Shopify shoppers are ditching smartphones for landlines this summer

Shopify shoppers turned back the clock to invest in simpler things including better sleep, dumb phones, and fixing old devices instead of just buying new ones, according to June sales data shared first with Retail Brew.

Shopify orders for night light projectors, the kind used to help kids fall asleep, shot up by 661%. People also shelled out for sleep sprays and mists (with orders up by a whopping 632%) to prepare for a deeper reset. Orders for related items like mouth tape (up 69%), neck and cervical pillows (up 33%), and eye compresses and masks (up 20%), also took off in June.

Old school comeback: With prices for consumer electronics set to rise, Shopify shoppers chose to invest in old-school phones. Landline phone orders peaked 277%, demand for corded phones surged 115%, and orders for basic feature phones spiked 99%. This at a time when, in June, Apple raised prices on MacBooks and iPads by as much as $300 on some models to offset the rising cost of memory and storage chips.

On the whole, Shopify shoppers did not choose to upgrade home electronics, phones, TV sets, or even gaming consoles this summer. People instead chose to swap screens, batteries, and other parts, instead of replacing the whole thing. Orders for mobile phone screens and digitizers soared 185%, demand for coffee grinder replacement parts rose 92%, and TV replacement stands and legs charged up 74%. Orders for vacuum batteries (up 62%), mobile phone screen protectors (up 44%), and home game console replacement parts (up 38%) took off in early summer shopping.

Summer set: Climate experts are warning of “weird weather” due to the warming cycle brought on by El Niño this year, and getting used to heat is never easy in the best of times. Shopify consumers didn’t take any chances and spent June budgets to order pet cooling beds (up 89%). Orders for sleek cooling devices like tower fans rose 85%, and demand for water chillers bumped up 65%. After-sun skin care orders rose 46%, and orders for split ACs rose 41%, while demand for outdoor misting systems inched up 24%.

Cheers and goals: Despite the heat, FIFA World Cup fans geared up for matches with jerseys and other memorabilia to ring in the games. Orders for jerseys spiked 89%, while demand for decorative flags jumped 63%. Shopify said orders for fan accessories jumped 53%, while orders for collectibles and soccer balls rose 45% and 24%, respectively.