Here at the Good Housekeeping Institute, we love digging into the data to see what you’re shopping from our experts’ tried and tested recommendations.
Not just because we’re quite nosy and want to know what air fryer everyone’s buying (yes, it's a Ninja), whether you’re all ditching the iron for the clothes steamer (it's still 50/50 to be honest), and what sleep essential is helping you drift off at night (more on that below) – but because knowing what you're shopping, when, helps us decide what to test next.
For example, our most shopped product for the first four months of the year was this Philips fabric shaver, as we all looked after our winter knits, followed by our winning upright vacuum cleaner from Hoover, suggesting your minds were on cleaning and decluttering. Then, in May, as the weather heated up, and people were inspired by the London Marathon to hit the road, suddenly you were all buying electrolytes to replenish those essential salts and minerals.
You'll find all our top sellers below (plus why we think they sold so well), and we've pulled out a few of the most interesting stats from the year, including the most expensive product bought and our readers’ most shopped across beauty, homes, wellness, food & drink and more (see, data’s fun!).
Think of it like GH’s version of Spotify Wrapped...
GH readers' most shopped products in 2024
Let's count down the top ten most shopped products this year.
Score: 95/100
Bamboo is known for its silky soft properties, which makes these winning bath towels ideal for wrapping around yourself after a long soak. The thick design makes drying off a real treat and you can feel good about Panda's environmental efforts, too. Over 2,700 of you treated yourself to one of these snuggle towels this year.
Score: 93/100
We found it hard to fault this carpet cleaner (and we're very nitpicking). It lifted black coffee and notoriously tricky red wine stains from our carpets in the lab. It's not for use on hard floors (there you go, we found a niggle) but this is a very satisfying buy (and you bought almost 3,000 of them).
8. Tower T22008 CeraGlide Cordless Steam Iron
Score: 92/100
Proving that some of us are still ironing, is our top-scoring steam iron from Tower. This is another buy that combines performance with affordability, making it a surefire hit with our savvy shoppers. It can be used corded or cordless, it's quick to heat up and it excels at removing creases.
Score: 94/100
We are totally onboard with your love of this robot vacuum – a machine that does the housework for us is always on our wish list and this was not only our runner-up on test, it's also brilliant value at less than £200 (many of these robots cost upwards of £1,000). Over 3,500 of these were snapped up.
Score: 95/100
It seems you're all after that freshly baked bread smell and we don't blame you. Our winning bread maker is compact and makes delicious white and wholemeal loaves with crunchy crusts. Who needs Gail's? Nearly 4.000 of these were bought from our roundup this year.
Score: 88/100
This is one of those spur-of-the-month purchases that perform so well in our newsletters. Less than £20, the well designed electric debobbler removed piling from cashmere, wool and more with ease in our tests, and it kept everything tidy thanks to the attached waste bin. Over 3,800 of these were bought across 2024.
Score: 96/100
We love a satisfying cleaning tool, and so do you, it seems. Our winning steam mop was particularly effective on hard and sealed floors and its flexible joint and long flex mean it can reach under furniture and fridges with ease. A practical, high-performance buy.
Score: 90/100
This handy gadget combines performance with a affordability, while saving us from the dreaded iron pile. It's super speedy and removed most of the creases from our clothes during testing. For banishing wrinkles without the faff, it's a smart buy, and over 4,400 of you agreed.
Score: 95/100
In the second, most-shopped, spot is that air fryer. A joint winner in our tests (which is no mean feat, given we've reviewed over 60 air fryers in the past three years), it's a great family appliance, feeding a crowd well in half the time. This is one sells particularly well during sales events (it's often discounted, so we suggest looking out for it in the January sales). Nearly 6,000 were bought by you this year.
Score: 93/100
Over 7,400 of these vacuums were purchased across the year from our best upright vacuum roundup, and we're not surprised you were sold on this one, as it didn't drop a mark in our lab tests for its dust pick-up, moving smoothly over surfaces. It's also a decent price (and can often be found with money off on Amazon).
The GHI's year in numbers
- We turned 100 in 2024 🎉 . The GHI first opened its doors in October 1924, at 49 Wellington Street WC2, London.
- 3,700 products were rigorously tested in our lab and with our at-home panel this year.
- We ate 255 mince pies as part of our biggest ever Christmas Taste Test. It's a hard job...
- 6,000 panel members took part in our reviews this year, helping us put products through their paces in real-world conditions.
- We tested 101 products for our first ever Sleep Awards, to help you get those all-important Zs.
- We spent 39 weeks testing the best of the best in beauty for our Hall of Fame Awards.
- We launched one new testing category. This year, we started testing parenting products, from pushchairs to cots, and launched our very first Parenting Awards. And there's a lot more to come in 2025...
What was the most expensive product bought from our articles?
Score: 92/100
The priciest purchase? This very luxurious mattress from Sealy, which was named our experts' and panel's 'joint best hybrid mattress' in our Sleep Awards. It was designed in collaboration with orthopaedic surgeons and some of testers told us it did help ease their back pain, thanks to the supportive blend of springs and foam. One person even said they found themselves going to bed earlier as they couldn't wait to snuggle in. What price great sleep? £3,000 apparently (cheaper mattresses are available).
What was the most popular product by category?
Beauty
Score: 77/100
We're impressed that so many of you were thinking of your dental hygiene in 2024. A flosser reaches the parts your electric toothbrush can't and while this one wasn't our winner, it was our best value pick at just under £30, and all our panellists said their mouth felt fresher after using it.
Food & Drink
Score: 77/100
This one surprised us a little, but it probably shouldn't have as more of us than ever are going alcohol free or looking to cut down on our drinking. We've also seen a huge improvement in the quality of non-alcoholic drinks over the past few years. Our expert panel called this bottle, which was the runner-up in our tests, a 'convincing' red wine replacement and enjoyed the juicy red fruit and touch of warm spice. The perfect bottle to stock up on for those New Year celebrations then.
Sleep
Score: 94/100
It seems a cosy night's sleep was very much on your minds this year, with this 15 tog winter duvet proving your most popular buy in this category. A great score from our experts and our at-home panel, plus a very reasonable price, combined to make this a top-seller. And despite being a very snuggly 15 togs, our panel said this duvet didn't feel too heavy or thick; in fact, they found it super comfy and praised the “puffy” design. Dreamy.
Kitchen appliances
Score: 95/100
Known as ‘that’ air fryer in the GH office, the Ninja Foodi dual drawer is always hovering near the top of our most-shopped list. It flies out the door during sales periods, when it's often considerably reduced and, as our joint top-scorer in a very crowded field, it's a really smart buy. In fact, last year, it was your most popular buy; it may have slipped down to second in 2024, but you still bought almost 6,000 of them. It seems you just can't resist this great family fryer, which produced fluffy chips and deliciously moist chicken in our tests. It will also sync the drawers so everything's ready at the same time.
Wellness
Score: 97/100
Electrolyte drinks have really seen a boom in popularity over the past few years and it seems you're all fully onboard, as these were snapped up in huge numbers (particularly in May when they were our top-seller – new runners inspired by the London Marathon perhaps or festival goers preparing for those morning-after hangovers?). These tabs took the top spot in testing with our panel of sports nutritionists and tasting panel, and were developed in collaboration with the British sailing team to help boost energy and enhance focus.
Parenting
Score: 91/100
We started testing parenting products for the first time this year, culminating in our first ever Parenting Awards, with everything from pushchairs to travel cots tested in the lab and at home by a panel of discerning (albeit slightly exhausted) parents. But it was this baby monitor from Nanit that proved most popular with our readers. “I love everything about this monitor,” said one of our panellists of this intuitive, app-controlled device. It also has an array of features, including sound and motion tracking, so you'll know if your baby stirs in the night.
Pets
We all know our four-legged friends are the ones that really rule the roost and if yours are anything like the pampered pooches in the GH team, they've probably got multiple beds already (ours have night beds, day beds, beds that look like mini sofas, outdoor beds...) We haven't started testing pet products in the GHI lab yet (watch this space), but our team of pet parents shared their favourite dog beds for our roundup and this cosy donut design from the sleep experts, Silentnight, was your favourite buy of the year.
Alison is head of content for the Good Housekeeping Institute, responsible for product reviews across homes, beauty, wellness, family and food & drink. She lives by the William Morris quote that you should “have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.”
Alison has over 15 years' experience as a lifestyle editor and has written features on everything from misophonia to how to dress like Claudia on The Traitors. She has also interviewed everyone from Dame Joanna Lumley to the Kardashians.
In her spare time, you'll find her hanging out with Monty the cocker spaniel and refreshing the Sezane website every five seconds.
