i-bidder.com sees 15 times usual demand for home essentials during lockdown
• ATG’s consumer goods auction site i-bidder.com reports 15 times more demand for home essentials and leisure items since lockdown began
• Toys & garden games up 238%; Garden furniture & BBQs up 155%; Hot tubs up 134%; Fitness equipment up 114%
• Hair clippers up 450%
• Auction houses respond by moving operations entirely online
The UK’s leading marketplace for consumer goods auctions, i-bidder.com, has reported a massive jump in demand for toys and games, garden furniture, fitness equipment, home working supplies – and even hair clippers – in the month since the UK was put into lockdown. i-bidder.com lists and hosts auctions for major auction houses across the UK including William George, Global Auctioneers, Gascoines, and Haddon & James.
A full month at home has seen Britons embrace their reputation as a nation of garden lovers, with demand for garden furniture and BBQs up by 158% and garden machinery up by 53%. Hot tubs have also seen a 134% spike in demand. And those with time on their hands with children have generated a 235% increase in demand for toys and garden games at auction.
Others are creating home offices, home schools and home gyms, sending demand for supplies such as monitors and webcams soaring by 44%, while fitness equipment is up 114% since gyms closed and outdoor exercise has become limited. Dumbbells alone are seeing 10 times higher demand than usual.
And with hairdressers and barbers forced to close shop, there has been unusually high demand for hair clippers, which have risen by a whopping 450% as Britons resort to styling their own hair.
John-Paul Savant, CEO of Auction Technology Group, which owns i-bidder.com, said, “With the population staying at home, and fewer places available to shop for consumer goods, more and more people are discovering that auctions are a great place to buy items for the home online – usually at more affordable prices than the high street, too.
“It is often assumed that people need to visit auction rooms in person to bid. In fact, many regional auction houses have moved their entire business online for the first time in the last four weeks – a move that has paid off as consumer demand has soared. On i-bidder.com, for instance, we have seen a 19 per cent growth in new account creations since lockdown began.”
Items that have seen the biggest increase in demand at auction online in the past month:
• Monitors 14 x normal demand
• TVs 13 x normal demand
• Sun loungers 12 x normal demand
• Hot tubs 8 x normal demand
• Train sets 8 x normal demand
• Paddling pools 7 x normal demand
• Puzzles 6 x normal demand
• Hair clippers 5 x normal demand
• Dumbbells 4 x normal demand
• Leaf blowers 4 x normal demand
• Webcams 4 x normal demand
• Rotavators 5 x normal demand
Commenting on those items in high demand, Savant continued, “During lockdown, we’re all having to make the most of our own space at home for entertainment, fitness and self-improvement. The rise in demand for fitness equipment in the past four weeks really shows the ‘Joe Wicks effect’ in action, and it is fun to see a renewed interest in traditional hobbies such as jigsaw puzzles and garden games, as well a surge in people coming to auction to improve their gardens.”
i-bidder.com lists the catalogues and runs the online auctions of hundreds of auction houses up and down the country and internationally. During Covid-19 restrictions, auction houses are going the extra mile to give buyers confidence in what they are purchasing and making the process easy for them when bidding online. For example, providing extra photos of each lot/item, remote viewing via video calls, online payment and ‘no contact’ delivery solutions, as well as generous terms for storage.
For the latest catalogues of upcoming home essentials auctions visit i-bidder.com
Image:
• Brand New Luxurious Extra Large Thermo Wood 1.8m Hot Tub, Lot. 19037 in Haddon & James’s ‘Brand New Luxury Garden Buildings and Rattan Furniture’ sale on 3 May 2020.