Key Takeaways
• Way Day 2019 saw increases in gross sales, orders, customers, and spend per order, compared to Way Day 2018
• Sales on Way Day 2019 were higher than sales on any other day in the last year, including both Way Day 2018 and Black Friday.
• 37% of the shoppers on Way Day 2019 were entirely new customers
• Average spend per order on Way Day 2019 was down 3% compared to the average of the previous 28 days
• Leading the charts, Pennsylvania spent 405% more per day during Way Day 2019 than they had the month previous
Last year saw an uptick in consumer retailers adopting Amazon’s strategy of offering off-season branded sales like Prime Day. Since then, Edison Trends has measured the success of the efforts—including, recently, Nike’s yearly Air Max Day sale, and the first installment of Way Day last year—a sale promising Black Friday prices in April. This year, Edison Trends examined Wayfair’s second annual Way Day sale, which was expanded to run an additional half-day to total 36 hours on April 10th and 11th. The promotion attempted to attract shoppers with access to prices of up to 80% off of furniture.
Figure 1: "1x" means "1x the amount on April 1, 2018." For instance, if Wayfair had $100 of gross sales on April 1, they would have had $111 on April 2.
The second installment of Wayfair’s shopping holiday proved to be a roaring success for the furniture ecommerce giant. Sales on Way Day 2019 were higher than sales on any other day in the last year, including both Way Day 2018 and Black Friday. Beyond general gross sales increases, Way Day 2019 also had a higher number of orders and unique customers compared to the rest of the year.
Figures 2a & 2b: Charts show the estimated percent increase or decrease in gross sales, orders, unique customers, new customers, % of Way Day 2018 customers who haven’t come back, and spend per order, comparing April 10 & 11, 2019 with April 25, 2018 according to Edison Trends.
Wayfair had fewer new customers this year, with 37% of shoppers making their first Wayfair.com purchase, compared to 47% last year. Of those who purchased during Way Day 2018, 48% have not returned to the site. Whether a similar pattern emerges for Way Day 2019, we’ll have to wait and see.
Excluding the drop in the number of new shoppers, Way Day 2019 showed increases in nearly every other criteria. Taking the average between Way Day 2019 and comparing it to Way Day 2018, all metrics showed an increase. Per-day gross sales were up 11%, orders and customers up 9%, and spend per order up 5%.
Figure 3a: "1x" means "1x the amount on March 13, 2019." For instance, if Wayfair had $100 of gross sales on March 12, they would have had $96 on March 13.
Way Day 2019 produced a big bump over Wayfair's usual daily take; April 10 and 11 averaged 325% higher gross sales than the previous 28 days, along with 339% more orders, and 315% more unique customers. However, this was not as much of a bump as last year, when the single-day sale produced about a 400% increase in these metrics versus the previous month.
Figure 3b: "1x" means "1x the amount on March 13, 2019."
Way Day 2019’s average spend per order by customers was $289, which is 3% lower than the previous 28 days. A similar trend occurred last year, when the average spend per order ($276) was about the same on Way Day as it was during the month leading up to the sale.
Figure 3c: Chart shows estimated percent increase or decrease in online gross sales for Wayfair spend among the seven most populous states, comparing April 10 & 11, 2019 to the previous 28 days, according to Edison Trends.
Looking at the seven most populous states, they all experienced a sizable jump in shopping on Way Day. Compared to sales per day during the previous month, Pennsylvania customers produced the biggest bump on Way Day 2019, spending 405% more per day, followed by Ohio, with a 386% increase. These states were followed by CA, IL, TX, and NY. FL. The lowest increase out of the seven states was from Florida at 210%.
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.