The lockdowns in the UK have continued to show a correlation of a higher number of search queries from consumers related to fast fashion, cheap products and free trials.

The first lockdown in March 2020 saw an increase in searches for ‘cheap clothes’ by 46.3% in just three months.

Since the announcement of a third lockdown, the number of search queries for ‘cheap clothes’ has already jumped up to 31%.

In the first two weeks of January 2021 alone, queries for ‘buy now pay later’ saw a dramatic increase of 86%.

The Biggest Bargain Hunters‘ study also expressed which brands and retailers consumers were most likely to seek discounts from.

The top three retailers UK consumers sought the most for ‘sale’ offers are Amazon, Next and Debenhams.

Additionally, ‘student discount’ was a major search query for places like Amazon, ASOS and Boohoo. This could suggest that younger generations may be one of the biggest perpetrators of current, unsustainable fashion habits.

Biggest Bargain Hunters has continued to analyse money-saving searches since the first lockdown and has also revealed which regions in the UK are stretching their budgets the most.

Scotland currently shares the highest volume of searches for ‘cheap clothes’ while Northern Ireland tops the UK in ‘buy now pay later’ queries.

Unfortunately, UK consumers’ online bargain hunting for cheap clothes often emboldens industries responsible for producing unsustainable commodities.

Fast fashion continues to be a major global issue as mass clothes production generally encourages exploiting underpaid and sometimes even underage workers.

The sales several UK consumers are seeking has, moreover, had a dramatic effect on the environment.

Cheaply made clothes will regularly use materials that are unable to break down properly when they are thrown away in landfills.

The UK, on average, buys more clothes for each person than any other country in Europe.

Roughly 10,000 pieces of clothing are sent to landfills every five minutes in the UK alone. Likewise, UK households are responsible for binning more than 300,000 tonnes of used clothes each year.

Currently, the number one clothing offer term searched by Brits is ‘cashback.’ Considering that nearly 200,000 people have lost their jobs as a result of the coronavirus, Biggest Bargain Hunters’ studies may give some troubling indications of the economy going forward.