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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