The Easter weekend created the perfect storm for the Home and Garden sector. Record-breaking temperatures, the first real taste of summer weather this year, a long weekend just before the kids go back to school. It could really only mean one thing. Barbecue season has begun.
Winners and losers?
Retailers responded with sales and offers on barbecue goods and stocks. But who were the winners, losers, movers and shakers in the Home and Garden sector?
Leading up to the weekend…
In the week preceding the Easter weekend, Amazon, Argos, and B&Q traded places as the strongest competitor on BBQ related terms. By the end of the week, challenger brands Wayfair and Appliances direct mounted a challenge for visibility, just as the weather was heating up for a perfect weekend.
Movers and Shakers…
As the weekend hit, we looked at competitor performance over average for the previous two weeks, to see who was doing better or worse for the specific period over easter.
On desktop…
Amazon and ebay were the biggest movers between Easter Friday and Monday, with Amazon recording 27% more clicks than average, and ebay recording 13% more clicks than average over the period.
ebay seemed to do well over the weekend, co-ordinating their paid search push with a coupon offering shoppers 10% off on selected sellers.
Clicks were at the expense of other competitors on the market, most notably Wayfair, who recorded 9% less clicks on our sample of BBQ related keywords over the weekend.
The above chart shows how Amazon’s activity peaked on Easter Monday, as they seized the initiative in this market from diy.com.
On mobile…
On mobile, the biggest shaker was John Lewis, who recorded 19% less clicks on British shoppers’ mobiles over Easter. The rest of the market was relatively even, and amazon were not able to make as much of a dent on the competition on mobiles.
Diy.com (aka B&Q), managed to improve their performance on mobile despite losing out to Amazon on desktop. The brand offered next day delivery for barbecues as a unique selling proposition, so consumers could be up and running for the weekend.
Competitive Barbecuing
In this case study, we see a perfect example of a broad set of advertisers competing in the Google auction over a prime sales period.
With most Home & Garden retailers running heavy discounts over the Easter Bank Holiday, the race to the top of the SERP is fierce. In the above chart, showing Paid Desktop Text Ads, it appears that John Lewis burned through their budget at the beginning of the weekend, freeing up super competitor, Amazon, to regain their top position.
Overall, Amazon were the winners of the weekend, with the biggest market gains. Recent research by Adthena, concluded that Amazon dominates most retail markets with an aggressive search strategy where they lead on impression share and top ad position.
In order to win competitive sales periods, retailers must understand the nature of super competitors spending power to defend their position when it matters.
