Bluebella has experienced a 180% rise in online sales amid the COVID-19 crisis, beating sales during Valentine’s 2020, traditionally the lingerie industry’s busiest time of the year. The styles selling the best are the more revealing open-cup lines – sales of Bluebella’s Rani style are up 84%, the Nova style is up 30%, Lumi in ivory is up 26%, and Emilia is up 20% on the previous year. Other styles doing well include Bellana, Pandora and Aurora.
Emily Bendell, CEO and founder of Bluebella, said: “Online sales in March have been off the scale and are 181% up on the previous year in terms of sales. Usually you see a drop off in sales in the month following Valentine’s but March has actually been bigger than that this year, which has never happened before.”
In the past month traffic on the Bluebella.com site was nearly double the previous year, down to the fact most people are at home instead of at work and traffic comes during the day as well as in the evenings. The biggest increase is young customers aged 19-24, which is 87% up, and there has also been big rises in the 25-35-year old ages which are up 59%. Fashion search platform Lyst has been tracking consumer behaviour on the site and also noticed a 9% spike in interest in lingerie.
Katy Luby from Lyst said: “There are currently three schools of stay-at-home shopper emerging: sporty, slouchy and sexy. Last week shoppers were looking for activewear for their workouts at home and comfortable sweats for enjoying Netflix on the couch, but in the last few days we’ve seen a spike in searches for lingerie, specifically lacy “barely there” pieces from brands like Bluebella and Agent Provocateur. This suggests that shopper are either making the most of their intimate moments in isolation or they’re undressing in style to spice up those Zoom calls.”
