Google Trends Data Reveals UK Search Habits Throughout Lockdown

The 2020 s will be analysed for decades to come with the Covid-1 9 pandemic being one of the biggest world-wide affairs in peacetime. Everyone has been affected over the past two years but the retail area is having a particularly difficult time with almost 50 high street places closing every day, according to the latest UK chassis.

Luckily, we don’t need to wait for research companies and historians to lift the lid on what’s going on because search data tells us what purchasers are doing in real-time. In this article, we take a look at how Google Trends data divulges the changing buyer dress of consumers in the UK throughout the pandemic( data and likeness courtesy of Think with Google ).

Search data stipulates real-time insights

Throughout the pandemic, Google has published insights disclose the drastic shifts in purchaser attitude as government limiteds, infection rates and public attitudes have changed.

Google has live access to the interests, concerns and actions of everyone using search or a Google Account- from UK consumers to the business owners fighting to make it through the most challenging period in decades.

Search data offers the most honest reflection of what’s going on in the mind of consumers and business owners- not based on questions and the retrospective answers people choose to give, but on their actions.

We can look at search data to understand all of the following in real-time 😛 TAGEND

How parties feel What people know How parties make a living How beings learn What people do

So let’s take a look at some of the insights research data has discovered throughout the pandemic.

Insights from the first lockdown in early 2020

As the UK counted in 2020 at midnight on New Year’s Eve, report of a highly contagious coronavirus disseminate in China was already establishing headline bulletin and the first justified bags in the UK were recorded on January 29.

On 23 March 2020, Boris Johnson announced a national lockdown, informing the public to stay at home and all non-essential businesses to close their doors.

An initial focus on longevity

Search data are demonstrating that, when the UK firstly went into lockdown, the focus was on longevity with searches for “can you freeze” recipes and food items increasing by 5.5 X or 450%.

Consumers carefully selected groceries to see themselves through an indefinite lockdown with increased searches for staple foods and a soaring interest in home baking. Flour became one of the most in-demand commodities during the course of its firstly lockdown, developing in a shortage of the ingredient differentiating with an abundance of banana bread uprights across social media.

Adapting to life at home

With schools and workplaces closed, genealogies were confined to their homes and the realities of driving, studying and living in the same building caused new challenges. The scramble to create home offices and classrooms drove a 140% increase in searches for tables while a 400% increase in searches for “what is a verb? ” disclosed some of the nervousnes mothers were facing in their brand-new personas as home teachers.

Confined to the home, UK customers succession just about everything online and is asking for transmissions expanded by 500%. Search directions ever seen before in significant capacities emerged throughout lockdown, including searches for “fish and chips give, ” balloons deliver” and( can you believe it) “tea delivery”.

As lockdown progressed, so did scour interests and the focus gradually shifted from longevity into enjoyment and mental survival. With the banana bread trend come to an end, residence cooks turned to recreating some of their more indulgent choices from a pre-Covid world- as seen in a 10 X increase of searches for “how to see chicken nuggets”.

Even the searches for tea became more elaborate with a 10 X increase in searches for “afternoon tea delivery” during the latter theatres of lockdown.

The displacement towards man increase

In response to being held at home, many people in the UK turned to self and dwelling progress to create a better liaison with their environment. In March 2020, searches for online yoga had increased by 1,000% from the previous year while searches for “living room colours” increased by 110%.

At the same time, people replenished their term learning brand-new sciences for the long-term, as seen in the growing interest in baking, DIY and the 10 X increases in searches for “how to play guitar”.

Interest in makeup and the clothing you would associate with going out sunk but searches for “how to cut your own hair” increased by 1,000%, be accompanied by a 100% increase in searches for “how to fix bad hair” and a social media trend of announcing images of lockdown haircuts gone wrong.

The hope for a return to’ normality’

As the weeks of lockdown gradually tallied up, the wish for a return to normality intensified and this was observable in the search data. As the trend towards lockdown haircuts flourished thin, the recommend to do things we once made for conceded rise and the dominant search trend became “when will[ business/ work] open” searches.

In the meantime, parties noted ways to interact online while they were unable to meet in public with a 300% an increasing number of explorations related to online gaming and a 1,000% increase in searches for online bar quizzes.

Then, with lockdown principles easing toward the end of May, hope originated that the second half of 2020 could deliver some ability of normality and the most difficult of the pandemic might be over.

Insight from the second half of 2020

Unfortunately, one lockdown wasn’t enough to overcome the pandemic and the UK faced further restrictions in the second half of 2020 but the second lockdown exposed widely differing practices to the first.

Online supermarket here to stay

As the first lockdown naturalness, online shopping wonts remained and it was clear that businesses with an online attendance were orientation for the best recovery.

It wasn’t simply a fright of Covid-1 9 that was encouraging people to do more of their shop online, either. In happening, the virus polled last out of eight reasons for parties choosing to buy their next mobile phone online instead of visiting a high street store.

However, retailers need to understand that the average hopes of online shoppers have changed as a result of the drive towards online patronizing. If you take a look at the taste of consumers “whos” digitally altered during the pandemic compared to those who were mostly shopping online before the outbreak, “youre seeing” various imbalances 😛 TAGEND

Shoppers who are less used to buying online are more sensitive to the limitations on online suffers- eg: not being able to try robes on, visualize products in-person, buy products instantly, etc.

With more of these beings patronizing online more often, retailers need to address these challenges more efficiently , wherever possible. For example, you might optimise the browsing event, include higher-res idols and shorten transmission meters to improve the overall suffer for parties less be applicable to store online.

Make advantage of short-term tends

Given the uncertainty caused by the pandemic, organizations have to respond to the short-term needs of consumers to maximise recovery. Again, this is why real-time search data is so valuable: it helps occupations respond to changes in consumer demand quickly.

Travel has been a perfect example of this with fellowships having to cater for an increased demand for holidays- both in the UK and overseas.

Demand for international hasten has fluctuated vastly during the pandemic with entryway controls changing overnight in the UK and popular holiday ends. All of this uncertainty has fuelled a spurt in proceed within the UK, including household getaways and a preference for short-term rentals over inns.

As we’ve seen in all the regions of the pandemic, shoppers are seeking to waste serious money on purchases and this has included a rise in expensive holiday bookings within the UK– something that has been instrumental in price inflation.

This has been true-blue throughout the pandemic, though, with UK customers planning for Christmas earlier in 2020 and planning to spend more than the previous year, despite the ongoing uncertainty.

Turning examination insights into business opportunities

Businesses were hit hard by the pandemic and many retailers are still fighting for survival almost two years later. However, some retailers have managed to thrive during this difficult period by transitioning to online ask and in a response to tends quickly.

Search data uncovers the changing interests of consumers, as they advance, and companies can use real-time insights to inform key business decisions. In this article, we’ve summarised some of the key tendencies to emerge in all the regions of the pandemic but there’s far more depth to the data available than we’ve been able to cover here today.

Retailers have to respond to the brand-new regular- one that’s dominated by search and online shopping.

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