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2019202020212022Socks
March 11, 2020
The World Health Organization declares Covid-19 outbreak a global pandemic

The New Normal

How the Covid-19 pandemic is shaping our shopping searches.

This visualization uses Google Trends to explore shopping interest for various products before and during the Covid-19 pandemic by categorizing them into three search behavior patterns: Normal, Unusual, and New Normal.

New Normal

Search interest increased during the pandemic and remains high

HL'19'20'21'22 Hair Care

Unusual

Search interest increased during the pandemic, but has returned to normal

HL'19'20'21'22 Bleach

Normal

Search interest remains relatively unaffected by the pandemic

HL'19'20'21'22 Eggs

About

This visualization uses Google Trends to explore shopping interest for various products before and during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Keywords and categories were sourced from Google product taxonomy (version 09-21-2021). Search interest for each keyword was obtained using the Google Trends API, with results restricted to searches from Google Shopping only. This approach helps ensure that the results reflect purchasing behavior (in contrast to general searches made for other purposes). For each keyword, the query returned weekly search interest in the US between January 1st 2019 and December 31st, 2021. Keywords with 0 search interest on 50% or more of the dates indicated sparse results and were excluded from the dataset.

Each keyword was manually assigned to one of three categories based on its pattern of search interest over time. Normal keywords were those for which the yearly pattern of search interest was similar across 2019, 2020, and 2021. Unusual keywords were those that exhibited a different search interest pattern in 2020 compared to 2019 and 2021. New Normal keywords were those for which the 2020 and 2021 search interest patterns differ from 2019. Keywords not easily categorized were excluded from the dataset. Search interest results are correlated with the emergence of the pandemic; however, any implications of causality should be taken cautiously.