoman for Betterware said: “Shoppers are now much
more comfortable getting online and buying products for their home or garden
than they were even a few years ago. But we’re also getting a lot more existing
Betterware customers who are choosing to shop online because of the extra
convenience and new deals.
“In particular, there has been tremendous growth in the
number of people using their smartphones to visit our online shop and do their
homeware shopping. And with winter fast approaching we’re expecting lots more
interest in coming months as the weather and dark nights discourage people from
visiting the high street.”
Betterware is one of the UK’s favourite sellers of
housewares. Based in Birmingham, they’re known for their low prices and wide
range of goods, delivering throughout the country. Visit their website today at www.betterware.co.uk for more information.