Double but Sustainable Christmas says notonthehighstreet

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With 100 days until Christmas day, new insight from notonthehighstreet shows the end of the school summer holidays has heralded an earlier than ever rush from shoppers looking for festive items – with searches for Christmas-related products up 33% in the past seven days; now the second most popular term bringing shoppers to the small business marketplace. This year many plan a double celebration but a sustainable Christmas is also top in people’s celebration plans.

Advent calendars are now the eighth most searched for item across the whole of the site, while Christmas pyjamas are one of the fastest growing searches ahead of the 100 day countdown.

This is good new for the 936 new small businesses Partners who have started selling on notonthehighstreet since January – 293% more compared to this time last year.

Double Christmas celebrations in 2021

In fact, searches for Christmas started earlier than ever before for notonthehighstreet, with ‘Christmas’ first cropping up in searches on 21st June, and ranking in the top 5 terms since 19th July – otherwise known as ‘freedom day’ in the UK. In both instances, these search terms surfaced a month earlier than in 2020, with insight from yougov showing one in five Brits plans to have a double-Christmas this year to make up for missed festive celebrations. The survey also showed 300,000 households are planning to hold their first Christmas get-together by the end of November.

A sustainable Christmas

In addition to shopping earlier, a drive towards sustainable Christmas with reusable products and keep-sakes to cherish are an emerging focus for the company’s customers, with two ‘alternative’, reusable wooden Christmas trees, from Yorkshire-based business Dibor, and Kent’s The Natural Wood Company now the first and sixth top-selling Christmas items onsite. Wooden tree decorations, and ‘make your own’ kits for Christmas trinkets also feature overwhelmingly in the top selling Christmas items of the moment.

A previous study commissioned by notonthehighstreet supports the more slow, green purchasing behaviour the company is seeing, showing a third of consumers (33%) are now more aware of shopping sustainably and ethically since the pandemic, with a third of adults seeking products made or grown in the UK.

The same study, also showed that 48% of UK adults plan to shop more with small, local and independent businesses into 2022, and it’s this – alongside the diversifying base of customers coming to notonthehighstreet – that has informed the companies approach to scaling up the number of small businesses it supports ahead of Christmas 2021.

“There’s no question Brits are looking forward to the festive season more than ever – with many missed celebrations to make up for, and it seems the Summer months and ‘newfound’ freedom have turned may people’s mind to planning their Christmas earlier than ever before.

Our small business Partners spend all year preparing for the festive season, and this year they’re more ready than ever thanks to the challenges they’ve overcome in the past year – safely managing staffing plans to keep their businesses going through Covid-restrictions, and planning 18 months ahead of Brexit to ensure a good supply of stock and raw materials to help them make sure Briton’s Christmases are even more unique and thoughtful.”
– Leanne Osborne, Chief Commercial Officer, notonthehighstreet

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