Kitchen gadgets and gardening gear are among the hottest sellers on the Amazon website in Britain, the internet giant’s Trends Report shows.
Amazon.co.uk has 150 million products on its website and its summer report looked at popular retail trends as reflected by sales so far in 2016.
Trendsetters in 2016
Sales of home smokers increased 200% year-on-year as families across the UK attempted to recreate the rich smoky flavours of ham, almonds, garlic, game and cheese in their own homes.
Also, sales of bee-related products soared by 50% year-on-year with Amazon customers kitting their gardens out with solitary beehives and pollinating bee logs.
Bold pom-poms popped up all over the accessories and clothes of celebs like Cara Delevingne, Kendall Jenner, Gwyneth Paltrow, Lily James and Millie Mackintosh. As a result, they made a comeback amongst craft enthusiasts with Amazon seeing a 50% surge in sales of pom-pom makers.
Other popular products include: Fire TV Stick, vintage lightbulbs, Wunderbrow Brow Gel and Lego Star Wars. Many of the most popular products focused on health, fitness and well-being, like Pure Chimp Super Tea, and Lean in 15, a healthy eating guide by Joe Wicks, was the most popular print book.
The bestselling trends across the country
Some products are bestsellers across the country while others seem to resonate particularly strongly with a certain region or area.
- Party bubbles and LED disco balls were a hit with fun loving Scots.
- The craze for colouring books showed no sign of abating in Wales as local illustrator Millie Marotta dominated the bestsellers chart.
- Game of Thrones dominated the sales chart in Northern Ireland thanks to the epic backdrop being filmed in the province.
- Tooth whitening products, make-up brushes and Aurora Band Night Rollers were popular with Northern English consumers. Camping equipment like compasses, showers and sporks were other popular selling items in the region.
- Health, fitness and wellbeing were the buzzwords in London during the first half of the year. Joe Wicks’ Lean In 15 and Ella Woodward’s Deliciously Ella were some of the most popular books across the capital. Other bestselling products included baby wipes, Fire TV Stick and premium sleep masks.
- Pet-grooming products, Mane ‘n Tail and nutritional supplements for dogs, flew off the virtual shelves in the Midlands.
Health products are growing in popularity
Wellbeing products appear to be increasingly popular with sales of health products like organic coconut oil, aloe vera juice and Bragg Organic Cider Vinegar rocketing. This is also highlighted by 4 out of the top 10 print books sold by Amazon focusing on health and wellbeing, according to the trends report.
Craig Agutter, Manager of E-Commerce at World First, explains that there are an increasing number of online sellers operating in the health and wellbeing sector using World First.
He explains: “About 10 years ago, there were lots of marketplace sellers who sold books and CDs. This has gone down dramatically because of the growth in streaming music, films and games, and the fact that more books are being downloaded.”
“Now we are seeing more and more online sellers offering wellbeing products, nutritional supplements and healthcare goods. I think the reason for this is that there are lower barriers to entry and increasing numbers of consumers are interested in health and wellbeing.”
Enabling digital enterprise
The choice of more than 150 million different products Amazon offers its customers on its website is only made possible because of the incredible variety of products sold by third party sellers. Many of these are small businesses (SMEs), on its marketplace.and almost half of the purchases on Amazon’s global sites come from marketplace sellers.
The report highlighted too that the number of online sellers using its marketplace is growing. For example, in the UK marketplace sales to EU countries increased by a third in the last year.
The Amazon marketplace has been transformed into a sophisticated global shop window, Agutter explains: “An online marketplace is a brilliant way to reach large numbers of consumers globally. We have thousands of online sellers who use us for their online currency transfers and this figure is growing every year.”
Further reading: The online seller REVOLUTION of the East End rag trade
Trendsetters: World First and Amazon
The number of European and Middle East based online sellers using World First has increased 66% from August 2015 to the same point this year – paralleling the increasing growth of marketplace sales on the Amazon website. In addition, international sales turnover increased by 89% over the same period.
Optimising international payments
Agutter comments: “We have four and a half times the number of global online sellers using World First to help them optimise their international payments as they trade on global online marketplaces than we did two years ago. The growth in the last 12 months, to July 2016, stands at 122% year-on-year.
“During the same period, the number of transactions we have processed for those clients has increased nearly fivefold and their international sales turnover has increased by 360%.”
The content is for general information only and does not constitute investment, tax, legal, medical or other form of advice.
Further reading: Selling into the UK from Europe