COVID-19 has undoubtedly impacted many industries across the globe. Below are our results from our analysis of Google Trends scores from three large retail chains focused on selling supplies for outdoor activities, as well as farm and home retail stores. We compared performances from both before and after the social distancing measures were implemented.
The interest in retail stores focused on selling home, farm and supply for outdoor activities grew on average 52% during COVID-19 in comparison to the same period of last year. Our analysis also showed that the social distancing measures are making people turn to outdoor activities, gardening, and DIY. This increase in demand is so high that it’s possible to observe a shortage in some supplies used for gardening and DIY.
The trend continued when we analyzed website traffic and media performance from one of the retail stores from our Google Trends analysis — website traffic from Direct and Organic sources grew up on average 94% and 153% respectively since the social distancing measures were taken place in March of this year.
Display conversions increased on average 2.5 times in comparison to the first three months of the year and almost four times in comparison to the same period of last year. At the same time, the average cost per conversion decreased 73% during COVID-19 in comparison to last year.
The interest in DIY and gardening measured using social platforms also corresponded with the hype observed so far. The social engagement during the pandemic had a significant improvement as well with an engagement rate on average 437% higher and a CPC 13% lower since April of this year in comparison to the same period of 2019.
