Shein, Birkenstock and loungewear were big Black Friday winners - report

By

Nigel TAYLOR

Published
Dec 17, 2020

A major shift in what UK consumers were wearing at home this year had a big impact on fashion and beauty searches for Black Friday, a new report shows.

Online searches for loungewear rocketed over the shopping event, despite an overall dip in fashion sector demand this year, digital marketing agency Mediavision’s Black Friday Demand report shows.

And online demand for skincare also grew strongly over the period, driven by single-ingredient products. However, make-up-related searches took a big hit, supposedly due to consumers spending more time indoors.

Overall, online demand grew 15% year-on-year during what was the first-ever online-only Black Friday shopping period, the report says.

It adds that there has been a "significant change" in what people have been searching for over the last three months. And search volumes were flat between January and February, but saw a sharp increase during spring and summer, with a 99% spike around June.

It says brand demand in the fashion sector was initially "hit quite hard" during the pandemic as the sector as a whole shrank 8.21%. But Mediavision notes that the speed of adjustment “has been interesting” following a massive shift in fashion choices. While “dress” related terms saw a 59% dip in searches, “loungewear” saw a 168% increase.

Despite the overall decline, the report's individual fashion brand winner this year was e-retailer Shein, which grew brand demand by 75% year-on-year.

Meanwhile, the top five fashion brands over the Black Friday period were Amoena (+232%), Motel Rocks (+137.15%), Birkenstock (+132%) Shein (+117%) and Never Fully Dressed (+92%).

In the report's Beauty section, it says demand for skincare has seen “dramatic growth”. It notes that in 2020, consumer demand in the sector “significantly shifted to more in-home pleasures and self-care products than those typically used when going out”.

There was also particular interest in single-ingredient products over Black Friday, particularly ‘caffeine shampoo’ (+470%), ‘collagen powder’ (+95%) and ‘retinol cream’ (42%).

The top five skincare brands for Black Friday were: The INKEY List (+515.84%); Paula's Choice (+242.17%); Sunday Riley (+128.99%), The Ordinary (+102.35%); and Lookfantastic (+62.25%)

But make-up brands took a hit over Black Friday weekend with brands such as Benefit Cosmetics, Urban Decay and Huda Beauty the worst brand performers, the report says.

Generic terms such as ‘eye make-up’ and ‘spray tan’ were down between 34-53% from last year.

MediaVision CEO Louis Venter says: “We’ve already seen brands place a major focus on e-commerce to capitalise on the growing interest in online shopping over bricks and mortar, but the pandemic fast-tracked the trend faster than anyone could have imagined.

“With 2020 accelerating the shift from physical stores to online shopping so rapidly, we’re years ahead of where we should be, and the e-commerce landscape has changed permanently because of it. With thousands of new e-com brands launching online this year, the battle to expand market share has never been as challenging as it is now”.