Posts Tagged online shopping
Online sales on the up
Posted by Paul McSweeney in E-Commerce, Thoughts & Opinions on August 20th, 2010
Internet sales grew in July at their fastest pace since before the recession, as wet weather encouraged home shopping, a survey suggests.
Online sales grew by 18% in the month compared with a year earlier, the biggest jump since 2007, IMRG said.
UK shoppers spent £5bn online in July, more than in any other month this year, it added.
Figures published on Thursday showed total UK retail sales rising much faster than expected in July.
Sales volumes jumped 1.1% compared with June, the Office for National Statistics said, with almost all non-food sectors showing strong growth.
World Cup dip
The average UK shopper spent £81 online in July, with promotions and discounts also boosting spending.
Travel sales rose by a third compared with a year earlier, as people looked to escape the rain and head for sunnier climes, said IMRG, the industry body for global internet retailing.
This more than offset a fall in alcohol sales, caused perhaps by England’s disappointing performance in the football World Cup, the group said.
“Although online retail sales survived the recession more convincingly than High Street sales, the last two years or so have no doubt been shaky at times,” said Chris Webster, head of retail consulting and technology at Capgemini, which publishes the online sales index with IMRG.
“It is really encouraging to see growth levels returning to those seen pre-2007 and before consumer confidence was knocked by the financial crisis and the recession.”
The IMRG Capgemini Index tracks online sales at more than 100 retailers across the UK.
How to keep selling online through the economic downturn
Posted by Paul McSweeney in E Mail Marketing, E-Commerce, Facebook, Social Commerce, Social Media, Social Networking, Thoughts & Opinions on June 23rd, 2010
After years of growth rates of in the double digits, e-commerce sales are projected to increase at a single-digit pace from now until 2012. There are two forces acting toward this trend: the economic downturn has added additional downward pressure on short-term sales, and according to some sources, the population of Internet buyers is approaching saturation. The global economic downturn undercut consumer retail spending in most channels, except the U.S. online channels, which analysts forecast to reach $229.1 billion in 2013, or 8 percent of total U.S. retail sales.
Some executives are more optimistic. Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com, has said on several occasions that e-commerce will account for up to 15 percent by 2016. The major catalyst for e-commerce growth in the short term seems to be in stimulating existing online shoppers to continue to buy and to shift a greater percentage of their total purchases to the web.
To do this, companies will employee online marketing initiatives but also stress the convenience, broader selection, and ostensible cost savings associated with buying online. In the longer term, teenagers already spending online will acquire more purchasing power and independence and will invigorate the online channel.
More than half of online retailers believe that the outlook for the retail industry as a whole is gloomy and that retail sales will continue to slow in the coming 12 months. But 8o percent of online retailers said that they believe that the Web channel is better suited than other channels to withstand an extended economic downturn. (But more than half also think that multi-channel retailers are better suited to weather the economic turbulence than single-channel retailers).
E-commerce retailers report that their conversion rates continue to range from 3% to 3.5% as they have for years, which is another indication that the Web has not been as adversely impacted as other channels.
Going forward, online retailers will continue investing heavily in interactive marketing, a significant expenditure for e-commerce groups. In this vein, companies will experiment with social commerce initiatives, even though questions still remain for social marketing ROI, such as blogs and social networks.
Acquiring new customers is still the number one goal of online marketing efforts. While other retail channels struggle to innovate and perform, e-commerce managers have a unique opportunity to drive more sales and to test different tactics that resonate with consumers. Even more so now than in fatter times, retailers must strictly segment their customer groups and create messaging that speaks directly and powerfully to these groups.
