With COVID-19 nixing in-person attendance at many events where World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) generates millions in branded merchandise sales, it should have been a bad year for the professional wrestling entertainment company’s swag business.

Only, it hasn’t been at all. That’s down to a successful ramp up in e-commerce merch sales – a phenomenon worth noting for the promotional products industry.

Through the first three quarters of 2020, WWE’s consumer products revenue, which includes merch sales, was $59.1 million. That’s down about 3% from the same time last year, but still an impressive accomplishment when you consider that in-venue merchandise sales stand at only $3.2 million for the nine months – an 80% decline from the prior year’s same nine-month period. What’s helped make up the difference? E-commerce merch sales, which have soared 46% to $27.7 million.

“We wanted to decrease our speed to market and focus on providing our fans with unique and innovative merchandise to match what we were doing with programming,” Sarah Cummins, WWE vice president of consumer products, told Sportico. “We believe the shift to online is here to stay, and we are prepared to serve our fans however they want to transact.”

The @WWE has nearly made up all of the revenue lost from venue merchandise in e-commerce through consumer products. https://t.co/V4qqEH9eJl

— Sportico (@Sportico) November 2, 2020

Cummins elaborated that part of the success has hinged on understanding fans’ tastes and catering to that, as well as improving the company’s digital marketplace presence to encourage and capture more sales.

“It is also important to think like a fan and understand the new reality of everyday life,” Cummins told Sportico. “We noticed our collector category of Championship Title Belts and event-specific merchandise was growing, so we doubled down there. We also wanted to diversify our portfolio of products and invested in new selling platforms/branded sites that focused on WWE Legends and our YouTube gaming channel UpUpDownDown to deliver fresh, new merchandise.”

The remaining monies in WWE’s consumer products division came from licensing, which registered $28.2 million for 2020’s first nine months, up from $26.6 million the year prior. Overall, WWE’s total revenue is up more than 15% for the year to $736 million.