The world’s leading community for makers has reported huge growth since lockdown was imposed on the 23rd March, indicating that crafting has become a popular activity while people stay at home.
The platform, LoveCrafts.com, experienced a 58% increase in traffic in April compared to February this year, with more than two thirds (71%) new visitors.
In addition, product revenue has surged by 140% during the lockdown period, with knitting yarn the most popular item bought. LoveCrafts’ email subscribers has also grown over the past two months, jumping by 27%.
According to LoveCrafts’ site data, tutorials have been incredibly popular, with the platform’s beginner craft guide experiencing a 8704% increase in visits over the past two months. Its ‘How to knit’ and ‘How to Crochet’ guides have experienced an increase of 310% and 349% respectively.
The data shows that out of knitting and crocheting, crochet appears to be the more popular craft currently, with the site’s ‘Beginners crochet patterns’ showing a 562% spike in visitors, compared to 434% for ‘Beginners knitting patterns’.
The page that has received the biggest increase in traffic is LoveCrafts’ DIY face mask tutorial, which saw a 2369% increase in visitors between the 19th April and the 2nd May. LoveCrafts’ ‘Kids crafts’ page has also noted a traffic surge of 1210% between February and April, indicating that parents are crafting more with their children while at home.
Search term analysis shows that people have been actively looking for crafts relating to the lockdown. Unsurprisingly searches for ‘face mask’ have increased the most, by 27,683%, however 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 popular it’s become.”
