A deep-dive into what Kalinko customers have been buying during lockdown, and our completely unfounded suppositions as to why.
One of the fun bits about running a small business is watching the data. It's satisfying when things happen as you expect them to, but it's way more interesting when something weird happens and things start to feel a bit illogical.
Well about eight weeks ago, something weird happened. We all retreated into our homes, shut the front door, and wondered when we'd next leave them for anything other than a perfunctory leg-stretch or to buy more doughnuts.
And for a homeware brand, this does weird things to the data. People have been shopping differently. We've all read about loo roll and yeast and yoga mats, but what about homeware?
Well here's the scoop... (...the gloriously incomplete scoop compiled by one small company with zero reference to any other sources. A mostly-melted, but perhaps moderately interesting demi-scoop, laid out in a rather jazzy infographic).
It started two weeks before lockdown with a sudden spike in soap dishes. So far so logical; people were washing their hands a lot, and wanted a beautiful vessel for their bar of soap. Then came the tissue boxes, up by 200% from the previous year. This makes less sense: coronavirus doesn't typically give you a runny nose, but let's put it down to a general interest in improved hygiene, and a feeling that more (good looking) tissues in accessible places is a good thing.
Then lockdown started, and while sales slowed down on some things (shoehorns and salad servers... nope, no idea!), others started shooting up. Decorative things (cushions and bowls), presumably to lift the mood at home, or because more time than usual spent on the sofa or looking at a cluttered kitchen bench is a catalyst for improvement. Planters, to bring the outside in. Loo roll holders to tidy away all those loo rolls.
Delightfully, much renovating of home-bars has been taking place, with ice buckets, glasses and butler's trays heading off to make 5pm more stylish countrywide.
But one we really can't fathom is a 538% increase in tray sales. Now, we all love a tray; they mean breakfast in bed, they mean tea and brownies in the garden, they mean supper on your knee in front of the Sewing Bee. But it seems so bizarrely out of sync with everything else. If you have recently bought a tray, firstly THANK YOU for buying and for supporting us and enabling us to continue to order from our makers when lots of them were worried about orders drying up, and secondly we'd love to hear why you bought it and what you're using it for. Is it fulfilling a specific task? Was it a present for somebody else? Or was it just because you liked it and wanted it?
In fact, if you'd be happy to tell us what you've bought recently, tray or otherwise, and why, we'd LOVE to hear...
TELL US WHAT YOU BOUGHT AND WHY
