Data Reveals U.S. Online Retail Jumps 24 Percent During COVID-19

New Research Report from AtScale Shows Pandemic’s Impact on Retail Recovery

SAN MATEO, Calif. & BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--AtScale, a leading software provider for advanced analytics, today announced a new research report, “State of COVID-19: Impact on Retail,” an in-depth study that examines how the pandemic has affected the retail industry. The research found that sales volume for clothing and clothing accessories stores from March-September 2020 was down more than 40% compared with March-September 2019, while sales volume for online retailers was almost 24% higher in the same year-over-year comparison.

The findings are based on AtScale’s Intelligent Data Virtualization™ platform with public and private datasets housed in Snowflake and Google BigQuery that were virtualized, modeled and made available for analysis in Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Power BI, and Tableau using AtScale’s Universal Semantic Layer™.

Some key findings from the report include:

● U.S. retail recovery has lagged behind Canadian retail recovery – As of September 30, 2020, the U.S. was 2% off its pre-pandemic benchmark, while commercial retail mobility in Canada was 28% higher than its pre-pandemic benchmark.

● Grocery and pharmacy sales rebound while visits to retail and recreational locations continue to struggle – Despite a drastic decline in the number of visits to grocery and pharmacy locations across the U.S. at the COVID-19 pandemic’s onset, activity has virtually returned to normal. Meanwhile, visits to retail and recreational locations had plummeted more than 50% by mid-April, and as of October 2020, are still down by more than 10%.

● Online (non-store) retail volume soars while the clothing and clothing accessories sector struggles to regain its foothold – During the first seven months of the COVID-19 pandemic, sales volume for non-store retailers, which includes electronic shopping and mail-order businesses, was nearly 24% higher compared to the same period in 2019.

“The pandemic has significantly impacted retail, evident by surging online sales and slow recovery of in-store sales. With non-store retail activity skyrocketing, leading retailers need to leverage data analytics to improve operational efficiencies and, ultimately, deliver exceptional customer service through this channel,” said Christopher Lynch, executive chairman and chief executive officer, AtScale. “AtScale's Intelligent Data Virtualization™ platform helps retailers gain and maintain a competitive advantage in the market by arming them with full visibility into their data, allowing them to optimize sales, identify market trends with ease, and boost their bottom line.”

The “State of COVID-19: Impact on Retail” is part of AtScale's new "State of COVID-19" report series, which quantifies the impact of the pandemic on different markets, including retail, governments and healthcare, among other verticals. Download the “Impact of COVID-19: Impact on U.S. Elections” report from AtScale here.

To learn more about how AtScale empowers the Global 2000 to tap into the true power of their data, please visit: www.atscale.com.

For more information:

● Download AtScale’s “State of COVID-19” Impact on Retail” report.

● Read the "Rakuten Speeds Data Queries and Avoids Business Interruptions with AtScale" case study.

● Visit the AtScale Data Insights Marketplace.

● Visit the AtScale Blog for the latest company, product and industry news stories.

About AtScale

AtScale powers the analysis used by the Global 2000 to make million dollar business decisions. The company’s Intelligent Data Virtualization™ platform provides Cloud OLAP, Autonomous Data Engineering™ and a Universal Semantic Layer™ for fast, accurate data-driven business intelligence and machine learning analysis at scale. For more information, visit www.atscale.com.