How To Use Google Trends To Identify Homeware Trends For Small Businesses?

You no longer need to depend on your local homeware store to catch up with the homeware market trends only to know that your neighbour bought something trendier than you. Nor do you need to keep searching Amazon and other e-marketplaces for hours to know the latest trends in homeware. 

Introduction to Google Trends

In today's blog, I bring to you a unique search tool offered by Google called Google trends. As the name suggests, this tool is one of the services offered by Google to know the latest trends in any industry. It can be used to derive insights with respect to trends in different geographies, different periods of time or between two firms, etc. 

So, hover on to your browser and search for Google trends website before we get started.
Explained: How to use Google trends?
First things first, Google trends uses linear graphs to depict the interest level in any item that is searched for. Say, we type homeware in the search box. We get this linear graph that depicts the interest level of a selected population over a selected time period in homeware based on the volume of Google searches.

Here, 0 stands for no interest and 100 stands for huge interest in the searched item. 

The selection of appropriate parameters is imperative in the process of using Google trends to identify homeware trends. Google trends shows the interest level or popularity of a search based on the specified geographical and spatial selection by the user. So, selecting the right geography and the required time period in the search is an important step. A particular country or the whole world can be chosen and any time period ranging from years to hours can be selected prior to the search for trends. Furthermore, category selection is also a choice. Suppose the trend search was with regard to a recent happening, then the category to be selected would be 'News'. Another option is to specify the platform on which to search. If you are looking for some DIY trends in homeware, it's best to select 'Image Search' or 'Youtube Search'. Similarly, you could also go with the selection of 'Google Shopping' or 'News Search'.

There exist multiple ways to optimize Google trends for usage. One of the most used ways is 'comparison'. Google trends not only provides the option to search trends for a single item but also facilitates comparison of trends between two items. On the same line graph, multiple lines of different colours- blue, red and yellow, are plotted for comparing trends of similar items.

Google Trends features

There are several other amazing features too. Below the line plot, there is a map showing the interest level of the searched item region by region. Further below, topics and queries related to the searched item are automatically processed and shown to you by Google trends. In this list, a particular term can be found often beside a particular topic or query- 'breakout'. Breakout essentially means that the interest level in the corresponding topic 

has risen by more than 5000% in the selected time period.

In these ways, you can use Google trends in various facets of daily life. 

Google Trends for Business

One is business. Traditionally, if you had a business of homeware products, you would read magazines or visit wholesale markets or metro cities to know about the latest trends. But this is a far outdated method now! 

You can employ Google trends to do this work for you now. If you serve a particular category of homeware, say, rugs. Then you could search for rugs on Google trends and look for 'related topics'. And voila! There you have the list of all seasonally trendy rugs according to your selected geography. These searches can help you research seasonal trends for your business to stock up and gain an edge over your competitors. Not to mention, while saving your cost and time of doing this the traditional way. 

Google Trends for wanna-be entrepreneurs

If you have not decided what category in homeware to cater to, then you could know that too from Google Trends. All the categories of homeware that you have shortlisted can be compared. Say, crockery, rugs and outdoor products. Search these three items on Google trends for the past 5 years. Select the item in which you see an upward trend. An upward trend indicates an increasing interest level in the product which can help you foray your business into an industry with an amazing CAGR (compound annual growth rate), thereby guaranteeing growth for your business. This is how Google trends help you find a niche for your business.

Google Trends for Stay-at-home Entrepreneurs

Some of you might be enterpreneurs working from home to spare time for family or personal reasons. But working from home or not, growth is what every enterpreneur wants for their business. And foresight is the mother of growth. To look forward, catch up with trends that have huge potential of demand and to be able to stock those items up is what gives you an edge over your competitors. 

Typically, big companies in homeware use consultancy services or dedicated R&D teams to track trends and design and change their inventories accordingly. But if you are someone working from home, it might be tedious for you to do all of that. And even if it is something in your bounds, then let me introduce you to Google trends to save your costs and precious time. 

For whichever category of homeware you are working in, just type it in the search box in Google trends window and there you go! In the 'related queries' section, you would have the top products or trends that are doing rounds on the internet due to their popularity. This will give you an idea of the latest trends in your niche category of homeware. 

Example: wall decor

Google Trends for Women Entrepreneurs 

If you are a busy homemaker but aspirational and you're working towards your own business in homeware, then I have something terrific for you. 

Google Trends is one simple search tool that can help you loads. If you are struggling with slow-moving inventory and low sales numbers and are probably wondering as to why your fellow competitors in the same business get ahead of you every time, then this might be your 'Eureka moment'. Just sit at home comfortably and use Google Trends to find the latest trends in homeware. It not only saves your time and costs but is also very user-friendly. 

Google Trends for Side Hustlers

Are you currently in a typical 9 to 5 job but are working for your future brand as a side-hustle? 

Not able to spare time and money for research and strategy? Well, completely fair but whatever be the reason, research can never be completely ignored. As research is imperative for competitor mapping and future sales strategy. 

Fret not, because you have the luxury of using Google trends. Even spending half an hour of your day in searching the latest trends of different regions in furniture, kitchen cutlery or any other homeware item can give you a great deal of idea of what to stock up, where to sell and how to sell.

If you have a Franchise Business

In case you are the distribution head of a franchise, then you might be having a hard time tracking the location of proposed franchise locations. Common methods to do that are visiting the location or doing a survey. But you can use Google trends. It can be easily used to know if the proposed location has an upward demand trend for the product/service you serve. 

Say, if a location in Haryana is profitable enough for a Pepperfry franchise. 

Google Trends for Investors

It can be helpful while investing to know if a particular brand in homeware is on an upward or downward trajectory. You could track all this using Google Trends in a click!

Google Trends for Homebuyers and Interior Designers

If you are buying a house or renovating an old one, it is always desirable to not miss even a single beat and know the trends newest in the market. Minutes of search can update you with exactly what design to have for your sofa or flooring or whichever honeware trend you want to catch up with.

Say, you want to know the material being used these days for false ceiling in homes. Then a simple search on Google trends like this is your go-to thing.

Say, you could check if modern farmhouse design is still running in trend or not.

At the end of the day, trends are nothing but reflection of the culture around. Naturally, when a major cultural event such as the Black Friday Shopping in the United States happens, homeware trends consequently change and they become ‘Breakout trends’. Use Google trends and have a track of all this at your arm's length!