With millions of visitors every month, selling over one million products from one thousand sellers, MyDeal has proven to be a game changer. Founded at a time when e-commerce was truly in its infancy, we’ve been at the forefront of its evolution and integration into everyday lives, ever since.  

Now at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s no secret Home & Garden ecommerce has boomed. Having built a vital relationship with our nation, it encouraged us to strengthen our platform and adapt business to survive the crisis that marketplaces face. We saw an 161% Month on Month (MoM) increase in MyDeal sales, as merchants sold their in-demand products to customers looking to fulfil their shifting needs.  

But first, how did MyDeal.com.au start out?

Founded as a daily deal’s website in 2012, we quickly evolved into the first non-eBay marketplace operating in Australia. To get our name known in the market, we implemented our home and garden strategy in late 2018, proving to be a recipe for success.  

Whilst selling home and garden products has always been our strongest, we’ve always been particularly good at moving “big and bulky” products. Yet our key verticals are in furniture, homewares, home decor, bathroom, garden, appliances, pets, baby & kids, tools & equipment, and electronics & technology.  

The success is in our numbers. Standard growth rates of online shopping in Australia between 2014-2019 has been 14.3% per annum and is expected to grow at 7.8% per annum from 2019-2024. Over the last eight years, MyDeal substantially outperformed this growth, continuing to expand a loyal and frequent customer base. Our typical Year-on-Year (YoY) growth shows:

• Appliances - Up 282% 
• Furniture - Up 44% 
• Kids - Up 181% 
• Homewares - Up 192% 
• Liquor - Up 218% 

But while in the COVID-19 crisis, our numbers told a different story – which we’ll come to a little later.  

Who is MyDeal.com.au for?

From conducting regular surveys, the life of MyDeal.com.au customers is a clear picture. We serve an older demographic (early millennial, Gen X and Baby Boomers) that are 62% female. Around 68% have an annual household income of $75,000 or greater (correlating with the Australian median). 6 in 10 of our customers have school-aged children and 65% of MyDeal customers have a pet.  

And life as a seller? It’s a sync, thanks to our proprietary technology that offers seamless integration from your store to the MyDeal Marketplace. Our commissions and fee structure is competitively low in order to enable sellers to pass on the savings directly to our customers. Our technology enables sellers to handle their own customer enquiry tickets, orders and product catalogue and inventory. 

Finally sellers have the ability to reward our customers through our unique Shop & Earn scheme. They can pay a percentage of the sale to the customer in the form of credit, that the customer can then redeem on their next sale. 

 
So, what have we seen during COVID-19?

It’s a time e-commerce has never seen before. Every week brought us a new challenge, and we were quick to act in support of both merchants and customers. It’s why MyDeal saw a big major increase in our MoM stats, with a 57% increase in site traffic and 74% increase in conversion rate.  

But our insight into the changing customer demand was the most interesting. As the nation was carried into each stage of the coronavirus crisis, MyDeal.com saw consumer demand constantly shifting to adjust to each phase. Merchants needed to be quick, adaptable and have their listings check, to get product exposure and sell to shoppers looking to buy.  

If we break down in a timeline of each lockdown implementation stage and the MyDeal.com.au trending categories, it uncovers consumer behaviour during an uncertain global crisis.  
 

At Level 1: Prepare, customer demand for PPE such as face masks and hand sanitiser boomed. Consumers were unaware of the direction the pandemic would take them - so it was all about protection. Right now, merchants are actually still pivoting towards PPE, even though the category is at its YoY peak of 327,900%.  
 

As Level 2: Reduce came into action, workplaces and offices were required to close. Working from home (WFH) triggered a soar in the demand for Home and Office equipment. These items became the new necessity, as customers wanted to make home life more comfortable, practical and productive.

 
Once we moved to Level3: Restrict, it was gyms, schools and liquor shops who had to close. This stage pushed lifestyle categories to trend upwards enormously, as their new lifestyle now reached a different, more restrictive point. MyDeal.com.au saw a YoY increase in Gym & Fitness of 5275%, Kids’ Play up 880%, Liquor up 2331%.  

Now over 5 weeks into Level 3 restrictions, things are beginning to “normalise”, in a new way. People are beginning to adjust and purchase more for their homes. The trends we’re are seeing are demonstrated in our YoY stats:

• Bedroom Furniture up 83%  
• Manchester up 86%  
• Health & Wellbeing up 9200%  
• Personal Care soar up 330,900% 

MyDeal prediction & actions 

From our data and observation, we believe home improvement and home categories will remain as the “new necessities”, while we’re in the Level 3: Restrict limbo. The reality is, people are normalising operating from home and have started to adjudicate their surroundings.  

To help our merchants keep business going, we’ve been providing data to our merchants on an unprecedented basis including forecasting, category and sales data on a fortnightly basis. MyDeal has never communicated with its seller basis on such a frequent basis, but in the struggles of this pandemic we felt it was our duty to pivot strong communication.  

Want to know more about MyDeal.com.au? 

We’re proud to say our team has over 100 years of collective e-commerce experience to help you succeed on MyDeal - including promotions, marketing and advertising opportunities year-round. Since 2017, MyDeal has been one of the top five retailers participating on Click Frenzy and in 2017 and 2019 received the top gong. We also play host to Australia’s Night Online - a 24 hour flash sale event held at End of Financial Year that has become a fixture in the Aussie e-commerce calendar. 

Are you selling on Australia’s only marketplace for the home and garden?

Intelligent Reach customers can connect seamlessly with MyDeal and start selling in no time at all. If you want to know more, why not get in touch for more information. 

Guest blogpost written by John Barkle, MyDeal.com.au