Newsletter

State of e-Commerce - Insights from MyBuys' Health and Wellness Index

The first edition of the MyBuys Health & Wellness Index came at an interesting time for e-commerce. August was the beginning of the change in shopping behavior that showed us the recession is finally ending and that better times are ahead. The MyBuys Composite Index aggregates total sales, non-promoted sales, discounted sales performance, depth of discounts, AOV and consumer impulse response from our over 150 MyBuys clients. Revenue was up 13% year over year but that was supported by a deep discounting strategy that moved more volume at much lower price points. Since that initial release, the Index has moved up and down with the overall trend showing that shoppers are returning to the store and are more likely to purchase items at full price. Also, the depth of discount has been slightly decreasing over the past six months although the volume of promoted sales remains a key portion of sales. Coverage of the index has spread even further including a live spot on fox business news, continued features in Internet Retailer, and renewed coverage in the Wall Street Journal and Time Magazine’s online publications.

The past three months have shown a big boost from holiday sales, followed by a rough January holiday hangover, capped off by increased shopping activity on the web. “With strong February results far outweighing a weaker-than-expected January, the Index averaged positive 8% since December, demonstrating positive momentum for the e-commerce industry,” said Robert Cell, CEO MyBuys. “Q1 2010 saw growth in overall e-commerce sales, and importantly, this growth was fueled by increases in both full-priced and discounted goods. We expect that retailers will continue to wean themselves from discount pricing tactics as their main growth engine through the remainder of 2010, and focus on innovative merchandising tactics instead. MyBuys continues to demonstrate that retailers that leverage personalization on their web sites deliver higher average order values (AOV) across their transactions.”

Here are the first quarter highlights of the MyBuys Health and Wellness Index:

Key Stats: Q1 2010
MyBuys E-Commerce Wellness Index	↑ 3.7%
Total revenue year-over-year	↑ 2.2%
Total revenues from products sold at list price	↑ 3.8%
Total revenues from products sold with a discount	↑ 26.6%
Depth of discounts	↑ 8.2%