• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, April 3, 2020

U.S. government stimulus checks are coming -- but when and what consumers will buy is on the minds of advertisers that have been on the sidelines contemplating media-buying budgets and messaging that remains compassionate.

Checks could take weeks to arrive, depending on whether or not taxpayers use direct deposit. 

Captify’s on-site consumer search data finds people are thinking about spending their money on home office resources, loungewear, workout equipment and fitness trackers and home entertainment.

That’s one reason why Lunya, a D2C luxury lounge- and sleepwear brand, pivoted to rely on its online roots.

Marketers don’t necessarily need the data to confirm that at-home consumer shifts continue to change habits, but it’s one way to justify spending budgets during the COVID-19 crisis.

Captify analyzed two weeks of online searches across premium publisher networks and ecommerce and comparison sites beginning March 2. Then it compared the data with the following two-week period beginning March 16. It analyzes what consumers searched for knowing that the stimulus check was in the works.

For consumers it’s about completing purchases that make staying at home comfortable. Since the government first introduced the idea of sending $1,200 stimulus checks to Americans in mid-March, specific categories have noticeably increased, according to Captify data.

Searches in the U.S. rose 101% for home office setups, 79% for at home entertainment equipment and services, 51% for home gym equipment, and a whopping 441% for loungewear.

Detailed data around loungewear confirms what Walmart sees -- an increase in sales for tops, but not bottoms. Video conferencing is boosting sales of tops. The trend ties into the fact that more people are working from home and communicate with colleagues via video conferencing that captures them from the waist up.

“We’re seeing increased sales in tops, but not bottoms,” Dan Bartlett, Walmart’s EVP of corporate affairs, told Yahoo Finance, with regard to people who use video conferencing.

On a global scale, search data also reveals that globally there has been a 650% jump in-home improvement products and a 760% increase in the intent to gamble.

COVID-19 is sparking all types of new business models, and the need for food and other deliveries has spiked as people avoid leaving home for basic shopping. Alibaba is investing in a delivery service.

Manna Aero, a company in the village of Moneygall, Ireland, officially next week begins using drones to deliver medicine and food to people forced to self-isolate.

Searches for meal kits and home delivery services have increased, per the data. Since the beginning of March, there has been 715% increase in searches for home delivery jobs.

Captify saw a 962% increase in searches for open positions across DoorDash, Uber Eats, GrubHub, Postmates, Amazon, Walmart and Instacart. Postmates, Amazon, and Instacart are seeing the highest increases in searches.