Web sales increased 5.4% year over year in September, just under the 5.9% pace of August, among small and midsized retailers indexed by Dydacomp, a provider of order management software. Books led the way growing 19%, while sporting goods slowed to less than half its August growth rate of 32% with a September sales increase of 15%.
“Sporting goods continued strong, but slowed down from its strong summer season growth,” says Fred Lizza, CEO of Dydacomp. Ten of the 15 retailer categories indexed by Dydacomp showed declines in September. Among the categories showing the sharpest declines were jewelry, down 45%; music/video/DVD, down 18%; home furnishings, down 16%; and consumer electronics, down 13%.
The Dydacomp SMB Index, prepared for Internet Retailer, is based on data compiled from more than 1.5 million orders per month at more than 1,500 e-commerce operators—accounting for about $200 million in combined monthly retail sales. The retailers are users of Dydacomp’s order management software.
Following are the dollar volumes in gross merchandise sales (in millions) across all retail channels for each product category in the index for September 2012, with the percentage changes over September 2011, and the change for the year to date through September 2012 over the same period of 2011:
Advertising Specialties/Promotional Items, $0.86, -9.81%, -5.79%
Auto Parts, $13.46, 3.77%, 8.82%
Books, $32.40, 19.47%, 22.71%
Clothes, $22.63, -3.45%, -5.63%
Consumer Electronics, $7.80, -13.03%, -2.88%
Educational Training Materials, $2.36, -11.15%, 2.01%
Food/Health, $28.50, -0.26%, 4.92%
Home Furnishings, $2.34, -16.29%, -1.39%
Jewelry, $0.52, -44.57%, -24.44%
Music/Video/DVD, $0.98, -17.78%, -10.15%
Sporting Goods, $9.62, 14.95%, 23.55%
Tobacco Products/Alcohol, $1.05, 0.87%, -2.59%
Tools/Hardware, $1.82, -9.63%, -7.58%
Toys, $30.22, -1.01%, -2.95%
Other, $56.19, 16.19%, 7.82%
Total, $210.76, 5.42%, 5.94%
Following are the average order values across all retail channels (including contact centers and a small number of physical stores that use Dydacomp’s software) for each product category in the index for September 2012, with the changes in average order size over September 2011 and the changes for the year to date through September 2012 over the same period of 2011:
Advertising Specialties/Promotional Items, $79.83, 4.63%, 4.98%
Auto Parts, $239.14, 5.92%, 3.26%
Books, $120.66, 11.85%, 14.39%
Clothes, $117.83, -1.29%, 4.00%
Consumer Electronics, $242.07, -6.52%, 2.58%
Educational Training Materials, $162.04, -3.06%, -1.42%
Food/Health, $162.04, -3.06%, -1.42%
Home Furnishings, $120.31, 3.56%, 2.84%
Jewelry, $283.23, -28.17%, -2.08%
Music/Video/DVD, $113.05, 4.94%, 1.01%
Sporting Goods, $172.91, 12.68%, 12.10%
Tobacco Products/Alcohol, $100.42, 1.47%, -3.75%
Tools/Hardware, $196.61, -0.93%, 1.45%
Toys, $151.36, -3.21%, -1.24%
Other, $129.07, 5.28%, 3.43%
Total, $136.26, 2.89%, 4.23%
Following are the number of transactions across all retail channels for each product category in the index for September 2012, with the percentage changes over September 2011 and the changes for the year to date through September 2012 over the same period of 2011:
Advertising Specialties/Promotional Items, 10,832, -13.81%, -10.26%
Auto Parts, 56,300, -2.03%, 5.39%
Books, 268,519, 6.81%, 7.27%
Clothes, 192,043, -2.19%, -9.26%
Consumer Electronics, 32,236, -6.96%, -5.32%
Educational Training Materials, 14,557, -8.34%, 3.49%
Food/Health, 236,918, -3.69%, 2.02%
Home Furnishings, 14,484, -14.62%, 0.24%
Jewelry, 1,821, -22.84%, -22.84%, -22.84%
Music/Video/DVD, 8,712, -21.65%, -11.05%
Sporting Goods, 55,658, 2.01%, 10.21%
Tobacco Products/Alcohol, 10,410, -0.59%, 1.20%
Tools/Hardware, 9,239, -8.78%, -8.90%
Toys, 199,659, 2.28%, -1.73%
Other, 435,336, 10.37%, 4.24%
Total, 1,546,724, 2.46%, 1.64%
Dydacomp notes that performance numbers in its SMB Index tend to be lower than broader e-commerce market figures because the index does not include growth at the largest online retailers. In addition, information in the index includes a small percentage of sales processed in stores and contact centers using Dydacomp’s order management software, and in many cases such sales are declining, the company says.
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