Thursday, November 6, 2014

Can a Rise in Home Sales Influence E-commerce Sales?



BigCommerce and their “14 spoonfuls of elite executives” recently released their first report on client e-commerce sales and the results seemed to concur.

According to their third quarter data (Q3), the sale of big-ticket items has seen vast growth throughout the summer months of July, August, and September; indicating a more successful back-to-school shopping season for their 55,000 merchants than that of 2013.  

The highest increase in sales were in lifestyle and home, and computer electronics retailers. The top performing product category in the Q3 report was lifestyle and home, which BigCommerce says exemplifies that these businesses’ sales pick up when there is substantial economic growth and a booming real estate market.  

The report evaluates their findings and shows how consumers tend to spend significantly more money when the economy is doing well; spending 25% more on electronics to reach a 56% growth, 45% more on educational products, 6% more on travel and hobbies, and 71% more on home products. The overall average growth in sales was 41%, with an average growth per store at a 25% increase higher than that of 2013.

In addition to the report by BigCommerce, CartFly.com released an editorial on the factors that influence online furniture sales; stating that furniture sales are directly related to the housing market trends. If consumers are not buying homes then they are not purchasing items for their homes. When the housing market is rebounding, it positively affects consumers’ likelihood of purchasing big-ticket items online for their homes, utilizing the convenience that online shopping offers for finding the best price.

CartFly and BigCommerce’s Q3 analysis, fuels the conclusion that consumers are beginning to not only buy homes while mortgage interest rates are low, they are also starting to invest in their homes again. 

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