2022 was a chaotic year for direct-to-customer ecommerce businesses, regardless of size or industry. Cost-of-living expenses seemed to skyrocket, and economists projected a new recession every few weeks. But all the while, critical economic indicators seemed to keep moving in the same direction. 

Some of the public faced real consequences in the economic uncertainty, including job loss or cost-cutting to make ends meet. For others, however, their bank accounts still looked good, but they started saving their disposable income. 

The result? One of the most unpredictable years in consumer behavior since the Great Recession in 2008. 

At Hawke Media, we created the Annual Ecommerce Data Benchmarking Report to help ecommerce brands make sense of the past year. These insights into marketing trends are necessary for D2C brands to keep up in 2023. 

This report is not only how you benchmark your success against the competition but make a plan to win in the future. Here are a few of the most important findings. 

Shop Less, Spend More 

Overall, revenue was down in 2022. If you manage an ecommerce brand, you experienced that first-hand. But that doesn’t mean it’s all bad news. Despite web sessions dropping 5%, average order value (AOV) went up 31%. 

Part of AOV’s increase is due to the price of goods and services going up, but obviously, that’s not the whole story. People were shopping less because of economic concerns, but when they did shop, they weren’t afraid to spend a little extra cash. 

As prices went up, so did the use of buy-now-pay-later services. These payment options saw a 78% increase in 2022 to accommodate nervousness around higher price tags.  

The Rise of Affiliate 

Almost all of the traditional digital marketing services took a hit in 2022. Email marketing, paid media, and organic social all drove less traffic to websites and ultimately produced fewer transactions. This doesn’t mean they weren’t profitable, but the strategy had to adjust in real time. 

There was one exception to these trends, though. Affiliate marketing became one of the most powerful digital marketing services of the year with a 16% increase in sessions and a 35% increase in transactions. 

Most marketing methods saw an uptick in Q4 with holiday shopping that put numbers back on track, but affiliate marketing stayed consistent all year long. If you don’t have an affiliate marketing program for your brand, you need one for 2023 to keep up with the competition. 

Precise Numbers for Every Brand

You may be looking for the exact statistics for everything we’re talking about here. How much did overall revenue drop? What’s the split between paid search and paid social traffic? 

Or maybe, you’re not a D2C brand at all and you’re looking for how the 2022 economy impacted your lead-generation business. No matter what info you’re looking for, the Annual Ecommerce Data Benchmarking Report has what you need.