Marketers who sell health and beauty items or jewelry online shouldn’t be faulted if they are overheard asking “What recession?” These two product categories saw large gains in March sales levels over February’s results.
While these categories might have led the pack, consumers purchased nearly 12% more items, although the average dollar amount spent rose by just over 4%.
Year-over-year retail metrics for March were down across the board compared to March 2008. The average number of items per order, average order value and shopping cart conversion all fell significantly -- 8.1%, 6.3% and 3.4% respectively -- compared with March 2008.
Within selected vertical markets:
The average number of items per order within the health and beauty categories increased by 6.9% and the average dollar value of their orders rose by 5.3%. Furthermore, consumer engagement with these sites, measured by page views per session and the average time they spent on sites, rose by 3.2 and 12.0% respectively from February.
Jewelry retailers also reported marked increases in the average number of items per order and their corresponding average dollar value, which rose by 13.8% and 13.4% respectively.
Intimate apparel retailers reported flat-to-slightly positive results in the average number of items per order and their corresponding average dollar value, which rose by 0.2% and 0.3% respectively, while page views (1.4%) and average time on site (2.0%) rose slightly.
Sports apparel and gear spending was slightly down, with the average number of items per order decreasing by nearly 2% while the average dollar value of their orders decreased by 1.3%. Furthermore, consumer engagement with these sites, measured by page views per session and the average time they spent on sites, decreased by 10.8% and 1% respectively from February.
These findings are based on data from Coremetrics Benchmark study. More than 300 leading U.S. retailers contribute their analytics data to Benchmark. All data is aggregated and anonymized.
The Cynic’s Take: So jewelry, health and beauty and intimate apparel sales rose from February’s level, despite February containing Valentine’s Day, hmm? Either we really are turning a corner in the economy, at least within certain verticals, or people are taking advantage of post V-Day specials as marketers in these spaces frantically use e-commerce to dump excess inventory…
