Nobody’s online shopping when Roger’s playing tennis

Some events attract global attention: sport events, award ceremonies or elections. These events are followed by millions, if not billions of people – live, on TV or in a bar with friends. People around the globe follow these happenings enthusiastically. This also means there’s little attention on other things in those moments. Things like the online shops of digitec and Galaxus, for instance. Is this really true or have we become better at multitasking due to the overstimulation in media? Are there also events that cause the number of visitors on our platforms to skyrocket?

Tennis over porn

Pornhub publishes incredibly detailed statistics every year. They reveal, among other things, how world events affect the traffic on the porn site. One detail caught my eye more than anything else: during the men's Wimbledon final, the number of Pornhub visitors in Switzerland dropped by 5 percent compared to a regular day. Instead of getting hands-on, people in Switzerland preferred to watch Roger’s forehand. Was it so gripping that nobody was shopping online either? To answer this question, I worked with one of our data analysts and compared the traffic on our shops on the day of various event with the annual average traffic on that same day of the week. Across all languages.

Men’s Wimbledon final, 14 July 2019

Our Community was less active on both shops during the men's Wimbledon final (marked in red) than on a regular Sunday. Galaxus shows a clear drop in traffic at 3 p.m. While traffic was above average before the final started, it sank to 7 percent below average at the start of the match. The digitec Community also seemed to be focusing on the tennis match, even if the curve isn’t quite as remarkable as with Galaxus.

Lauberhorn Alpine Ski World Cup, 18 January 2020

The Galaxus Community seems to be keen on sports. Traffic was also low during the Lauberhorn Alpine Ski World Cup. After the ski race, the traffic rises continuously and is 7 percent above average at 4 p.m. Again, the digitec Community seems to be interested but isn’t as keen on this event as the Galaxus Community.

Champions League Final, 1 June 2019

The Champions League final is an exception: the traffic curve isn't only almost identical for digitec and Galaxus, it's also above average. The most likely explanation: the final takes place on a Saturday evening. Instead of going out and having a few drinks, you might have stayed at home and watched the match. As it wasn't as gripping as a thriller – or at least not during the entire 90 minutes – quite some people checked out digitec and Galaxus from time to time.

Swiss National Day, 1 August 2019

A large majority of people in Switzerland don't work on this day. This shows, among other things, in our Community's sleep patterns: you’re awake longer and spend more time on our shops. On digitec, traffic reaches its peak at 2 a.m. with traffic at 117 percent above the average of a regular Thursday. In the evening, our Community seems to be out and watching the fireworks. After this, at about 10 p.m., the traffic on our shops rises again.

The Oscars, 22 February 2020

«And the Oscar goes to… Bong Joon-ho.» Parasite was one of the winners this year and the first non-English language production ever to win an Oscar in the «Best Picture» category. That kept you glued to the TV. And while up, you visited your favorite online shops. We measured 11 percent more traffic on digitec and even 18 percent more on Galaxus at 4 a.m. However, the traffic dropped slightly in the morning. Our Community might have flexible working hours or taken time off to catch up sleep.

Apple keynote, 10 September 2019

Not surprisingly, this event mainly resonated with the digitec Community. September is the time when new iPhones are relased. Nobody wants to miss that. At the moment when Tim Cook enters the stage, the traffic on digitec is below average. But it starts rising soon after and reaches its peak at 9 p.m. Might you be checking to see if there's something new to pre-order in our shop?

Women's Strike, 14 June 2019

These stats show that the digitec Community is dominated by men, as the women's strike had a greater impact on the Galaxus traffic. Looks like quite a few of you stopped working and instead walked the streets of Zurich, Bern, Basel etc. calling for gender equality. To be fair, I have to mention that the traffic on digitec also dropped below average after 3 p.m. With over 500,000 participants, the women's strike is considered the largest political event since the general strike of 1918. With this is mind, it’s no surprise this event had an impact on both our shops.

Offline events certainly have an influence on our online behaviour. Sports, politics, business and the entertainment industry attract widespread interest and delay our shopping patterns. Which events keep you glued to the screen?