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HOUSEHOLD WIPING OUT CORONAVIRUS: ONLINE SPIKE FOR CLEANING PRODUCTS Shoppers scouring shelves for disinfectant isn’t just a physical-store phenomenon, says ShelfTrend. ales in many cleaning product is one of the top movers. Sponges and scourers: categories have increased Disinfectants brought a significant Magic Eraser dominates substantially in the past two upswing in March versus February. Similar to cleaning cloths, the sponges months due to coronavirus In Australia, online volumes increased and scourers sector hasn’t attracted health concerns – and this was before by a factor of 14, in the UK by a factor the same level of activity as other stay-home measures were introduced, along with the concomitant boredom and hypersensitivity to one’s home environment this induces. According to Statista US data from mid-March, sales of aerosol disinfectants in that country were up nearly 400 per cent compared with the same time last year. Bath and shower wipes were up 180 per cent, multipurpose cleaners up 148 per cent. Online on eBay, we’re seeing similar trends looking across Australia, the US and the UK for a number of household cleaning categories, albeit with some of the top selling product formats varying by market. In most categories, most of what is listed and sold comes under unbranded generics, with some notable exceptions. Disinfectant goes off ... the charts The scarcity of hand sanitiser has become a new normal, at least in Australia, with Dettol sales increasing by 600 per cent as far back as mid-February, according to 10Daily. Online it’s no different in cleaning products. The most popular products in this subcategory on eBay in March were hospital grade disinfectant, selling more than 3,000 units a week, and alcohol isopropanol (2800-plus units a week) which can be used as a hand sanitiser. It should be noted that eBay banned sales of hand sanitiser and some other categories such as face masks in early March to prevent some sellers price gouging. The top selling products on eBay in the US are also disinfectants, particularly aerosol sprays, most of which are unbranded, although Lysol air spray and Windex antibacterial spray rate a mention. The other interesting category in the US is washing machine antibacterial tablets, which although only shifting 337 units a week compared with disinfectant’s nearly 5,000 units, of 10, and in the US, a staggering 30 times as many units were sold in March as February. The gloves are on ... Another category attracting huge increases is cleaning gloves, given their relationship to hand sanitation. Across the US, UK and Australia markets, significant spikes were recorded in March, with sales increasing as the month wore on. Of the subcategories we reviewed, this was the second largest selling category in units per week, with the top selling glove products, nearly all generics, moving 421 units a week in Australia, 594 in the US and 655 in the UK. It appears Americans are more into sprays and the Brits prefer gloves, although, interestingly, Australia had two-thirds the number of glove listings as the UK (and 40 per cent of the number of US listings). ... But not to use cleaning towels and cloths This category has remained reasonably flat in the past three months, albeit with a modest increase in the UK. Again, an abundance of listings is noted in Australia, with two-thirds of the number of those in the UK, and more than half those of the US. Top selling products in Australia are microfibre cloths at 180 units a week, followed by wipes at 29 a week, with both Chux and Scotts rating a mention. In the US, unbranded microfibre cloths dominate at 568 units a week for the top sellers, followed by Norwex enviro at 105. In the UK, microfibre cloths also dominate, with 511 units sold weekly for the top sellers. It should be noted that microfibre cloths may also be used for car cleaning, although with stay-at-home restrictions now largely in place in all three markets, we anticipate the need to clean cars will reduce somewhat in the immediate term. subcategories, albeit with, in Australia, Magic Eraser selling a respectable 195 units a week, silicon scrubbers 139 and spin brushes (for tile grout) 69. Magic Eraser is also a top seller in both the US and UK at 295 and 381 units a week, respectively, versus generic scrubbers at 111 and 66, respectively. Mops flatten here but grow overseas Mops accounted for the only cleaning category we reviewed where the overall trend was different in Australia to that of the US or UK markets. Despite an abundance of listings – nearly as many as the UK and one-third that of the US – in Australia, online mop sales peaked in January. We suspect this was due to the ash caused by the bushfires. While remaining reasonably high, subcategory sales have declined since. The top selling products online in Australia in March were polishers and slipper (shoe-style) mops, and Magic Mop at 31, 90 and 54 units a week, respectively. Regular flat mops barely rated. While in the US, where mop sales have increased in the past three months, flat mops were the number two seller at 181 units a week, (Magic Mops being number one at 232 units a week), with steam mops coming in third. In the UK, it was a similar story with Magic Mops at number one (182 units a week) and flat mops at number two (109 units a week). About ShelfTrend ShelfTrend is an eBay data provider available across more than 20 global markets in tens of thousands of categories. Our data intelligence tool tracks category performance and marketplace stats including top brands and sellers in the market, top selling products in a category, pricing and supply and demand gaps. Know more. Sell more. ShelfTrend. Shelftrend.com 50 RETAIL WORLD MAY, 2020