COVID-19 crafters – pandemic lockdown results in huge revenue growth for global crafting platform
The world’s leading community for makers, LoveCrafts.com, has reported huge growth since lockdown was imposed in countries around the world, with the number of visitors the platform received from March to August 2020 increasing by 266% compared to the same period last year. More than two thirds (71%) of visitors were new to the site, with yarn and knitting patterns receiving the most traffic overall. In addition, product revenue has surged by 434% compared to 2019, with yarn contributing the most in terms of sales.
The world’s leading community for makers has reported huge growth since lockdown was imposed in countries around the world, as crafting has become an increasingly popular activity while people stay at home.
The platform, LoveCrafts.com, has experienced a 266% increase in traffic from March to August this year, compared with the same period last year, with more than two thirds (71%) of that from new visitors. In addition, product revenue surged by 434% from March to August, compared to the same period in 2019, with knitting yarn the most popular item bought.
According to LoveCrafts’ site data, tutorials have been incredibly popular, with the platform’s beginner craft guide experiencing a 6499% increase in visits from March to April this year. Its ‘How to knit’ and ‘How to Crochet’ guides have experienced an increase of 310% and 349% respectively.
Popular patterns: Crochet saw the biggest increase through lockdown, with the site’s crochet patterns getting 1232% more traffic from March to August this year, compared to the same period last year. Knitting patterns experienced a 1190% increase for the same period.
The page that received the biggest increase in traffic is LoveCrafts’ DIY face mask tutorial, which saw visitor traffic surge by 6615% from April to May this year. LoveCrafts’ ‘Kids crafts’ page also noted a traffic surge of 1108% between March and April, as more parents craft with their children while at home.
Lockdown makes: Search term analysis shows that people have been actively looking for crafts relating to the lockdown. Unsurprisingly searches for ‘face mask’ increased the most, by 27,683%, and searches for ‘rainbow’, ‘nurse’ and ‘doctor’ are up by 835%, 1267% and 1218% respectively, since February 2020.
LoveCrafts.com is the online home for makers. A place to find inspiration, learn new techniques, shop craft supplies, and connect with like-minded people around the world. Yarn, free patterns, needles, threads, fabrics, hooks, craft books and kits can all be found via the site. Whether someone’s a knitter, sewist, quilter or little-bit-of-everything crafter, they can discover the joy of making at LoveCrafts.com.
Edward Griffith, founder of LoveCrafts.com, said,
We’ve experienced a huge amount of support from our community of makers in the last couple of months. Crafting has brought people both joy and distraction during these stressful times and our data certainly shows how it’s more popular than ever.
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