According to new insights released from the fully impartial price and product comparison site, PriceSpy, Covid-19 has changed New Zealand shopping trends.
Liisa Matinvesi-Bassett, New Zealand country manager for PriceSpy, says: “Now more than ever, we are seeing just how much Covid-19 has influenced consumer shopping habits. For example, based
on our historical click data across Alert Levels 4, 3 and 2, the top five trending shopping categories* on PriceSpy were found to be:Portable game consolesWebcamsBread makersStand mixers & kitchen mixersChest freezers
* PriceSpy year-on-year click data (30th March (when essential goods became available to buy) to 8th June 2020 vs 30th
March to 8th June 2019)
Liisa continues: “When you look through the wider list of top 20 trending product categories, some really unusual ones
appear. For example, board games, LEGO, vacuum cleaners, espresso machines and hair trimmers & clippers are prime examples of how shopping trends have changed because of Covid-19 and more people staying in.
“Even as New Zealand dropped into Alert Level 3 and Alert Level 2, consumers have continued to click on the ‘do it
yourself’ product categories, such as hair trimmers & clippers and coffee machines, indicating not everyone might be ready to get back to living life normally just yet.”Top 20 trending shopping categories that increased most in popularity*Year-on-year click dataPortable Game consoles+1756%Webcams+1015%Bread makers+486%Stand Mixers & Kitchen Machines+283%Chest freezers+250%LEGO+207%Fan heaters+112%Hair trimmers & clippers+188%Gaming steering wheels & pedals+151%Board games+128%Espresso machines+120%Nintendo Switch Games+123%Fan heaters+112%CPUs+78%Vacuum cleaners+67%Monitors+57%Fridge freezers+40%Game consoles+26%TVs+22%Headphones+1%
* PriceSpy year-on-year click data (30th March (when essential goods became available to buy) to 8th June 2020 vs 30th
March to 8th June 2019)
Liisa continues: “Surprisingly, our research also found some of the shopping categories that decreased in popularity the
most over the same date range were categories we’d normally expect to be trending, highlighting just how much Covid-19
and lockdown levels has impacted the retail world.Shopping categories*Year-on-year click dataLaptops-33%Mobile phones-32%PS4 games-23%DSLR cameras-19%Tablets-6%
* PriceSpy year-on-year click data (30th March (when essential goods became available to buy) to 8th June 2020 vs 30th
March to 8th June 2019)
Liisa concludes: “With all restrictions now lifted in New Zealand (with the exception of boarder controls), it will be
interesting to see what kind of effect life post Covid-19 will have on retail and shopping trends moving forward.
“Will Kiwis continue to bake bread, make their own flat whites at home or give family members a quick hair cut? Or will
life resume back to what it was before pre Covid-19?
“For anyone that is looking to make a purchase, our key piece of advice is to make sure people conduct important price
research before they buy. Price points fluctuate and vary throughout the day, so using a price comparison site like PriceSpy can help consumers keep a close eye on how much things ‘really’ cost, saving them hundreds if not thousands of dollars
in the long run”.
www.pricespy.co.nzAbout PriceSpy:
PriceSpy is a comprehensive price and product comparison service used by millions of consumers every month. It helps consumers
find, discover, research and compare products.
PriceSpy has 108,000 indexed products, 1,730,000 indexed prices, 584,000 product ratings, 7,510 store ratings and 1183 stores.
Providing a fully impartial comparison service for consumers and a deep depository of price data for retailers.
Prisjaktlaunched in the year 2000 and is Sweden's largest price comparison service. The service is known in Sweden and
Norway asPrisjakt, and in the UK, Ireland and New Zealand asPriceSpy.