Pop culture propels eComm sales; Searching for sweets online; and more — Profitero press highlights

Here are snippets from Profitero’s recent press coverage. See how our eCommerce analytics and expertise are helping brands spot the biggest trends happening across the digital landscape.

Pop culture propels eComm sales

Excerpted from AdAge

Netflix’s series "The Queen's Gambit" took home both Golden Globes it was nominated for [...] The show continues to be a winner for the chess industry, which is still riding a popularity wave more than four months after the show debuted [...] Chess searches on Amazon are still performing at a higher rate than at this point last year, according to eCommerce performance analytics platform Profitero. Searches for “chess set” were 214% higher in the week ending Feb. 20 compared with the year prior. In October, the search rank for “chess set” skyrocketed by 857% on Amazon and continued to be up by 364% in the month after the show first streamed on Netflix. Chess sets also continue to see increases in rank on Amazon. For the first time since the show came out, a chess set broke into Amazon’s top 25 toys category in January and February, according to Profitero.

Excerpted from AdAge

Putting Gorilla Glue in her hair and showing the results in a TikTok video may not have worked well for Tessica Brown—but for Gorilla Glue, it’s been an amazing windfall. Sales are soaring for the brand [...] “Gorilla Glue” searches on Google exploded 50-fold in February from January. More importantly, the brand’s Amazon search volume soared an even bigger 4,378%, and its best seller rank rose 129%, which translates into a significant spike in sales, according to Profitero.

Excerpted from AdAge

Number of the week 882,106%: increase in U.S. search rank for the term “weighted hula hoops” on Amazon for the week ended Saturday, compared with the year-earlier period, according to Profitero, and likely the result of trending creative weight-loss videos on TikTok.

Searching for sweets online

Excerpted from Confectionery News

The top 10 branded chocolate searches on Amazon are dominated by ‘the usual suspects’ (Hotel Chocolat, Lindt, Ferraro) but new data shows a strong showing in searches for ‘Tony’s Chocolonely’ (a Fairtrade chocolate manufacturer) — currently ranked sixth in all chocolate branded searches on Amazon UK. “On a weekly basis, we’ve seen sales continue to ramp up throughout January as more UK consumers are thinking about Valentine’s Day in lockdown — searches for ‘chocolate’ are up 1,600% in the latest week versus the same week in 2020,” Profitero research indicated.

Challenger brand Tony’s Chocolonely didn’t start appearing in Amazon searches until September, according to Profitero, and it started ramping up sales on Amazon just before Christmas. “With the explosion in eCommerce, brands have to fight continuously to maintain shopper visibility through their share of page one search results on Amazon. Mars, Lindt and Mondelez are the brands currently dominating both paid and organic search on Amazon and are likely to see the biggest sales gains from this year’s event,” said Andrew Pearl, VP Strategy and Insights at Profitero.

Top 10 'searched for' chocolate brands on Amazon.co.uk
(ordered by Search rank, based on the brand's best-performing branded search term)
Source: Profitero; Time frame: Jan 24-30, 2021

Grocery online and off

Excerpted from Food Industry Executive, and written by Mike Black, CMO at Profitero

At the start of the pandemic, online shopping, and online grocery in particular, was an obvious need for consumers looking for an easy and safe way to buy essentials. Now as restaurants, bars, and retail shops remain closed or at limited capacity, and consumers settle into quarantine with continued uncertainty this year, how will online shopping needs change? And how must brands adjust their online and eCommerce strategies to win? By following five pieces of advice [outlined in the article], brands can be sure to win their fair share of growth.

Excerpted from Forbes

Amazon is set to open the first in a slew of Amazon Go grocery stores across the U.K. [...] Amazon U.K. is making inroads across a number of FMCG categories. For example, sales of liquor more than doubled in 2020, with further growth predicted thanks to the e-commerce giant’s aggressive pricing strategy. Analysis of alcohol sales data between July and October 2020 by Profitero showed a 121% increase compared with the same period last year and Amazon is also attacking the major retail chains in other product categories too, including beauty products, health, and personal care items.

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