Etailz sees upswing in online sales amid coronavirus outbreak

As customers are reducing visits to stores and shopping malls during the coronavirus outbreak, online retailers are seeing an upswing in sales of home and health goods.

Foot traffic in U.S. stores decreased 3.3% during the week ending Friday, following gains in January, according to Prodco Analytics, a retail shopping data provider. Additionally, more than 27% of 1,121 U.S. internet users surveyed by Coresight Research in late February said they were already avoiding public places such as shopping centers and entertainment venues, while 58% said at the time they would do so if the outbreak worsened, the Seattle Times reported.

Spokane Valley-based Etailz, which partners with third-party sellers to grow their brands on Amazon, eBay and Walmart, has seen an increase in online sales in the past two weeks.

Etailz CEO Kunal Chopra said in an email that the company saw more than a 50% increase in sales for health and household products, and a 90% increase in sports and outdoors items.

Etailz is also experiencing a rise in sales for baby items, home and kitchen products, and beauty and pet supplies, he said.

“Because we’re seeing these unanticipated sales, we’re now monitoring our ‘out-of-stock’ levels, as it’s possible we run out of stock on items we didn’t expect to sell so quickly,” he said in the email.