Musical instruments are also crazy! Sweetwater's online revenue in the United States exceeds $1 billion for the first time

The epidemic has promoted the rapid development of e-commerce, the number of online consumers has generally increased, and all industries are changing their strategies to cope with changes in consumer demand.

The same is true for musical instrument retailers, which saw online sales soar sharply in 2020.

Sweetwater's revenue exceeds $1 billion

Sweetwater , an American online retailer of musical instruments and professional audio equipment, reported record revenues in 2020, saying that for the first time in its 42-year history, Sweetwater's revenues exceeded $1 billion . In 2020, Sweetwater served more than 1.5 million customers, up from 1 million in 2019.

Sweetwater CEO Chuck Surack said that for most of the year, its daily order volume was 15,000 to 20,000, an increase of about 40% compared with the previous year . Moreover, during the "Black Friday" period, the daily order volume increased to 22,000 to 24,000, and peaked at 30,000 .

Guitar Center online sales more than double

Jeannine Davis D'Addario, chief marketing and communications officer of American musical instrument retailer Guitar Center, said that Guitar Center's online business has been booming, with sales of musical instruments in most categories up significantly compared to 2019, thanks to a significant increase in consumer visit frequency.

According to Guitar Center, online sales more than doubled in 2020 compared to 2019.

Reverb online sales climb

Etsy, which acquired Reverb.com, an online musical instrument retailer in 2019, has not yet released fourth-quarter gross merchandise sales data, but its CEO David Mandelbrot told Rolling Stone that Reverb's gross merchandise sales reached its highest level ever in the second quarter of 2020.

Guitars are the most popular product

Sweetwater, Guitar Center and Reverb , three American musical instrument retailers , all said that guitars were the most popular product during the epidemic isolation.

“Based on what we’ve seen in 2020, one thing is for sure: guitars are booming, with orders and searches for guitars up significantly,” said Reverb’s Mandelbrot. “ Also, we’ve seen an uptick in searches for music gear that goes with guitars, like amps, guitar straps, effects pedals, etc. ”

Sweetwater's Surack added: " We're selling a thousand guitars a day right now , which is astounding. "

"Even in a post-pandemic world, I think the guitar and music industry will be 50/50 online and 50/50 in-store," said Gibson chief executive James 'JC' Curleigh.

It can be seen that online sales in the musical instrument industry may continue to grow, which may be a huge growth opportunity for musical instrument retailers.

Musical Instruments

USA

E-commerce