Grays Online saw record traffic during pandemic

Heather McIlvaine

23rd Jul 2020

B2B marketplace Grays Online says it had record traffic on its website during the global coronavirus pandemic, which saw more Australians shopping online due to widespread store closures and government guidelines to stay at home.

The e-commerce company released statistics this week that showed a 56 per cent increase in unique visitors to the site in May to over 2 million, up from 1.3 million in the same month last year.

The number of new customers who visited the website nearly doubled year on year to over 7,000, while the number of reactivated customers was up 50 per cent year on year to 3,400.

Sixty per cent of all people who landed on the site in May were on a mobile device.

The categories that saw the biggest uptick in traffic were wine, which drew 141,000 unique visitors, a 78 per cent, and home, which drew 764,000 unique visitors, a 95 per cent increase.

Categories more traditionally associated with Grays, which targets business customers as opposed to individuals like Amazon and eBay, grew slightly slower in May.

The industrial category drew 665,000 unique visitors, up 25 per cent year on year, while cars drew 591,000, up 54 per cent year on year.

Grays COO Jeff McLean attributed growth in the industrials category to the number of businesses looking to turn balance sheet assets into cash.

“We expect this trend to continue long after restrictions are lifted due to the ease, security and efficiency of online auctions to facilitate the sale and purchase of all kinds of items for individuals, homes, commercial and industrial use,” he said.

Notably, Adam Drexler recently sold off a large amount of Matt Blatt inventory through Grays before selling the business’ IP and goodwill to Kogan.com for $4.4 million.

Grays has invested in its technology and marketing tools in recent years, and is now reaping the benefits as more Australians turn online to purchase a wide range of items.

“Buyers and sellers across all our categories have embraced our leading online marketplace platform, established customer base of more than 3 million individuals and businesses, and proven marketing campaigns to keep buying and selling during the pandemic,” McLean said.