We all know that Zoom is booming, but what other businesses are seeing a benefit from changing consumer behaviours during lockdown? According to gov.uk up to 4 million Brits are working from home every day, and now new data shows the UK is experiencing a huge increase in demand for home office equipment. Retailers have increased their prices across multiple categories and have reduced the overall number of discounts available on remote working related products.

Overall consumer demand is calculated using marketplace data across 6 million products.

Year on year comparison of UK online searches in April 2020 compared to April 2019.

Home comforts for UK workers - remote working doesn’t have to be back breaking

With more Brits working from home than at any time in history - the equipment they have in the house is often not up to scratch - we’ve seen a huge surge in demand for office desks and office chairs, up by 438% and 300% respectively. Brits are striving for the right working environment, they’re not settling for kitchen tables, rickety chairs or sitting on sofas for hours every day.

Posturepedic items and portable desks had a surge in online search and figures for both categories were up by 12% and 33% respectively (April 2019 vs April 2020).

Popular furniture brands and retailers including, Oak Furniture Superstore and Habitat have seen a significant jump in demand with an 80% and 30% increase in online searches, year on year.

Prices increase on laptops, desktops and tablets during the lockdown

The fact that laptop, desktop and tablet demand has spiked by 243%, 200% and 178% in the last month suggests people working from home are looking to upgrade their current tech set up. This should stand them in good stead for ongoing remote working in post lockdown.

Consumers are searching for Apple products 4% more than they were this time last year. However, the demand for more economical brands in the tech space including Asus and Acer have increased by 22% and 18%, suggesting consumers are hunting for more wallet-friendly products in these uncertain times.

Noise-cancelling headphones hunted by silence seaking homeworkers

Noise-cancelling headphones are the trending tech item for shoppers during the lockdown, demand showed a 140% increase during the second week of April 2020, compared to the second week of April 2019. Self-isolating with others around can be challenging during working hours, the data suggests people are looking to block out background noise to help with productivity.

Could remote working become the norm post lockdown in the UK?

In 2018, just 4.4% of the UK’s professional population worked from home compared to the EU average of 5.2%. Considering the huge UK demand for home office equipment it seems inevitable that this figure will rise and create a population and a business environment more accepting of home working.

Is balancing work life and family life all under one roof, going to become the new norm?

UK consumer demand is complied from UK Google search and 4 million UK shoppers searching LovetheSales.com

LovetheSales.com is a global marketplace for shopping discounts, the platform partners with more than 1,000 UK retailers and 6 million tech, homeware and apparel items.

For more information or exclusive data sets please contact:

Sophie Cantor