Study: Younger consumers tend their gardens during pandemic
Online purchases of home and garden products among consumers 18-55 are flourishing as COVID-19 restricts their movements.
According to analysis of transactions made through digital payments provider Klarna, Gen Z (ages 18-23), millennials (ages 24-39) and Gen X (ages 40-55) all increased their share of spending on home and garden products. Share of spending on these items—such as furniture, tools and home improvement, pet supplies, kitchenware, plants and flowers, and cleaning products—grew by 40% among Gen Z, 4% among millennials and 2% among Gen X week-over-week in the week ended April 25.
In addition, home and garden sales continued their upward trend for the sixth week in a row as Gen Zers, millennials and Gen Xers continued to shift share of wallet toward the category.
Other key findings:
• Week-over-week in the week ended April 25, the apparel, footwear and accessories category’s share of all purchases made through the Klarna app increased slightly among Gen Z, millennials and Gen X.
• All three demographic groups decreased their share of spending on leisure, sport and hobby, health and beauty, and electronics week-over-week in the week ended April 25.
• Share of spending on marketplaces (which include sites such as Amazon.com, Walmart.com, Target.com and eBay.com) fell slightly week over week among Gen Z and millennials, but ticked up slightly among Gen X.
• Warehouse clubs saw their second-best day of the year on April 23, behind only the Friday before most of the U.S. went under some kind of quarantine (March 13).
“We know U.S. consumers have been focusing for several weeks on items that will make their home life more pleasant and comfortable as they wait out partial quarantines aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus,” said David Sykes, head of U.S. at Klarna. “That indicates that people are still concentrating on improving their home environments, even as retail and other businesses begin to return to normal in a number of markets across the US. Stay-at-home orders are being lifted, but people still seem to be planning to stay in most of the time.”
Klarna analyzed purchase volumes for items bought through the Klarna app, which allows consumers to shop at any online store, for the weeks of April 19–25, April 12–18, April 5–11, March 29–April 4, March 22–28, March 15–21 and for an average week based on the five-week period covering Feb. 1–March 7, 2020.