The Most Popular Products by State
Some buy beauty products; others prefer plugs...like Kansans, for instance.
In 2018, online shoppers — or at least the most active ones among Honey's 10 million members — made more than 91 million saves to Droplist, a tool that watches selected items on over 70 sites (including Amazon, Target, and Best Buy) and notifies the participating member when said item drops in price.
We took a deep dive into these Droplist saves by state...because where you live may say a lot about your own personal shopping behavior.
Last year, online shoppers waited with bated breath for the Nintendo Switch to dip in price just enough to justify the purchase. Considering the $299 console, which was released in March 2017 by the Japanese gaming juggernaut, was reviewed by every blog (tech or otherwise) and was on almost every holiday and birthday wishlist (child's or otherwise), the demand makes sense.
But should a color really affect how you see a tech device? The most popular product of 2018, the Switch with Neon Red and Neon Blue Joy-Con was saved to Droplist 48,352 times. The Nintendo Switch Console with Grey Joy-Con, on the other hand, came in at No. 25 on the list. The red and blue version was saved almost 15 times more than its grey counterpart. In full transparency, the neon option is suggested in a tutorial for first-time Honey uses; however, the grey iteration ranked well below the red and blue console even after data was normalized. Gaming tracking firm NPD Group also specified that the neon red and blue option was "2018's best-selling platform" among all consoles.
In 2011, a study called "Exciting Red and Competent Blue: The Importance of Color in Marketing," published in the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, found purchasing intent is hugely impacted by colors. Additionally, consumers are biased by the broad rules, or schemas, they've developed on how they think something works, including colors. For instance, an individual might associate the color grey with something dreary or an overcast day, which can be unlucky. "Psychology-driven marketing uses these schemas to affect your beliefs and influence your actions in ways you are unaware," Inc. reports.
If the Switch didn't top a state's watch list, it was certainly an Amazon Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote, the second most droplisted product in the United States. Saved 41,475 times, the streaming remote beat out the Nintendo console as the most popular droplisted item in nine states: Alabama, Delaware, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia. Interestingly, these Southern states — with the exception of Delaware — are all clustered together.
In October 2018, Amazon announced new updates to their popular product, adding volume, mute, and power buttons to the slim black remote. However, an older version of the Fire TV Stick was already a top droplisted product before the new release.
Online shoppers wanted to find the best deal on the Switch and the Fire TV Stick, but what else? The results are surprising once each state is designated just one unique product*. The Nintendo console was most popular in California, leading with 14.8 percent of Droplist saves for this specific product.
While the Fire TV Stick was actually the second most saved product in Texas (the Switch topped it), it was droplisted in the Lone Star State more times than any other state — 8.6 percent out of all Fire Stick saves in the U.S.
It makes sense that Alaskans would prefer to shop their mattress of choice — in this case, the Zinus Memory Foam 12 Inch Green Tea Queen-Size Mattress — online. With all of the Last Frontier's natural terrain and sparsely populated cities, delivery may be the most efficient method.
At the same time, it doesn't matter how many residents a state has; it's about the fun that can be had, right? Michigan and Utah residents must know how to throw entertaining house parties; both states ranked highest in saves for games What Do You Meme? and Codenames, respectively.
It seems some states are more practical than others, opting to save on household appliances and affordable commodities rather than beauty products or trendy tech gadgets. The good people of Arkansas are constantly watching AmazonBasics AAA Batteries to go on sale; while, Kansans are more concerned with being energy efficient and saving on the Etekcity WiFi Smart Plug.
While some saved products may feel very specific to a certain state or even a little random, there are popular items that transcend all state boundary lines. These items were included among the top 25 most saved products in every state:
Aztec Secret Indian Healing Clay
Echo Dot (2nd Generation) Smart speaker with Alexa - Black
Echo Spot with Alexa - Black
Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote
Instant Pot 6 Qt
Nintendo Switch Console with Neon Red and Neon Blue Joy-Con
Samsung 128GB MicroSD EVO Select Memory Card with Adapter
Thayers Alcohol-free Rose Petal Witch Hazel with Aloe Vera
Shopping is often incentivized by many factors, including practical needs, personal taste, and targeted marketing. While the Ariana Grande model — you see it, you want, you got it, you have it — is simple and relatable, there's so much more that fuels consumer behavior. Demand can be motivated by regional trends. For instance, a Hawaiian resident may be a big fan of an Anker Portable Charger and recommends it to a neighbor. All the sudden, word spreads, creating a statewide demand. Maybe New York residents want a skin-care solution — Thayers toner — to combat the pollution in their most bustling city. In the end, we're seemingly all connected by our need for a trendy game console, affordable streaming device, and an Amazon Prime account.
*We compiled this list by looking at the most popular items that members "droplisted” using Honey’s Droplist functionality, which allows members to follow an item in order to be alerted when prices drop. In many cases, the most popular item by pure volume was the same for multiple states. Because we wanted to find the uniquely popular item per state, we normalized the data to adjust for percent of total items that the most popular item for any given state represented. Once an item was attributed to a state, the analysis was done again with that item removed until every state had an attributed most popular, unique item.