The best-selling lockdown products we had to have
It wasn’t all just toilet paper and alcohol, demand for home offices, nurseries, veggie patches and outdoor living set-ups sent some retailers into overdrive. LOCKDOWN LUST LIST
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When the global pandemic hit, Queenslanders turned their focus to their homes and gardens with a boom in DIY projects.
Homewares stores and nurseries experienced the busiest influx they’ve seen in decades selling out of ‘must-haves’ including vegetable seedlings and potting mix.
Home furniture giant Ikea saw demand increase for outdoor products including shelving units and outdoor lounges by almost 500 per cent in the last 12 months.
With international travel off the cards and more time spent in the home, an Ikea Australia spokesperson said it prompted a spike in people investing in home furniture.
“One of the biggest changes people faced in 2020 was the rise in the home office with many transforming spare bedrooms, dining room tables and kitchen tops into home offices,” the spokesperson said.
“In 2020, many desks sold more than five times compared to the year before with sit/stand desks among our most popular within this space.
“Ergonomic chairs have seen more than a 100 per cent increase from 2019 with some chairs even seeing up to 200 per cent growth.”
Ikea’s 2020 Life at Home Report found one in 10 Australians didn’t feel content and at ease in their homes during lockdown and 17 per cent claimed their home was not designed to help them live how they want.
It fuelled a dramatic rise in sales for home organisation products which saw a growth of 119.7 per cent in 2020 compared to the year before.
But there’s one surprising product that went gangbusters.
“The Bergenes holder for mobile phone is selling at six times our normal quantity and tablet stands tripled in sales in the last six months of 2020,” the Ikea spokesperson said.
“Kallax shelving units and Pax wardrobe frames continued to be in the highest top selling items, indicating that people are investing the time to planning and implementing large-scale storage solutions.”
Australian household chain Bunnings Warehouse said COVID-19 prompted a shift towards the outdoors with gardening products their most popular items in their Queensland stores.
“During the peak of COVID-19, Queensland customers focused a lot of their attention on their gardens,” said Bunnings regional operations manager for Queensland South Marg Walford.
“In particular, growing an edible garden became hugely popular as people became motivated to find ways to live more sustainably.”
Bunnings listed potting mix among their top selling items alongside pavers, storage tubs, PPE equipment and drop sheets.
Scott Franklin, the national sales manager for Queensland’s Pohlmans Nursery, who supplies products to large supermarket and hardware chains, said they couldn’t keep up with the demand.
“Vegetable seedlings were being stripped off trolleys when they arrived in stores, they weren’t even buying punnets, they were buying whole trays which is 10 times the amount,” he said.
“It was like the toilet paper rush, it was madness.”
Brookfield Gardens general manager Tennille Sharp couldn’t believe the demand for seeds.
“There were some people who have been in the industry for over 30 years and said they’ve never experienced anything quite like it,” she said.
“We would have three deliveries a week and people were taking the items off the trolleys before we could put them on the floor.”
Nursery and Garden Industry Queensland CEO Ian Atkinson said it was “maniacally busy.”
“We were hearing week on week increases in terms of demand by 50 per cent and early on there was a stage you couldn’t buy vegetable seedlings for love or money,” he said.
“Gardens went beresk we had members with month on month record sales, a lot of growers saw an industry growth and business sales growth in the order of 30 per cent.”
Outdoor was one of the highest performing areas of the business for Ikea Australia throughout 2020 with their Kolbjorn shelving unit, used for outdoor storage, experiencing a 494 per cent growth since March 2020.
“Outdoor lounges have seen the biggest turnover in growth in this area of the business, both in solitaire lounges like Mastholmen (483% growth since March 2020) and Hogsten (325% growth since March 2020) which are suitable for both big and small outdoor spaces,” the spokesperson said.
“Runnen outdoor floor decking has also seen continued growth (279% growth increase since March 2020) which indicates that people are investing the time to redo and fix up their outdoor areas properly.”
The DIY boom was widespread with renovations rising the most it has in 2.5 years, according to a Commonwealth Bank report, with the value of approvals for alterations and additions increasing to 11.4 per cent.
Queensland couple and House Rules winners Aaron and Daniella Winter took on a new renovation throughout COVID-19, doing up an outdoor space at a home in Sorrento on the Gold Coast.
“We ripped everything outdoors including the existing tiles, pool and re-laid astro turf and did the whole underneath patio area,” Daniella said.
“We started in August last year and it should’ve only taken a few weeks but we only finished in January because COVID complicated things.
“The build industry was booming … we struggled to lock in the right trades as one in three Aussies were renovating, which is a good thing.”
The Block 2016 winners and Brisbane couple Will and Karlie Bethune have kept up the momentum for DIY projects and bought a home in South Brisbane a month ago to renovate.
“We weren’t wanting to buy a house but we saw it and couldn’t resist, we’ll eventually put in a pool and large entertaining area and kitchen, we can’t wait.”
Will said the lack of international travel had led homeowners to start new projects and get creative with new trends emerging.
“I’m seeing a lot of curves coming in like curved walls, mirrors and curved stones or timbers,” he said.
“There’s also a lot of people doing kit-kat tiles which are really on trend.”
IKEA’S MOST POPULAR PRODUCTS:
– The Kolbjorn shelving unit
– Mastholmen and Hogsten outdoor lounges
– Solleron modular lounges
– Runnen outdoor floor decking
– Ergonomic chairs
– Bergenes holder for mobile phone
– Kallax shelving units
– PAX wardrobe frames
BUNNINGS’ MOST POPULAR PRODUCTS:
– Potting mix
– Pavers
– Storage tubs
– Personal Projective equipment (including masks)
– Drop sheets
MOST POPULAR PLANTS:
– Vegetable seedlings
– Devil’s Ivy
– Monsteria
– Fiddle leaf fig
– Peperomia
– Philodendron varieties
– Rhaphidophora aka mini monsteria
– Grevillias
– Pansies
– Snap dragons
– Hibiscus
– Dahlia
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