The warm summer of 2022 saw sales of garden products boom in Switzerland. Despite this year’s rain, the trend is still going strong. Irrigation products, on the other hand, are barely getting a look in.
Record sales of lawnmowers, stagnation for irrigators
Has your garden season got off to a good start? Which gardening projects do you have planned this year? What products do you recommend to fellow gardening enthusiasts? Let us know in the comments!
2022 war ein Traumjahr für alle Hobbygärtnerinnen und Hobbygärtner in der Schweiz: In den zwar trockenen, dafür besonders warmen Frühlings- und Sommermonaten gediehen Blumen, Sträucher, Früchte und Gemüse wie lange nicht mehr. This clearly motivated a lot of people to take up gardening – and caused sales figures at Galaxus to shoot up. In 2022, the online retailer increased sales of garden products by more than a third (+34%), including tens of thousands of bags of potting soil and thousands of lawnmowers.
Fingers stayed green during the autumn and winter months, with the gardening trend continuing to run high in the new season. In April, Galaxus customers bought 32 per cent more garden products than in the same month last year, despite the rainy weather. Daniela Lüthard, who takes care of Galaxus’ garden range as well as other products, says: «Our customers splashed out on garden tools and machinery this April. We’re curious to see whether the trend will continue in May, June and July.»
Lawnmowers and potting soils saw the greatest sales increases, each up by 67 per cent, with lawn trimmers and scarifiers close behind (see graphic). Vertical gardens, especially well suited to balconies and terraces, also proved popular. A number of products even broke Galaxus’ monthly sales records in April – lawnmowers or scarifiers, for instance. «Demand for products like these isn’t really affected by the weather,» Daniela says.
When it comes to garden furniture, the number of units sold is also high. «Inexpensive metal furniture is doing particularly well at the moment,» says David Widmer, who’s responsible for this product group at Galaxus. He adds that when the figures are compared internationally, Switzerland has quite the penchant for colourful garden furniture: «Gardens in Switzerland are colourful, perhaps some of the most colourful of any country. We sell pink tables and yellow chairs by the pallet.»
April’s rainy weather dampened the demand for irrigation products. Galaxus sold six per cent fewer garden hoses, seven per cent fewer watering cans and 10 per cent fewer irrigation systems last month compared to April 2022. «When it comes to irrigation products, the next three months will be critical to the success of this season,» Daniela says. Automatic irrigation systems, she adds, are currently popular with Switzerland’s residents: «Sets like these are in especially high demand during the summer holidays.» Demand for spreaders and casters also experienced an April slump: «When it’s pouring with rain, gardeners are unlikely to be thinking of planting grass seed or spreading fertiliser.
