E-commerce sees major sales boost as COVID effects are felt

Online retailers have seen a dramatic rise in demand and revenue coming into Q4, driven almost entirely by the impact of COVID-19 on their businesses.

Retailers in Home and Garden, Fitness and Sportswear, Arts and Crafts and other industries continue to enjoy a significant boost in revenue as traffic and conversions remain at an increased level since the beginning of the pandemic in March.

ThoughtMix clients up to November have achieved a 24% increase in overall revenue, driven by those top performing categories. Home & Garden is up an average of 200% while gym and fitness sits just behind at 198% YoY increase.

In particular, one Home and Garden client has grown sales 1,108% YoY, from £80,000 revenue in 2019 to more than £1m in 2020 so far.

Since January, performance has tracked above 2019’s revenue with significant uplifts from March through to June – the height of the pandemic and national lockdown. At its peak, there was some £2m of extra net revenue generated through client programs in April.

September showed the smallest YoY increase, given that UK-wide, September was the month of the least restrictions in the country with the majority of bricks and mortar stores open and trading.

While fashion and travel taking the bulk of revenue declines, fashion did recover sharply in August and September. The Chancellor’s Eat Out to Help Out scheme contributed to an uplift to the industry as knock-on demand for clothing and fashion pieces grew.

Travel, particularly international recovery, remained significantly below last year’s trading figures, as faraway destinations including the USA have remained on the UK’s quarantine list.

For online retailers as a whole, however, there has been consistent growth MoM and YoY in trading figures, in all territories and markets. Despite concerns surrounding the economy and indeed the increases in job losses, this has yet to make an impact on retail trading online. While online has been outpacing physical stores for some time, the pandemic has accelerated plans for retails with stores to focus and invest on their online strategy.

Across the board, affiliate publishers have also reported strong growth in traffic and revenue as the share of traffic continues to grow for the sector. For advertisers who exclusively trade online, the affiliate channel continues to show influence in purchase decisions for the end customer, while also growing in the overall share of conversions.

ThoughtMix’s Client Services Manager, Dan Grindley said:

For what has been a difficult year for a vast number of companies, with many adjustments to strategy required to cater for the change in buying patterns, I’m pleased that we’ve been able to support our customers through by providing additional support and enhanced coverage through our affiliate partners.. It’s been a very important period for our team to ensure we offer our full support in tackling these new challenges.

I expect to see the trading patterns to continue as consumers look to beat the winter blues with feel good purchasing.

Adding the affiliate channel to the digital mix appears to be a good strategic decision.