Thursday
April 23, 2020

• More brands are reporting increasing sales from their ecommerce store than decreasing sales.
• Most brands plan to change an element of their business after the pandemic is over and some have their eye on global expansion.
• Of brands who’ve said their sales are increasing, one-third attribute it to sales and promotions.

Of brands who sell through their own online ecommerce store, 55 percent have said their online ecommerce store sales have increased since the coronavirus. It appears most of these brands had a head start—they were selling online before the coronavirus pandemic and relied heavily on email marketing (90 percent) to build their customer base. Most (55 percent) have since increased their email efforts since the pandemic.

What does all this mean? Email has been and continues to be an effective marketing channel for brands regardless of the economic situation. As one brand said, “Online was already a priority business that was growing substantially—this time has given us the ability to have highly focused attention on this channel, specifically the marketing.”

Most brands plan to change an element of their business following the coronavirus pandemic. International expansion could be one of them. One apparel and accessories brand said they plan to “expand into other markets. Since more people will be buying, we might as well put ourselves in front of more of them.”

Another brand said they plan to “[add a] global multi-language multi-currency website.”

Of brands whose sales are going up, one-third are attributing the rise to sales and promotions during this time. This correlates with the information our data science team pulled. Klaviyo’s data science team looked at a dataset of 18,000 businesses that sell online and found that many brands whose email campaigns have generated 5-10X a brand’s typical revenue driven by email are using promotions and sales. As one brand said, “We’re making more sales by advertising and marketing as something fun to do while stuck home on quarantine. However, we are offering crazy discounts to be able to have those sales come in.”

Check out 3 additional content types brands are using to increase sales.

Effective Marketing Moments

What’s working?

Encouraging messaging. Olive and Frank, a UK-based online apparel company, is offering extra love to its customers during this time. Their messaging reminds us to take each day one at a time and echoes the sentiment that we’re all in this together.

Relevant creative imagery. Golf Avenue, a golf gear brand, uses stay-at-home messaging to highlight one of their products that might be useful in helping you entertain yourself and practicing your putting skills while at home.

Brands with increasing sales

How are they feeling?

Brands with increasing sales say that this period of time has been an unexpected boon to their business and, for that, they’re grateful. Many brands think this is a temporary bump and that consumer behavior will return to how it was before the pandemic.

One brand said, “I’m hoping that by acquiring new customers during this time, I can have them stay around and buy more after, but people have more time at home and are looking to do sewing and are making masks. I would assume I will see a downturn after.”

A gardening brand said, “Some will have discovered a cool new brand and will stay with us. Others are using us as a stop-gap and will return to garden centers as they reopen (likely to be one of the first places to reopen).”

One way to get new customers to purchase again is to create a loyalty program. Here are some loyalty program best practices to keep in mind if starting a new program.

Brands with decreasing sales

How are they feeling?

Brands with decreasing sales say they believe online sales will only continue to rise because it’s the “safe” choice compared to offline in-person sales. One brand noted that to adapt they’re going to have to focus on their return policies and said, “Consumers will still be skeptical about shopping for non-essential items in-store and will do more online shopping for them. Return policies will be key here and return rates could hurt us. Shipping delays could hurt us as well.”

Another brand said they plan to “train brick-and-mortar staff who know nothing about ecommerce how to work online.”

Check out our guide to moving from a brick-and-mortar to online business.

Brands with flat sales

How are they feeling?

Most brands with flat sales believe that their biggest challenge or learning curve to achieving this success will be to find marketing channels that are effective yet cost-efficient.

One brand said their specific challenge will be “finding the balance between money spent on our online advertisements and in-person sponsorships.”

Before you spend on advertising, here are some areas to optimize.