Home Depot Inc.’s ecommerce sales grew 24.1% in its fiscal year ending Feb. 3, generating $8.55 billion in sales, or 7.9% of its overall sales, the retailer reported on Tuesday.
Home Depot, which is No. 7 in the Internet Retailer 2018 Top 1000, boosted its online sales 22.7% in Q4, but exact quarterly figures weren’t disclosed.
Half of all U.S. online orders were picked up in stores during the quarter, said CEO Craig Menear. That’s up from 48% during the third quarter, as the hardware retailer continues to roll out automated lockers for customers to retrieve orders and store redesigns that make order pickups quicker and easier, he said. 40% of its stores have been updated.
“Customer response to lockers has been very positive,” Menear said on an conference call with analysts. “Almost 94% of customers rated their locker pickup experience a five-out-of-five stars.”
Macy’s Inc.
Macy’s Inc. (No. 6) also boosted the share of online orders picked up in its stores during the quarter, the retailer noted on Tuesday. 7% of online sales were picked up in a store in Q4, including both buy online ship to store and buy online pick up in store. Those omnichannel orders also generate more revenue for Macy’s—shoppers are often buying more products when they come in to pick up an order, generating 25% more than the online order alone on average, according to CEO Jeff Gennette.
Vendor-direct sales, which are items only available online and can be shipped to stores for free, generated 10% of ecommerce sales. Introduced in April, the new assortment doubled the number of SKUs available on Macy’s site, helping to drive online growth.
Macy’s didn’t break out ecommerce figures for its flagship site, but it did note that department store Bloomingdale’s grew online sales by a double-digit percentage and beauty retailer Bluemercury’s ecommerce grew more than 50%.
Etsy Inc.
Sellers on Etsy Inc.’s marketplace sold $3.93 billion of goods in 2018, the company reported. The online marketplace for handcrafted goods posted an increase of 20.9% in gross merchandise sales, or the total value of goods transacted on the marketplace, compared with $3.25 billion generated the previous year. Etsy is No. 16 in the Internet Retailer Online Marketplaces.
Etsy’s gross merchandise sales for the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31 were up 22.3% to $1.25 billion. The period starting with Thanksgiving going through Cyber Monday saw a 30% year-over-year jump in gross merchandise sales. International sales increased 32% for the quarter, generating 36% of sales, or $448.7 million, in those three months.
During the holiday season, a third of items shipped for free, something that Etsy plans to push for more in the coming year. Etsy has found that shoppers are more likely to buy again when offered free shipping and, during its Investor Day next month, it will outline how it will incentivize free shipping in 2019.
Etsy grew its “habitual buyers” 21.7% in 2018, according to chief financial officer Rachel Glaser. These buyers, who spent more than $200 and made purchases on six or more days in 2018, grew faster than active buyers overall, and Glaser said the company has spent on marketing to users who could fit into that to keep up its growth.