Department store John Lewis has predicted a newborn baby boom for 2021, revealing that searches for ‘new baby’ on johnlewis.com were up by 274% year-on-year last December.
Billed as ‘2020: The Year that Changed Everything‘, the annual Shop Live Look report from John Lewis & Partners examines how the nation has lived, worked, socialised and shopped during the prevous 12 months, with this year’s report revealing how the Covid-19 pandemic reshaped consumers’ lives in almost every way.
Based on an analysis of the retail group’s extensive internal sales data and shopping trends, the report found that shopping habits over the last year have changed dramatically – both in terms of what people were buying and how they bought it.
As many predicted when the first lockdown found many confined to their homes, John Lewis is already seeing signs of a 2021 baby boom, with searches for ‘new baby’ on johnlewis.com in December alone up by an impressive 274% as new parents have been preparing to welcome a new addition to their family.
The pre-Christmas months of November and December also saw a high demand for nursery appointments as parents-to-be focused on getting their homes ready for the new arrival.
The report also found that consumers are shopping online more, with digital sales accounting for 60-70% of John Lewis sales (pre-pandemic that figure was 40%). Customers are now also shopping more during the working day (between 11am-4pm) rather than in the evening.
“The world is a very different place than it was last January,” said trading director Simon Coble. “There are many lessons we’ve learned, from embracing time spent with loved ones to enjoying the simpler things in life, which will stay with us for the future.”
