The Wesfarmers Ltd (ASX: WES) share price continues to climb today, adding to strong gains this past month.
At the time of writing, the Wesfarmers share price is up 0.5% to $55.94 per share, putting its gains over the past month at just under 10%.
Wesfarmers is a diversified Australian business with broad business operations including home improvement and outdoor living, apparel and general merchandise, office supplies; and an industrials division with businesses in chemicals, energy and fertilisers, and industrial and safety products.
From its origins in 1914 as a Western Australian farmers' cooperative, Wesfarmers has grown into one of Australia's largest listed companies trading on the ASX. Headquartered in Perth, Western Australia, Wesfarmers subsidiaries include household names such as Bunnings Warehouse, Kmart Australia, Officeworks and more.
Strong online search interest
The company's strong performance online is one factor that could have provided the impetus for the Wesfarmers share price's 10% gains this past month.
Recent research from Macquarie looked at Google Trends data and found that Wesfarmers-owned Kmart leads in digital interest in home retail. Similarly, Wesfarmers-owned hardware giant Bunnings leads online hardware searches.
Bunnings has become a retail goliath in Australia with little clear competition since the demise of Woolworths (ASX: WOW) -owned Masters.
As the Motley Fool reported earlier this month, Wesfarmers has an enviable position with its brand stable. Bunnings is Australia's leading hardware retailer, Officeworks is the leading office supplies retailer, Kmart is the leading discount retailer.
Meanwhile, Wesfarmers' would-be Australian online Amazon-rival, Catch, is expanding as an online retailer.
However, while online search interest in Bunnings and Kmart has been strong, interest has fallen over recent months in both Catch and Officeworks, which both showed heightened interest in the November to January period.
"Wesfarmers has seen favourable momentum in Bunnings and Kmart for online search activity as value remains a key driver for consumers," Macquarie said, as quoted by News.com.au.
"As expected, Easter long weekend led to heightened search interest, as people continue home-improvement projects."
Wesfarmers share price snapshot
Wesfarmers hasn't released a price-sensitive market update since its 2021 half-year FY21 report on 18 February, where it announced a 16% increase in total revenue.
The Wesfarmers share price has continued to rise steadily though, adding 3% the past week and 10% the past month, creating a 46% gain over the past 12 months.
