Apr 13th 2020
Key Takeaways
• Nike saw online sales fail to grow two weeks in a row (down 1% the week of March 9 and 5% the week of March 16) before climbing 11%.
• Direct to consumer (DTC) and consignment brands ThirdLove, Stitch Fix, Untuckit and Poshmark online sales together fell 13% from March 2 to March 29.
• Adidas saw double digit sales growth over the last three weeks amid a 30% discount campaign.
The impact of Covid-19 on the e-commerce landscape remains a burning question for businesses and consumers alike as the disease continues to sweep the nation and the globe. Previously, Edison Trends reported that rideshare usage has dropped nationwide amid the pandemic. While brick-and-mortar retailers have faced the full brunt of Covid-19, with non-essential stores in many major cities being temporarily shut down, many brands are refocusing on their e-commerce business to keep sales moving.
In the coming weeks, Edison Trends will continue to analyze different e-commerce verticals to assess the impact of Covid-19 across brands. To understand how online spending on apparel, direct to consumer (DTC), and consignment brands has changed in the last few months, Edison Trends analyzed over 105,000 online transactions.
Figure 1: Chart shows estimated online spending on apparel brands by week, comparing Nike, Adidas, Under Armour, Kate Spade, Levi’s, Converse, and Tommy Hilfiger from January 6 to March 29, 2020, according to Edison Trends. This analysis was conducted on over 70,000 online transactions. Note: This data is normalized - the highest weekly spend for any vendor was set to 100, and all other values scaled accordingly.
Online spending on many of these brands has been highly variable since the end of the holiday season. After not growing for two weeks, Nike online sales climbed 11% over the previous week. It was Adidas, however, that has posted the most impressive gains, with week-over-week increases of over 35% each of the past three weeks. (They did advertise a 30% off sale on their website last week.)
Given the high week-to-week variation in online apparel sales — Kate Spade, for instance, surged 229% over the previous week during their Surprise Sale in the week of February 3rd — it can be difficult to determine whether the coronavirus situation is affecting customer spending. But looking at all these brands taken as a whole, their average week-over-week increase in spending between January 6 and March 1 was 5%. From March 2 through March 29, their average week-over-week increase was 10%.
Looking just at the past week, the week of March 23, these brands together as a whole grew their online spending 21% in comparison with the previous week.
Figure 2: Chart shows estimated online spending on DTC and thrift brands by week, comparing Stitch Fix, Poshmark, ThirdLove, and Untuckit from January 6 to March 29, 2020, according to Edison Trends. This analysis was conducted on over 35,000 online transactions. Note: This data is normalized - the highest weekly spend for any vendor was set to 100, and all other values scaled accordingly.
Looking at the brands with an e-commerce focus, for three out of these four DTC and thrift brands, customer spending dropped last week versus the previous week. Spending on Thirdlove products fell 6% the week of March 23 (over the previous week); for Untuckit, the figure was 13%. Stitch Fix, whose customer spending has declined for three weeks straight, saw a more drastic drop last week of 51%.
Looking at all these brands taken as a whole, their average week-over-week increase in spending between January 6 and March 1 was 1%. From March 2nd to March 29, that average was -13%.
To learn more about how to reduce the spread of COVID-19, read up on the guidelines listed on the CDC’s website.
As the market evolves, we will continue to stay on top of the latest trends. To learn more about how Edison Trends can help your business, contact us at bizdev@edison.tech. For more up-to-date insights in the e-commerce space, be sure to subscribe to our newsletter, and follow us on Twitter at @EdisonTrends.
*The data shown is based on a sample of anonymized and aggregated e-receipts from millions of consumers in the United States.