COVID-19 is dictating new market trends by dominating online searches, all over the world. What is the U.S. customer current needs and what is he mainly looking for? In this article, ExportUSA New York Corp. elaborated the most recent data published by “Word Stream “advisor platform. If you are willing to discover the main trending sectors in the United States during the COVID-19 era have a look below:
In the United States, people research on google are completely different. The main industries with increased online volume/ performance during COVID-19:
Health and Medical
Many American Citizens are turning to search for information on how to protect themselves. Medical advertisers are seeing increased ease in selling their products online, with ad clicks and conversion rates both significantly higher than usual: +34% Search and Clicks, and +47% Search Ad Conversion Rate for Medical the Medical Sector.
Business Management
Business management searches grew by 23% since February 23. Office supplies became a breakout industry. Searches for office supplies increased 90%, paid search ad clicks increased 35%, and search conversion rates increased 41% and therefore, packing and shipping supplies more than doubled their search ad conversions (up 123%) and search ad conversion rate (up 107%).
Beauty and personal care, Skin Care, Spa Care
In the past few weeks the research for beauty and personal care products (soap and hand sanitizer), registered a + 41% increase in searches, with a +6% of conversion rate, while the Skin Care registered a +21% of Conversion Rate and the Spa Care a +41% of Conversion Rate.
Greetings, gifts, and flowers
Over the past three weeks, since the coronavirus escalated in the US, advertisers have seen a significant increase in the research for products such as Greetings, Gifts and Flowers. People want to feel close to their dears and start to find a way to maintain their connections active: therefore, searches for cards and greetings have seen a 15% increase in conversion rate while searches for gift baskets have seen a 30% increase in conversion rate and searches for floral arrangements have seen a 43% increase in conversion rate.
Home furniture
Smaller ticket items like home appliances, bedding and linens have seen search increase along with a light conversion boosts (+7% and +12%, respectively), which may be a good sign for consumer confidence.
Sports and Fitness
Social distancing is imposing the closing of gyms and sports facilities; therefore, sports and fitness are seeing strong declines in the conversion rate. To overcome this challenging situation, a new strategy in the sports activities has been put in place: sports programs (online and offline) and sports camps have gained significant uplift in the past few weeks as many begin to plan to get out of the house. Online sports programs and outdoor camps in the U.S. have registered a conversion rate increase of +65%.
Dietary supplements sector is in great turmoil: in the first week of March, sales of supplements have increased by 6% compared to the same period of last year (source New York Times).
Finally, the fashion sector is adapting to new, more homely trends and offers more comfortable models. Online searches and sales of tracksuits and leggings are soaring.
Online media and entertainment sector
Social Distancing also implies seeking entertainment in one’s own homes. That’s why the online media and entertainment sector recorded a + 102% of the conversion rate.
* Source: Word Stream, Small Business Guide to COVID-19
The new paradigm dictated by Covid-19, is helping all industries to refocus, to re-evaluate priorities to change their sales model by focusing much more on online (e-commerce). It is teaching us to improve and innovate. It has certainly been a shock to the whole world, but it will have positive implications for European companies that are currently willing to invest in America. This emergency therefore dictates market trends, distorting the research and purchasing habits of American consumers who are redefining their purchasing priorities. It is an opportunity to rethink communication strategies and to strengthen online presence and ecommerce, but above all to incorporate online into normal business practices such as logistics, accounting or production. Lucio Miranda, President of ExportUSA New York Corp.
