An update of a popular blog post from November 12, 2018

NeeDoh squishies are making quite a splash in the gift world at the moment (when I wrote about this 8 years ago, it was fidget spinners that were the rage). As one would expect, there are countless manufacturers now coming out with new styles and colors. But how do you know if this is still a hot category – short of investing in inventory and seeing how it sells? It turns out that Google offers a trend chart that can give you some useful insights. And since I last wrote about this platform, it has been redesigned as the Google Trends Explore page, featuring an interactive side panel powered by Google’s AI Gemini capabilities

Google Trends Explore can tell you that squishies were not really a thing until this year, and that interest is still rising as of today. It will also tell you that for some reason West Virginia is the hottest state for this fad, followed rather randomly by Iowa, Nebraska and Arkansas. You can see that dumpling squishies and squishy dumplings were top searches – far above any other shape. (Butter and cheese seem to come next.)

Unicorns and snowmen are periodically big motifs in the gift industry, and a look at Google Trends will tell you that while it’s not the first ride on the carousel for unicorns (they hit a peak in 2018), the snowman trend has remained pretty steady over the past five years.  Axolotls, on the other hand, are 2,200% hotter now than before

One problem with the Google Trends report is of course that with the exception of unicorns, you can’t tell whether the search was for real axolotls and actual snowmen, or for gift items. However if you have a specific product you’re wondering about — toy guns, for example — the figures are a fairly accurate gauge of the public’s interest. This category has had a steady decline since peaking at Christmas in 2007, and is now down to almost nothing.

Google Trend figures don’t go back earlier than 2004, because Google wasn’t incorporated until 1998 – and in 2004 there were still numerous other search engine options. A word of caution in using this tool: the results often show a trend in public interest, but that doesn’t always translate into sales trends. Bananas, for example, are a staple of most grocery stores – but not many people feel the need to Google them.

Happy Retailing,

Carol “Orange” Schroeder

Note: There won’t be a Specialty Shop Retailing blog on Labor Day