The rake is coming: a warm March has increased the demand for garden tools
The temperature records in March led to a surge in demand for garden and vegetable garden tools, as well as for seedlings and seeds, country furniture and barbecues, according to data from online and offline trading platforms. Inventory sales increased by one and a half to two times year-on-year. In addition, greenhouses, benches, and even gazebos are being actively purchased. Against this background, scammers have become more active: they call people on behalf of delivery and marketplace employees and try to get data for access to "Public Services," cybersecurity experts warned. The weather in early April will not contribute to the beginning of the gardening season — cold weather and even snow are expected, meteorologists added.
What to buy for a garden and vegetable garden
The warm weather in March stimulated Russians to actively purchase goods for the garden and vegetable garden, follows from the data of marketplaces and trading platforms available to Izvestia. So, at Avito in March of this year, sales of gardening equipment increased by 43% year-on-year. Pruners were 2.5 times more likely to be purchased, and the demand for rakes, buckets, and scythes increased by one and a half times or more. Analysts also recorded an increase in the popularity of sprayers — they were purchased 1.5 times more often in March this year than a year earlier. This year, they also actively bought goods for cooking kebabs: barbecues, skewers, tandoori.
Sales of gardening equipment on Yandex.Market turned out to be on average 75% higher than the relative values of the previous year.
— Rakes, carts, garden wheelbarrows, pruning shears and other products are among the most popular requests. The demand for gardening equipment, such as choppers, scissors and brushcutters, has almost doubled, the marketplace's press service reported. — Customers prefer to prepare for the season in advance and order a summer assortment, such as garden furniture, swimming pools, lawn mowers.
In addition, orders for seeds, seedlings, fertilizers and greenhouses increased by more than 70%. Sales of barbecues, grills and other products in this category are growing by the same amount.
The number of purchases of garden furniture sets, awnings, tents, gazebos, garden and beach umbrellas has increased on Ozon. Garden swings, hanging chairs, deck chairs and benches were also popular. More seeds were ordered. Moreover, 77% of purchases of such products on the marketplace were made by customers outside Moscow. They purchase online, among other things, wooden summer houses to order, garden equipment and irrigation equipment.
Garden whitewashes, outdoor garlands, seedlings and seedlings, lawn grasses and artificial lawns were popular at Wildberries in March. In addition, sales of covering films, weed control products and tree trunk protection products have increased. They are actively buying curbs, fences, garden arches, and decorative ponds.
"The most expensive goods in this category in March were various greenhouses, costing from 70 thousand rubles to 120 thousand rubles," the marketplace's press service added.
Sales of soil for seedlings and flowers, rose seedlings and fruit bushes, and vegetable seeds increased year-on-year in offline stores in early spring, the Fix Price press service added.
What will the weather be like in April
March 2025 turned out to be the second warmest month in the history of meteorological observations, not only in Moscow, but also throughout the central region, said Alexander Shuvalov, head of the Meteo forecasting center. So, the first month of spring ended with a whole scattering of temperature records in different parts of the country, from Anadyr to Petrozavodsk and Vyborg.
The first five days of April in Moscow took the warm baton of March, added Tatiana Pozdnyakova, chief specialist of the Moscow Meteorological Bureau. However, in the second week of the month, residents of the capital region will receive an unpleasant surprise.
— The weather pattern will change. If on Friday, April 4, we will be in the warm sector of the next southern cyclone. The air temperature will be +10...+12 degrees, then starting from Saturday, April 5, it is expected to decrease," she told Izvestia.
Rain is expected on Saturday, according to the meteorologist. And already in the night hours of Sunday, the air temperature in the region will approach zero or drop to -2 degrees.
— The daytime temperature on Saturday is +3...+7 degrees, and on Sunday — +3...+5 degrees Celsius. That is, the air temperature on Saturday will approach the climatic norm, and from Sunday to the middle of next week it will at least be lower than it and will correspond more to March than to April, — Tatyana Pozdnyakova emphasized.
But the main problem will be precipitation. If it rains on Saturday, then sleet is expected on Sunday and Monday.
— It is possible that the snow cover will form again. Because up to ten centimeters of snow may fall in some places, and it will last because the air temperature will be low, and there will not be enough heat for the snow to melt," the meteorologist said.
Therefore, it is premature to hope for the beginning of the gardening season, she believes. As well as changing tires to summer tires.
— Those who have not yet taken off their winter tires will not regret it, because the weather will be just right for them, — Tatyana Pozdnyakova assured.
How not to become a victim of deception
Fraudsters are already using increased interest in purchases of garden and vegetable garden goods, cybersecurity experts have noted. Attackers call potential buyers and introduce themselves to delivery or marketplace employees, said Timofey Voronin, Deputy Director for Technology Transfer at the NTI Competence Center for Big Data Storage and Analysis Technologies at Lomonosov Moscow State University.
— Due to the imminent start of the summer cottage and barbecue season, citizens are ordering large volumes of various goods on marketplaces or online stores, including skewers, barbecues, seedlings, seeds, gardening tools, and so on. That's what phone scammers use," he warned.
The expert clarified that there are two schemes of deception of citizens. In the first case, the delivery service allegedly calls and says that the victim has received a parcel or parcel, but the invoice or packaging is damaged, so it is necessary to verify the recipient's details. To do this, the scammers send a link that leads to a website resembling the Gosuslugi portal. Logging in to it will lead to account theft, the expert warned.
In the second scheme, a potential victim of fraud receives a call allegedly from a delivery service or marketplace. The fraudster reports that a gift or parcel has been sent to the person, for which you need to select a pick-up point. To do this, the "operator" must be provided with an SMS code to log in to the account on Gosuslugi.
"In both cases, the use of social engineering tools is again observed — the emphasis is on ordinary curiosity and inattention," explained Timofey Voronin.
Despite various measures to combat fraudsters, they are finding new ways to steal the accounts of gullible citizens, he warned.
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