Small businesses accelerated their digital marketing last year, achieving 61% more online sales than they did in 2019, according to “How Small Businesses Are Finding New Ways To Grow," a
study released Thursday by Mailchimp.
It’s no surprise that SMBs are pursuing digital, given the desperate conditions they face, such as COVID-19.
Online sales totaled $61.3
billion, at least among Mailchimp’s 14 million customers, the study says. There were 515.3 million orders.
On a monthly business basis, there was an average 21.1% increase in emails
sent, for a yearly total of 333,635,013,935.
Email volume was steady from Thanksgiving to Giving Tuesday, even while orders leaped by 36%.
That said, the top three goals
for SMBs this year are as follows:
- Make people aware of/educated about your business—31%
- Establish your business as trustworthy and credible—27%
- Promote new products, services or features—25%
advertisement
advertisement
How have SMBs adapted to changing circumstances? In the U.S., they are:
- Exploring
new ways to market and sell: 54%
- Making changes to the business model: 50%
- Investing in new skills, people, or processess: 54%
- Reducing spend or resources: 58%
- Business losses/closures: 37%
- No changes made: 9%
At the same time, SMBs that were more impacted by COVID-19 in the U.S. used 9.35 tools in the fourth quarter of
2020. Less-affected firms utilized an average 6.75 tools.
For instance, 29% more-affected firms leveraged custom sign-up forms, versus 21 of the less impacted. And 21% of the
most-affected used automated brand and design tools, compared to 10% of the less impacted.
Overall, Mailchimp customers sent more than 12 million emails using automations in 2020,
up 8% from the prior year.
The big vertical winners in terms of gains are:
- Home and Garden—113% to $1,652,553,168
- Computers and
Electronics—108% to $780,006,262
- Daily Deals/E-Coupons—106% to $94,269,468
- Restaurant and Venue—85% to $210,646,150
- Manufacturing—84% to $1,016,890,364
- Agricultural an Food Services—84% to $728,277,378
- Business and Finance—68% to $82,755,771
- Health and Fitness—67% to $995,470,417
- Ecommerce—67% to $10,495,671,455
- Sports—60% to $812,630,869