According to Amazon, the retail giant broke its worldwide holiday sales record again in 2018. In preparation for the festive season, customers ordered more items than ever before.
In the meantime, Ebay cooked up a different kind of report - shedding light on consumer preferences. Some clear shopping trends seem to have surfaced...
Unsurprisingly, big sellers (with 6,5 million sold units) were electronic goods and household items. A Jamie Oliver Tefal pan is leading the pack in this category.
In the “Health a Personal Care” category, a special kind of calendar takes home the popularity prize: the “Feel More Love” erotic calendar. Durex’s pack of 40 condoms wins the silver medal.
Another important online shopping trend revolves around “Smart Home.” Consumers for example bought large amounts of “smart” lamps that can be turned on or off using a smartphone. A slightly less exciting but useful best-seller were smoke-detectors.
The scorching summer temperatures also impacted our online shopping trends: more than 3,700 swimming pools were sold on Ebay between April and September - per day. In a related vein, the online marketplace also sold record numbers of air conditioners and cooling fans. On 31 July alone, online shoppers ordered 7,400 air conditioners and 15,600 fans.
The American skateboarding and clothing brand Supreme also benefited from an unprecedented hype. In April, consumers for example searched for the Supreme-designed Rimowa luggage collection on Ebay every 1.9 minutes.
The German online marketplace “Wer liefert was” on the other hand recorded more extraordinary buyer tastes. Customers ordered record numbers of container homes, explosion proof fridges, baobab trees, chastity belts and even unicorns.
Like every year, alcohol also remains an absolute online bestseller. 2018 was particularly the year of Scottish single malt whisky. 16-year-old Lagavulin and 10-year-old Laphroaig were among the favourites.
