Q1 2010 online sales end on upswing

Mark Freidin

25th Apr 2010

Q1 2010 online sales end on upswing, more good news to come

March shoppers spend more money, purchase more items

Melbourne, 21 April 2010 – The first quarter of 2010 showed an overall reduction in online retail sales when compared with Q4 2009, new international research from Coremetrics shows. The marketing optimisation provider was quick to qualify however, that the drop was a result of the typically quiet post-Christmas holiday period and pointed out that the final month of Q1 experienced an increase of nearly 10% in online retail sales – a very encouraging sign for the year ahead.

Kevin Mackin, General Manager, Coremetrics, ANZ, elaborated further on the company’s international benchmark data, “The average order value also trended upwards in March, shooting to $180.95 from $168.23 in January. This is an increase of nearly 8% and is actually stronger than December 2009 figures when average order values were $171.89.”

The third group of statistics Coremetrics found particularly interesting was the average number of items per order which increased by 7.2% in March, when compared with January. This number, combined with the rise in average order value indicates that shoppers are more willing to spend and appear to be showing great confidence in the global economy.

“The online retail sector delivered an encouraging performance over the course of the first quarter, which is fantastic news for local retailers,” continued Kevin Mackin. “Though overall sales were down slightly for the quarter, the sector posted strong gains in March. Both average order values and items per order are trending solidly up, reflecting strong consumer confidence in the economy and perseverance from savvy online retailers. In particular, department stores and sports gear retailers have done an exceptional job of attracting consumers and delivering strong sales results.”

Retail Categories
– Department Store sales for February were up more than 3% over January, and sales for March were up nearly 16% over February. Average order values in March was $140.61, compared to $128.57 in January and $125.95 in December 2009, for increases of 9.4% and 11.6% respectively. The number of items per order also trended up, with an increase of 14.3% in March compared to January.
– Sports Apparel and Gear retailer sales for February were up 21% over January, and sales for March were up nearly 36% over February. Average order values in March was $131.00, compared to $120.29 in January and $112.51 in December 2009, for increases of nearly 9% and 16.43% respectively. The number of items per order also showed gains, with an increase of 18.4% in March compared to January.

Source
These findings are based on data from Coremetrics Benchmark™, the industry’s only peer-level benchmarking solution that measures online marketing results, including commerce data, against those of the competition. More than 500 leading retailers contribute their analytics data to Benchmark. All data is aggregated and anonymised. Abercrombie & Fitch, Bath & Body Works, Bloomingdale’s, Coldwater Creek, L’Occitane en Provence, Macy’s, Nordstrom, Office Depot, PETCO and Williams-Sonoma are just a few of the participating companies.

Coremetrics recently enhanced Benchmark to include near-real-time data and added advanced functionality, such as sales trends by comparison period, conversion rates from Pay per Click (PPC) campaigns, and website traffic by browser type. Over the last year, Coremetrics has nearly doubled the number of companies participating in Benchmark.

Coremetrics Benchmark comes standard with Coremetrics Analytics for no additional cost.

Photo credit:Danilo Rizzuti