This month, we’re going to look at the 5 product groups that experienced the most month-over-

month (MoM) percentage growth in October and what has driven these trends.

Like it or not, the holiday shopping season has begun. In October, must-have Christmas List items

dominated Amazon’s sales, which grew by $115M in overall sales compared to September. And the

product groups that saw the largest percentage increases in MoM sales prove it: With Apparel

(including Halloween costumes) outpacing everything else, Children’s Books, Video Games and Toys

account for the highest percentage in MoM sales growth, indicating that holiday shoppers are not

waiting for Black Friday and Cyber Monday to get their hands on hot-ticket stocking stuffers.

Amazon’s Top 5 Product Groups for OctoberBy Nathan Rigby, VP Sales and Marketing at One Click Retail

It’s no surprise that Costumes led the growth in this category in the lead up to Halloween, alone

accounting for over $21M in sales. The top selling US costumes included Wonder Woman and

Where’s Waldo. Of particular interest in Halloween costume shopping on Amazon were the

difference in keyword search terms based on the geography of the shopper. For example, the top

keyword searches in the US focused on generic terms such as “halloween costumes for women” and

“halloween costumes for men”, whereas the top search terms in the UK, like “Harry Potter” and “mr

robot”, were accompanied by “fancy dress”, the British term for costume. (Read these great tips on

how to optimize your brand’s products on Amazon’s search pages.)

Product Group #1: Apparel (85% growth)

Outside of Costumes, Apparel experienced a very strong

month with men’s clothing in particular, confirming Amazon’s

growing reputation as a clothing destination for our tried and

true favorites. The big winners in this group were Levi’s 501

Original Fit Jeans and workwear items like Dickies Coveralls

and Carhartt Hoodies.

Books and Ebooks continue to jockey for position, with one or the other taking the growth lead

month after month. In October, physical books won out and, in terms of absolute growth,

experienced the largest gain of any Amazon product group with an increase in sales of over $84M.

Categorically, what drove the highest growth were Children’s Books, driven by early holiday

shopping, with more than $41M in sales; followed by Religion & Spirituality (that includes books

about witchcraft and other “spooky” subjects); and Business & Investing. Included in this last

category is the month’s top seller: The Magnolia Story by Chip and Joanna Gaines, stars of HGTV’s

Fixer Upper, published on October 18th and, in less than 2 weeks, climbed to for the #1 spot for all

of October.

Product Group #2: Books (57% growth)

It’s certainly not news that toy companies pull in 80% of their annual revenue in

the last 3 months of the year. This October, toy sales on Amazon increased by

$22M. Video games also grew in tandem, increasing sales by 30% leading into the

holiday season. There is no doubt that the recent launch of PlayStation VR, the new

Virtual Reality headset for the PS4 console, had something to do with it, along with

the video games on everyone’s Christmas list this year (Battlefield 1 and FIFA 17,

both for PlayStation 4, are already selling like hotcakes!).

Product Groups #3: Video Games (30% growth) & #4: Toys (20% growth)

Further proof of the race toward Christmas, LEGO’s two top-sellers in October were

both Advent Calendar Building Kits, with “Slickdeals” postings for each item. LEGO

accounts for 5 of the 10 best-selling toys, two of them Star Wars-branded. But the

real must-have toys this holiday season are all robots: LEGO’s robot Mindstorms

EV3 continues to sell well after its September launch; and Hatchimals interactive

plush creatures took two of the top 10 spots, behind only Cozmo, the “real-life

robot” from Anki Consumer Robotics and Amazon’s best-selling toy for October.

Product Groups #3: Video Games (30% growth) & #4: Toys (20% growth)

Tied for the fifth highest growth rate at 13% are Office Products and Ebooks.

Amazon has invested heavily in the Amazon Business platform in order to take

advantage of the year-round sales potential of office products. It seems to be

paying off: the category was up by nearly $20M in October, with the Fijutsu,

Brother and HP brands all going strong. Although Books experienced the most

overall dollar growth in October after a relatively poor September, Ebooks still

experienced a very strong month with over $114M in sales.

Product Group #5 (Tie): Office Products & Ebooks (13% growth each)

Amazon continues to see growth in unexpected places, particularly in the Mattress

category, which accounted for over $23M in sales in October. More and more,

consumers are finding that Amazon can meet their Home Improvement needs,

with over $20M in sales each in the Plumbing, Electric and Hardware categories.

Product groups with year-round demand, such as Furniture, Home and Office

Supplies, appear to be one of Amazon’s longer-term strategies. There’s no question

that Amazon owns the holiday market, including Halloween, as October’s growth

leaders demonstrate.

Runners up: Mattress, Home Improvement

This year, robots are the toy of choice for the children of Amazon customers.

But holiday shopping is just getting started and November’s Top Product

Groups could paint a very different picture, so visit us again in a month’s time

for the latest scoop on what’s selling and what’s driving those sales on

Amazon. In the meantime, don’t forget to follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, and

Slideshare as we reveal some key eCommerce data and insights only the OCR

team can deliver.

One Click Retail (OCR) is a market leader in eCommerce data measurement, sales analytics and search optimization for brand manufacturers in North America, Europe and Asia. Thanks to our proprietary sales calculations that are 98.5% accurate down to the SKU level, OCR’s accuracy is unrivaled in the marketplace. The OCR Product Suite provides 1st and 3rd party business intelligence across the 30 largest retailers such as Amazon, Walmart, Target, Staples and Home Depot. The world’s top brands, such as Procter & Gamble, Panasonic, Nestle, Hamilton Beach and HP, rely on OCR insights to drive sales and profitability across eCommerce.

Founded in 2013 by eCommerce experts from Amazon, Walmart, Target, Overstock and other leading retailers, OCR was acquired in 2016 by Ascential plc (LSE: ASCL.L), a UK-based international B2B media company with a focused portfolio of market-leading events and information services products.

To learn more about how OCR can provide your brand with the competitive edge in today’s ecommerce marketplace, visit www.oneclickretail.com.

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