China has announced that the economy grew at 3.2% in the second quarter of 2020, confirming results in the latest YiTrackers report released by Yimian, sister company of Edge by Ascential, which indicate strong ecommerce market increases in April and May. Ecommerce growth in the two months even exceeding the growth rates for November and December 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic took hold. Overall business recovery drove year-on-year growth in May to 40%, with month-on-month growth of 14%, exceeding the 5.7% recorded in May 2019.
Of the 7 YiTracker rankings, the categories showing the strongest growth in May 2020 over a year earlier are safety, cleaning & health, beverages and baby food. Year-on-year growth rates for April and May for beverages, safety, cleaning & health, baby food, snacks and electronics all exceeded pre-COVID-19 levels. Personal care & cosmetics and pet food also regained their pre-COVID year-on-year levels, with snacks being the only YiTracker with a below-market growth ranking.
Some key findings in the May edition of YiTrackers:
- Livestream KOLs, Hollywood stars and shows have helped to drive sales across all categories, such as in personal care & cosmetics, where VOSS contracted Hollywood celebrity Dwayne Johnson and inserted placements in the popular online TV show "The Best Partner".
- Goat milk is trending in baby food and adult beverages, with it being marketed as the animal milk that most resembles human milk. Best-selling keywords include “no additives”, “high calcium” and “freshly milked”.
- Health and air safety concerns are impacting the electronics category, which saw a rise in sales of home water filtration systems and anti-mildew disinfection air conditioners.
- As we move into summer and with face masks becoming optional in some places, the personal care & cosmetics category saw a rise in makeup, lipsticks and acne control products, along with other summer essentials such as sun block and hair removal products
- With employees returning to work after lockdowns, snacks in single-serving packages have become popular as office snacks or to be consumed during tea breaks.
- Cats remain the most spoiled in the pet food category, with growth in cat food sales continuing to beat that of dog foods. Wet food still ahead of the dry.
YiTrackers capture trends of consumer needs, following 7 categories in total, namely: Baby food, beverages, electronics, personal care & cosmetics, safety/cleaning/health, snacks and pet food. They analyze category growth and market share data across the country’s biggest ecommerce platform, TMall, to illustrate key consumer trends.
If you’re interested in finding out more about the ecommerce performance of your category, contacts us at edge.apac@ascentialedge.com.
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