Global fraud prevention company Forter is tracking weekly online spending and the results during the COVID-19 crisis have proved fascinating.
Based on Forter data tracking in the past several weeks and looking ahead to Mother’s Day, e-commerce sales look encouraging in several sectors including jewelry and electronics.
“Despite the financial impact of COVID-19, the National Retail Federation (NRF) says that consumers will spend an average of $8 more on cards, special meals, and other gifts for mom this year. One category, in particular, that is showing promising Mother’s Day sales is online jewelry,” said Angela Whiteford, Forter chief marketing officer.
The NRF reports 71% of people are still social distancing but an optimistic 46% were still wishing for a traditional Mother’s Day outing, brunch, or other social activity. Given the coronavirus pandemic, 70% of consumers said celebrating Mother’s Day this year is important to them and they plan to spend an average of $205 on cards, meals, and other gifts for mom this year.
“From the beginning of COVID-19 until early April, online jewelry and other high-end product transactions slowed as these categories were slower to maximize their online channels than others. But, since early April, the online transaction volume of jewelry has shown a steady increase and over these past two weeks, volume has increased by 17%. While other high-end products have not experienced the same recent increase in transaction volume, Mother’s Day is proving to be a much needed shot in the arm for online jewelers,” Whiteford said.
New data next week will further reflect the recent upswing in online jewelry sales in the lead up to Mother’s Day.
What else is hot, and what’s not in COVID-19 e-commerce?
The pandemic is presenting children and spouses with some challenges and the need to shift away from the traditional gift of flowers or an outing. The NRF expects electronics gifts to be up 24% this year, books up 22%, and housewares or gardening tools up 21% over last year.
Here’s a snapshot of what the latest data from Forter looks like when it comes to e-commerce activity in key product categories last week compared to a baseline median from the first five weeks of 2020:
- home furnishings & gardening +369% ( mattresses & bedding +575%)
- groceries & deliveries +243%
- beauty +216%
- food & beverage +185% (liquor +272%)
- apparel & accessories +106% (sunglasses +601%)
- marketplaces +92%
- virtual coins (correct occurrence) +61%
- computers +59%
- airline flights -95%
Fraud chargebacks down
One small bit of good news from the most recent week’s data. Fraud chargebacks are down noticeably.
Unfortunately, service chargebacks have significantly increased from being 60% less than fraud chargebacks to 50% more than fraud chargebacks primarily because of flight and other travel and holiday cancellations as consumers seek refunds on their previous payments.
Still, it’s one relative bright spot on the retail and e-commerce surprising.
Celebrate Mom and be safe
We expect there will be many creative Mother’s Day celebrations including Zoom calls and other innovative online connections in addition to the shift in gift plans and spending patterns.
We hope you’re able to celebrate Mother’s Day in a meaningful way despite the need to maintain social distancing to protect those closest to us and nearby. Be safe.
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