Black Friday deals are looming as retailers extend promotions to capture early shoppers and lessen the strain on last-minute shipping. Keeping track of eCommerce trends and online shopping behaviors will help agile marketers capture an opportunity that comes their way.

We see some of the follow trends for October 2020 compared to October 2019:

• Food and Grocery eCommerce is growing at a rate unseen in a few months. While not hitting early March and April numbers from the start of the coronavirus pandemic, people appear to be preparing early for the holidays through triple digit increase in conversion rates, compared to last year.
• Orders by new shoppers are continually growing Y/Y across retail categories. Ensure a smooth transition for these new shoppers with a frictionless checkout experience. Engage new customers with surveys and on social media to understand their shopping experience with your brand.
• Mobile continues to play an increasingly important role in the online shopping experience. Consider offering mobile only deals to encourage impulse buys. Ensure your website has a mobile first approach to create a user-friendly experience.

The year-over-year changes from October 2019 to October 2020 are as follows:

Food and Grocery Ecommerce Trends

• Website conversions jumped 126%
• Transactions soared 70%.
• Average order value (AOV) rose 4%.
• Percentage of mobile orders rose 41%.
• Orders by new shoppers increased 74%.

Apparel Industry Ecommerce Trends

• Website conversions decreased 31%
• Transactions jumped 91%.
• AOV increased 3%.
• Percentage of mobile orders increased  ust 1%.
• Orders by new shoppers skyrocketed 128%.

Gifting Industry Ecommerce Trends

• Website conversions increased 39%
• Transactions rose 36%.
• AOV increased just 2%.
• Percentage of mobile orders dropped 4%.
• Orders by new shoppers rose 29%.

Home Furnishing Ecommerce Trends

• Website conversions increased 7%
• Transactions skyrocketed 63%.
• AOV dropped 3%.
• Percentage of mobile orders soared 172%.
• Orders by new shoppers jumped 64%.

Pet Supplies Ecommerce Trends

• Website conversions increased 2%
• Transactions increased 34%.
• AOV dropped by 6%.
• Percentage of mobile orders rose 12%.
• Orders by new shoppers jumped 60%.

Tools and Hardware Ecommerce Trends

• Website conversions fell 17%
• Transactions jumped 45%.
• AOV increased just 6%.
• Percentage of mobile orders jumped 29%.
• Orders by new shoppers increased 31%.

For a deeper dive into how Prime Day, Election Day, and the ongoing coronavirus pandemic impacted eCommerce and online shopping behavior, join NetElixir’s latest webinar on the Road to Recovery: Real-Time Data on eCommerce Trends + Updated Holiday Season Forecast. You’ll gain insights into:

• Charting a successful path to recovery, starting with a successful 2020 holiday season
• Latest online shopper behavior and patterns across seven retail categories and actionable insights for your marketing mix
• The updated holiday season forecast for November-December with NetElixir’s 2020 Holiday ECommerce Sales Calendar

During the webinar, we will be releasing our 2020 Holiday eCommerce Sales Calendar, which highlights the key online sales days and underlying forces that may have an impact on sales this year. Register now at https://stage.netelixir.com//webinar/. 

Further Reading into Holiday Insights

• B2B ECommerce Search Marketing Case Study
• Get Results with Progressive Web Apps (PWAs)
• 6 Reasons to Have a Blog for Your Business
• 2020 Holiday Season ECommerce Forecast

The post October 2020 Retail ECommerce YoY Insights appeared first on NetElixir.

Most states have reopened and many states are looking to reopen their malls. A near 18% increase in retail sales in May suggests quarantine fatigue, reports New York Times. People are looking to leave their houses and interact more with others.

Fortune reports that clothing stores experience over 180% sales increase in May compared to April’s sales, with department stores alone growing almost 40%. Despite the month over month increase, however, year over year still shows a decline. 

Digital and online retail continues to be a hallmark in connecting with customers. Consumer sentiment shows that many are still hesitant to return fully to normal behaviors and experiences.

Apparel Retail Industry Metrics

According to our dataset, this week was not the best for the Apparel industry. While the average order value increased 3% from this past Sunday, June 21 to yesterday, June 25 when compared to the 2019 data, conversion rates fell 31% and the number of transactions also dropped 26%.

The number of new users decreased 14%. Mobile usage, however, increased 22%. 

While this week showed some signs of slowing for the Apparel industry, there is still hope of a resurgence. As most places reopen and the weather gets hotter – and some of us have a need for a new wardrobe to replace clothes that no longer fit, as Wall Street Journal reports – the Apparel retail industry will bounce back. 

As stores open across the globe, many retailers have seen a surge in customers flocking to brick-and-mortar to recapture a sense of normalcy in face-to-face shopping. While a digital presence is the way forward, stores will benefit from an omnichannel experience to appeal to customers.

NetElixir Updates

As we move further along the road to recovery, NetElixir is reducing our thrice-weekly retail analytics updates to once a week. Every Friday, we will update you with the latest data regarding ecommerce sales and online shopper behavior as the coronavirus pandemic continues. 

Our Reimagine Tomorrow series brings you experts from various fields to share their knowledge on new strategies, technology & innovations, and actionable insights for navigating the coronavirus and beyond. Professor George Day will speak at the third episode in our series, presenting on How Vigilant Organizations Gain An Edge on Thursday, July 9 at 2 PM ET. Register at https://stage.netelixir.com//experience/. 

NetElixir is proud to announce our first virtual holiday readiness summit. Connecting the Dots: Holiday Readiness Summit for Retailers is a ½ day summit that brings together preeminent retail industry leaders, channel marketing specialists, supply chain experts, and strategic thinkers from Google, Microsoft, UPS, Columbia Business School, and more. Through this webinar, we aspire to help retail and business leaders rethink their holiday approach. We aim to empower leaders to innovate new strategies to move forward during this unpredictable year. RSVP for this summit on August 13th and follow us on social for more updates.

Read More On Retail Ecommerce During the Coronavirus Pandemic

You can join the conversation on social media using #NxInsights. If you have any further questions, please feel free to email us at shareinsights@netelixir.com.

For further reading, you can see our prior retail analytics updates on retail ecommerce and online shopping behavior:

• Road to Recovery: Lessons from Mid-Size Retailers, from Friday, June 19
• Day by Day: Ecommerce Growth Across Categories, from Wednesday, June 17
• Meet the Panel of Retail Executives, from Monday, June 15
• Retail Ecommerce Sales Updates, from Friday, June 12

The post Fashion and Apparel During the Coronavirus Pandemic appeared first on NetElixir.

Consumer behavior has evolved as the coronavirus outbreak continues to impact the globe. According to McKinsey & Company’s research of global consumer sentiment, consumers are shifting towards a “homebody economy”, despite lockdowns slowly lifting across the world. As such, consumers continue to shop online and boost retail ecommerce metrics by remaining with their digital platforms. McKinsey reports that, in order for consumers to feel comfortable shopping more out of the home, they want to see company’s emphasize cleanliness and safety. 

We slowly move forward to easing out of lockdowns, but in the meantime, consumers continue to turn to online shopping. Looking at the year over year changes between June 5 and 6, 2020 compared to the same dates in 2019, we see:

• New shoppers continuously turn to digital means to buy essentials and other goods. More than half of Americans have made their first online order during the pandemic, reports a recent survey by Small Business Trends.
• While the rate of ecommerce growth has slowed significantly since the initial outbreak of the coronavirus, we are still seeing positive year over year growth across most retail industries. 
• Brand awareness and their responses to the current crises will shape who consumers continue to patronize in the future. Millennials and Gen Z care about a brand’s purpose and want brands to be responsible to their consumers through messaging as well as actions.

Positive Outlook for Apparel and Fashion

While ecommerce has helped some retailers stay afloat during the pandemic, the apparel industry has suffered. Digital agility in the fashion and apparel retail category points to which retailers are more likely to overcome the coronavirus outbreak.

Amazon began offering virtual dressing rooms that allows shoppers to digitally mock up an outfit ensemble to see how it would look.  

As states have opened and people are more likely to go out to enjoy the spring weather  and opened retailers, the Apparel industry has seen more continuous year over year growth than early on during the pandemic. Comparing the year over year data from this past weekend (Friday, June 5 and Saturday, June 6, with the same dates in 2019), our Retail Intelligence Lab has found:

• Website conversion rates increased by 4%.
• The number of transactions have increased by 32%.
• The Average Order Value (AOV) has decreased 7%.
• The percentage of mobile orders have increased by 12%.
• New orders have jumped 47%.

Ecommerce sales for the Apparel retail industry are increasing, which shows a promising post-coronavirus recovery. 

Food and Grocery Ecommerce

Online grocery sales continue to climb throughout the coronavirus outbreak. The stay-at-home orders under the coronavirus pandemic will change how consumers interact with their food. More people – and children at that – are learning to cook and bake and more families are eating together. People will focus more on eating local and eating healthy, as well as focusing on food safety.

Amid our changing relationship with food and less time out at restaurants and the office, consumers are still overwhelmingly turning to online grocery. Over the past weekend, compared to the 2019 data, we have seen:

• Website conversion rates increased by 5%.
• The number of transactions have jumped 77%.
• AOV increased by 37%.
• The percentage of mobile orders have skyrocketed by 178%.
• New orders have increased by 85%.

Gifting in the Age of Coronavirus

Virtual meetings and digital gifts have kept us connected throughout the coronavirus pandemic. As social restrictions ease, however, we see more people able to express their love in person. Small gatherings and house visits have lessened the need for virtual egreetings. Gifting, which was a breakout retail category throughout the onset of the pandemic, has since decreased in prominence. 

Over the past weekend, when comparing the daily data of June 5 and 6, 2020 to that of 2019, our Retail Intelligence Lab has found:

• Website conversion rates have decreased by 6%.
• The number of transactions rose 16%.
• AOV decreased by 5%.
• The percentage of mobile orders have jumped by 39%.
• New orders have decreased by 6%.

Consumers are turning to other retail categories as we shift into a new stage of recovery. 

Additional Insights

Some states have allowed non-essential retailers to start offering curbside pickup and retailers have become creative in how they recreate a shopping experience. Successful experiential retail will help boost the reopening of brick-and-mortar stores.

To learn more about how the coronavirus is impacting retail ecommerce and online shopper behavior, register for the sixth installment of our Covid-19 Updates Webinar series. Join us on Thursday, June 18 at 2 PM ET for the Road to Recovery: Lessons From Mid-size Retailers. Here, we will continue to share real-time ecommerce data from June and host a roundtable discussion with retail industry leaders.

Our next speaker in our Reimagine Tomorrow series is George Day. Professor Day will speak on How Vigilant Organizations Gain An Edge on Thursday, July 9 at 2 PM ET. Register at https://stage.netelixir.com//experience/. 

Learn More about Ecommerce Updates During Coronavirus

You can join the conversation on social media using #NxInsights.

For further reading, you can see our prior retail analytics updates on retail ecommerce and online shopping behavi

or:

• Reimagine Tomorrow: Opportunities in Times of Crisis, from Friday, June 5
• Retail Ecommerce Updates for the End of May, from Wednesday, June 3
• Meet the Speaker: Jerry Wind, from Monday, June 1
• Memorial Day Weekend Ecommerce Sales, from Friday, May 29

The post Weekend Retail Ecommerce Updates appeared first on NetElixir.

Last week’s blog summarized the continued impact that the coronavirus outbreak is having on ecommerce sales and consumer’s online shopping behavior based on our webinar on April 23. NetElixir Founder and CEO Udayan Bose was joined by Kaki Zell, Co-Owner and Vice President of Ames Walker, for a Q&A into how Ames Walker is navigating the difficulties and challenges caused by the coronavirus outbreak. 

Stimulus Checks Boosted Apparel Ecommerce Sales

Interest in and demand for Apparel has plummeted throughout the pandemic. However, the distribution of the stimulus checks across the United States around April 15 have caused a slight increase in sales and website conversion rates, detailed below.

For the first time since NetElixir began collecting and documenting data, the Apparel retail industry has seen a week over week increase. Given the circumstances, Udayan Bose calls this uptick a “substantial spike.” Bose continues that the spending surrounding the stimulus checks suggests a “pent-up demand” in consumers.

“People are willing to spend and looking to spend and ready to spend,” Bose says. 

The indication of pent-up demand will be fundamental when the retail industry opens back up. McKinsey has suggested that there will be a lull in consumer spending and an overall decrease in demand. However, NetElixir believes that the Fashion and Apparel retail category will experience a v-shaped economic recovery post-pandemic. This recovery will be driven by pent-up demand and self-expression. NetElixir believes that people, after being cooped up so long, will have a greater desire for self-expression, especially among Gen Z and Millennials. As these groups reconnect with friends and classmates, they will want to showcase new styles.

Apparel Innovation at Ames Walker

Kaki Zell, Co-Owner and Vice President of Ames Walker, is a driven entrepreneur who took a chance to re-engineer her company during the upheaval caused by the outbreak.

Ames Walker was founded in 1995 as the first online provider of medical compression garments. As sales continued to drop across Apparel retailers, Zell and her husband saw an opportunity to shift Ames Walker’s resources and manufacturing capabilities to produce masks. These masks are made in an ISO 13485 medical device factory. They are made from soft polyester and nylon yarns, are double ply, and are treated with a splash resistant finish that helps to repel molecules, liquids, and oils. These masks are reusable, lasting up to 30 washes.

Ames Walker Mask Production

Zell admits she was hesitant at first to lean into producing masks. However, as demand shifted day by day and she saw the need growing in her customer base, Zell changed her mind. She believes personal protective products could become part of our new normal and wants to help make them more accessible to customers. Ames Walker now produces one million masks a week to get them into the hands of people who need them.

“I’d like to think of this as ‘adjusting to the new normal’ as opposed to ‘dealing with’ challenges, as it is certainly a time to be agile,” Zell says.

Because of the medical nature of their core business, Ames Walker is essential and has stayed open while most employees work from home. With a small, critical team in place, Ames Walker has also helped other companies continue their shipment. 

Based on consumer and medical feedback, Zell says Ames Walker is continuously tweaking and perfecting the quality of the masks. The masks are also being sent for more extensive biochemical testing for better protection for customers, as well as military and VA hospital partnerships.

“We are still evolving each day, and evolving our protective masks each day to make them better, make our employees safer, and keep everyone working,” Zell says.

A shifting Demographic

Ames Walker, by the nature of selling medical compression hosiery, usually caters to an older demographic. However, regularly wearing compression hosiery from a young age acts as a preventative measure for later in life. (This hasn’t always caught on among the younger demographic.) By taking preventative measures now through face masks helping to slow the spread of the coronavirus, people may come to see the benefits of preventative measures. This in turn could lead to younger people seeing the benefits exercising health precautions earlier in life.

“If we can gain new younger customers now, and have their trust then maybe we can in fact convince them that compression socks have come a long way and can actually be cool,” Zell says. 

In the meantime, Ames Walker continues to demonstrate their medical assistance and reliability to their customers.

Zell thinks that in the future, people could rely more on masks come flu and cold season, especially among the elderly and immunocompromised. Ames Walker is currently in development of new patterns for their masks.

Advice to Retailers During Coronavirus

In offering advice to retailers, Zell begins, “Well, after the shock wore off after the first few days of this pandemic hitting the United States, and watching our business take an initial downturn, I only wish we would have reacted even more quickly to change and evolve our business.”

Ames Walker continues to improve and perfect their masks for the safety of their customers and others who need the protection. By remaining nimble and relying on the real data presented by her team at NetElixir, Zell and the entire Ames Walker team innovated a means of offering clients a valuable option to protect themselves.

“My advice to other retail marketers would be to act fast and be agile. Use your strengths to figure out where you can help, where you can fit in during these times and in the future,” Zell says. “At some point soon, we will go back to what we are most knowledgeable about with our compression socks and hosiery…, but who is to say this isn’t an opportunity for a new best?”

Additional Insights

For partnering with NetElixir, Zell graciously offered a discount at Ames Walker’s site, viable through the end of April. Larger wholesale needs and questions can be directed to Zell herself at kzell@ameswalker.com.

We will be hosting a new webinar series, starting Tuesday, May 12 at 2 PM ET. Our X=Experience: Expert Series pulls together previous speakers from our annual X=Experience event to provide insights and research on how the coronavirus is impacting different fields. Our first webinar of the series on Leveraging AI, Data, and Tech Platforms To Understand Health Pandemics will be presented by Anindya Ghose. Register now.

You can watch our March 11 webinar here, which was the first of the series on tracking the impact of the coronavirus on ecommerce sales and online shopping behavior.

Our March 26 update webinar featured our first Retail Superhero, Parag Shah, the Vice President of Grocery at Wakefern Food Corporation for Shoprite,  and detailed over a month’s worth of research.

The third webinar in our impact of Covid-19 series, which aired on April 9, featured UPS’s President of SMB and US Marketing, Gerard Gibbons, for a live Q&A.

While we have covered an extensive dataset, it is by no means exhaustive. If you are interested in discussing specific insights for your category, please email us at shareinsights@netelixir.com. 

Further Reading on Ecommerce Updates During Coronavirus

You can join the conversation on social media using #NxInsights.

Our Founder and CEO Udayan Bose emphasizes the importance of real data. Real-time data, gathered daily by our Retail Intelligence Lab, shares a glimpse into how people are coping day by day. For further reading, you can see our prior retail analytics updates on retail ecommerce and online shopping behavior:

• New Online Shoppers During the Coronavirus Outbreak, from Wednesday, April 22
• Welcoming an Apparel Story of Hope and Innovation During the Coronavirus Outbreak, from Monday, April 20
• Ecommerce Opportunities During the Coronavirus Outbreak, from Friday, April 17
• Ecommerce Grocery Shopping During the Coronavirus, from Wednesday, April 15
• Supply and Demand: Navigating the Coronavirus Outbreak, from Monday, April 13

The post Apparel Industry Leader Weighs in on Impact of Coronavirus Outbreak appeared first on NetElixir.

These difficult and unprecedented times, however, have experienced a surge in entrepreneurial activity across businesses – big and small. As we are facing  something unknown, we have had to rethink business and marketing strategies. We have been both amazed and humbled by the demonstration of American entrepreneurial drive amidst these challenging times. 

Re-thinking Innovation at Ames Walker

As part of our upcoming webinar on Official Retail eCommerce Covid-19 updates 4.0 on Thursday, April 23rd at 2 PM ET, NetElixir will share a story of innovation and entrepreneurial spirit seen in the apparel industry. We will be joined by the inspiring Kaki Zell, Co-Owner and Vice President at Ames Walker.

Kaki will join NetElixir’s Founder and CEO Udayan Bose for a Q&A session on how Ames Walker transformed their company’s manufacturing capabilities overnight to produce protective masks, which are manufactured with ISO 13485 standards. These masks are washable, for up to 30 washes. Ames Walker also redesigned their supply chain and demand generation means to re-engineer a turnaround in their business during this pandemic. 

“During these uncertain times, many consumers, especially our older demographic are on an E-commerce roller coaster ride,” says Zell. “People are being forced to shop online for everything from groceries and household goods to apparel and other discretionary goods and services.  As a seller in the apparel market, we are optimistic about the future and how this will accelerate the shift from traditional retail to E-commerce. For many, this is a “crash course” in online shopping.”

About Ames Walker

Ames Walker sells high-quality compression hosiery made in the United States from carefully selected fabrics and the highest medical standards. In business since 1995, Ames Walker has faithfully served and supported their customer base.

In announcing their masks on Facebook, Ames Walker says, “We’ve been working hard to supply you with the product you need so we have decided to transition some of our sock manufacturing to make protective masks for you!”

Kaki will be joining NetElixir’s webinar on Thursday, April 23rd at 2 PM ET to share how Ames Walker switched to mask manufacturing and share what she has learned during these times of crisis. To participate, register now.

Additional Insights

Join BWG Strategy with NetElixir’s webinar on studying the impact of the coronavirus outbreak, live on Tuesday, April 21 at 3 PM ET.

While we have covered an extensive dataset, it is by no means exhaustive. If you are interested in discussing specific insights for your category, please email us at shareinsights@netelixir.com. 

You can watch our March 11 webinar here, which was the first of the series on tracking the impact of the coronavirus on ecommerce sales and online shopping behavior.

Our March 26 update webinar featured our first Retail Superhero, Parag Shah, the Vice President of Grocery at Wakefern Food Corporation for Shoprite,  and detailed over a month’s worth of research.

The third webinar in our impact of Covid-19 series, which aired on April 9, featured UPS’s President of SMB and US Marketing, Gerard Gibbons, for a live Q&A.

Further Reading on Ecommerce Updates During Coronavirus

Our Founder and CEO Udayan Bose emphasizes the importance of real data. Real-time data, gathered daily by our Retail Intelligence Lab, shares a glimpse into how people are coping day by day. For further reading, you can see our prior retail analytics updates on retail ecommerce and online shopping behavior:

• Ecommerce Opportunities During the Coronavirus Outbreak, from Friday, April 17
• Ecommerce Grocery Shopping During the Coronavirus, from Wednesday, April 15
• Supply and Demand: Navigating the Coronavirus Outbreak, from Monday, April 13
• Updates on Coronavirus Impact on Ecommerce Sales and Shopping Behavior, fom Friday, April 10
• What is COVID-19’s Impact on Retail Ecommerce, from Wednesday, April 8

The post Welcoming an Apparel Story of Hope and Innovation During the Coronavirus appeared first on NetElixir.