Amazon (AMZN)'s Best Sellers can, in many ways, be used to track the zeitgeist of the current moment.
Hand-sanitizer purchases soared as the world closed down for the covid-19 pandemic in 2020 while Ivanka Trump's perfume took the top two spots in the beauty category after Nordstrom (JWN) dropped her products from its shelves in 2017.
And if you happen to find yourself in Europe, the United Kingdom or the East Coast of the United States this July, you'll know that those parts of the world are currently in the midst of a brutal heatwave.
Earlier this week, countries like France, Germany and the United Kingdom all registered their hottest days in history with temperatures above 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.7 Celsius) continuing for several days in a row.
Similar temperatures are expected to come to parts of New York, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts in the coming days while residents of California, Texas and the Mississippi Valley are already battling heat-related wildfires.
What Are People Buying On Amazon Now?
As the heat rages on, people are stocking up on things that will keep them cool in any way possible.
Amazon's Best Sellers, or a ranking of the most popular products sold on the e-commerce platforms that is updated hourly, have been heat-related in a range of different categories this week — in the Appliances category, the five most-bought products as of Tuesday afternoon were some version of the ice maker while the sixth spot was taken over by the cleaning material necessary to keep the machine working.
Amazon
While lunch boxes and developmental children's games are still the most popular in the Toys & Games category, an inflatable hammock for the pool also made the top five.
Sports & Outdoors, meanwhile, is overrun by water-related items — ice packs, drinking flasks and water goggles all made the top five best-selling items.
Unsurprisingly, fans of all kinds also dominated the Heating, Cooling and Air Quality category — room fans, hand fans and even a popular neck fan by Chinese tech company Jisulife.
Even categories that normally do not see this type of product saw sales of things that help one keep cool in some form spike — in Grocery & Gourmet Foods, 12-packs of sparkling water earned the Best Seller ranking while the water filters that keep a refrigerator working properly were among the Tools & Home Improvement category.
Tapping into the trend, Amazon launched a promotion for Mellanni cooling bed sheets that the brand promotes as a way of staying cool at night.
Four Searches For Home Fans For Every Minute
The situation is also far from being unique to Amazon. Reuters earlier reported that eBay (EBAY) searches of "air con unit" are up 415% from a week ago in the UK — four times per minute, someone in the country also types the word "fan" into the platform's search bar.
Some of the most frequently-purchased brands include Delonghi, Daikin and Electriq.
Amazon
As the heat wave continues, it can stand to reason that people will continue buying up everything from pool toys to portable hand fans to keep cool.
But more so than impacting sales trends, extreme heat caused by a warming planet is wreaking serious havoc on both the environment and many people's health. In Western Europe, over 1,000 people died as a result of the heat, while California wildfires risk another year of destroyed properties and evacuations.
