Hobbycraft, the in-store and online arts and crafts specialist retailer, reports strong sales of +9.5% LFL for the 6 weeks leading up to Christmas (19 November to 24 December 2018). Strong growth was seen across both channels with store sales at +7.1% LFL and online growth at +28% LFL.
From brush-lettered baubles to custom-made Christmas Eve boxes, wreaths and stockings, this Christmas was all about adding a personal touch to make a unique decoration or gift. Throughout the Christmas period, Hobbycraft hosted 12 weeks of Christmas workshops and demonstrations across their 94 stores, with expert colleagues providing help and advice for every craft. Projects ranged from fillable baubles to personalised advent calendars, with over 21,000 adults and children attending the workshops.
The workshops highlighted the positive power of the crafting community; sales figures showed an increase in Christmas Eve Boxes of 119% during the week they were demonstrated. This trend was also replicated online, with Hobbycraft’s Blog and Christmas ‘Look book’ seeing an increase of +10% more customers’ year on year looking for Christmas ideas and inspiration, with the most popular festive blog posts including “How to crochet a mini stocking advent”, “14 Christmas Eve Box Ideas” and “15 Crafty Christmas hamper Ideas”. Moreover, the trend was also mirrored across social platforms such as Instagram with the hashtag #personalisedgifts being used over 700,000 times by users and 8 of the 9 featured top posts (at time of review) were related to crafting.
Celebrities were amongst those influenced by the growing trend of personalisation throughout the 2018 festive period, all eager to share their intricately designed gifts and decorations. A homemade gingerbread house decorated with the Kardashian-Jenner names was proudly shown on Instagram by Kris Jenner; Kate Hudson showed off her and her husband’s personalised pyjamas; and Tamara Ecclestone made an edible Christmas tree.
Katherine Paterson, Customer Director at Hobbycraft comments, “A personalised present means so much more and Christmas is clearly the perfect time of year to create something extra special for loved ones. Social media channels and influencers are helping to drive this trend and our results this Christmas show that crafting a thoughtful gift or decoration is a more enriching experience in these challenging times. ”
For more information visit http://www.hobbycraft.co.uk/
