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Mondelez Wins Battle for Easter Chocolate with YOY Online Sales Up 417% Amid COVID-19

Lindt came in second place with a 278% increase year-over-year, followed by Hershey's.

Key Takeaways

• Mondelez brought in the highest year-over-year online Easter chocolate sales increase of 417%

• Lindt came in second place with a 278% increase year-over-year, followed by Hershey's

This past Easter on April 12th was the first major holiday that took place since the COVID-19 pandemic was declared a national emergency on March 13th. The holiday, usually celebrated with friends, family, bunnies and egg hunts, looked much different this year as many people were under stay-at-home orders and had smaller festivities than in previous years. In February, we reported that Valentine’s Day’s year-over-year online chocolate sales rose across all manufacturers. And as our recent Edison Trends COVID-19 research has shown, online grocery orders have also been on the rise as shoppers avoid heading out in person to buy from grocery stores.

However, according to the National Retail Federation, as much as 77% of Americans still planned on finding ways to celebrate Easter this year. As consumers increasingly shift their shopping online and keep plans to observe the holiday, Edison Trends took a deep dive into over 27,000 transactions to find out how online sales of Easter chocolates performed.

How did online spend on Easter 2020 chocolate compare by manufacturer amid COVID-19 and compared to last year?

Figure 1: Chart shows estimated year-over-year change in online chocolate sales by manufacturer, for Mondelez, Lindt, Hershey's, Mars Wrigley, Nestle, and Ferrero comparing March 24 - April 21, 2019 to March 16 - April 12, 2020, according to Edison Trends. This analysis was performed on over 27,000 transactions from over 280 vendors.

Looking at year-over-year changes in online chocolate sales, some chocolate manufacturers saw tremendous growth in online spending. Mondelez saw the highest change with a 417% increase, followed by Lindt with 278% and Hershey's with 152%. Mars Wrigley had 117% and Nestle 68%, with Ferrero at 17%. Note this analysis compares the four weeks before Easter in 2019 to the same period in 2020.

Worth noting is that this year, many consumers were sheltering in place at home in March and April due the COVID-19 pandemic, which may have driven more shoppers online to purchase their Easter chocolate instead of going in store.

To access the full version of this report that includes online consumer spend trends compared between chocolate manufacturers as well as top retail merchant market share for Easter chocolate sales, please contact us at bizdev@edison.tech.

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.

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