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2005-03 UPDATE - Market Snapshots
of the WEB
February 2005. Half of online shoppers
conduct research on a search engine before making an online purchase - most of
these complete their research up to several weeks before they actually purchase.
-source: DoubleClick, comScore Networks
2004-05 UPDATE - Market Snapshots
of the WEB
May 2004. US online sales in 2003 increased
51 percent to $114 billion, which is 5.4 of all retail sales. Seventy-nine percent
of etailers were profitable, and profit margins of 15 percent are typical, compared
with 3 to 10 percent for offline stores. The Internet bust, and the general recession,
gave some advantage to the survivors, but mostly they've simply gotten it right,
and are meeting consumer desires. In 2004, revenues will increase 27 percent to
$144 billion, which is 6.6 percent of total US retail sales.
-source: shop.org, Forrester Research
[COMMENT 2004-05. Shop.org, a division of the National
Retail Federation, commissions its report annually, and the study is noteworthy
for including data from many privately held retailers who don't otherwise publish
their stats. Markets in exceptionally strong growth - with online sales expected
to increase more than 40 percent this year - include health and beauty (61%),
apparel (42%), and flowers, cards, and gifts (41%).]
April 2004. Nine in ten of ecommerce practitioners
claim their site is fully integrated into their overall business, only thirteen
percent think of the site as a separate entity from their business. Features increasingly
implemented or desired include keyword search capability, seasonal promotions,
coupons or rebates, gift suggestions, personalization, cross-selling and upselling,
live help and chat. -source: the e-tailing group
2003-11 UPDATE - Market Snapshots
of the WEB
November 2003. Christmas season spending
on the Web will approach $17 billion this year in the US, a 21 percent increase
over last year. Convenience is the top advantage cited by online shoppers. Price
and shipping have both dropped slightly as comparison determinants, and convenience
is the top expectation of a website.
-source: Jupiter Research
November 2003. Contrary to the universal
industry assumption, personalization is not a highly desired quality of the online
shopping experience. Shoppers looking to buy something require a website to assist
them complete that task, rather than raise peripheral concerns. Shoppers want
a site to be easy to navigate and straightforward to purchase through.
-source: Jupiter Research
November 2003. Seventy percent of online
operations - both multichannel and online-only - were profitable in 2002, up from
56% in 2001. The Web now accounts for 4.5 percent of all retail sales. Those companies
with both offline and online outlets realize the greatest synergies: cross-channel
incentives and advantages (such as buy online, pickup offline) drive higher sales
when they work in combination than either channel alone.
-source: businessweek.com
October 2003. US holiday sales across
all venues will reach $217 billion this year, 5.7% increase over last year, and
the best season since 1999.
-source: National Retail Federation
2003-09 UPDATE - Market Snapshots
of the WEB
September 2003. Ecommerce sales will increase
at a steady 19 percent year-over-year growth rate, rising to $229 billion in 2008,
from $96 billion in 2003. Approximately 5 million U.S. households will enter the
world of online shopping every year, for the next five years, bringing the total
up from 38 million households to 63 million.
-source: Forrester Research, Inc.
September 2003. Channel Crossing is still
a difficult art. The growing trend of "shop online - return instore"
offers reveals a large gap between a company's website operation and the ability
of its retail store personnel and procedures to match. Salespeople were unclear
on policies and online representations. Only half of major stores studied had
signage instore referring to the website. Of only 13 percent with instore kiosks
for online transactions, none was operational.
-source: e-tailing group, inc.
[COMMENT 2003-09. The study was made during back-to-school,
retail's second-busiest time. Retailers do take note of these studies, and in
general have been very concerned for three or four years now to improve on their
faults. We expect continual improvement.]
August 2003. More than three-fifths of
leading commerce sites delivered surprising technical errors or impassable navigation
options and dead-ends.
-source: Business Internet Group of San Francisco, Tealeaf Technology
August 2003. Q2 ecommerce spending was
almost 28 percent increased over Q2 2002, at more than $12 billion. Back to school
apparel shopping in July (at half a billion dollars) gave a 44 percent increase
over last year.
-source: Census Bureau of the Department of Commerce
[COMMENT 2003-09. As we ramp up to Christmas the
Web continues to demonstrate its superiority as a purchase channel, on two opposite
fronts: as the premier luxury market now surpassing all other media, and also
as the dominant bargain-shopper price saver. While brick and mortar stores and
malls are struggling for the consumer dollar, this year again shoppers appear
to be turning to the Web for the sheer efficiencies that it delivers. We first
saw this trend last year, and it appears to be continual now. As margins get tighter,
the Web delivers increased value for the buck.]
August 2003. eBay is the top shopping
destination on the Web, claiming 17 percent of all shoppers during a test week
in July. Amazon follows with 10 percent.
-source: Nielsen//NetRatings
2003-07 UPDATE - Market Snapshots
of the WEB
June 2003. Free shipping is the promotion
most likely to convert sales on the Web, for 89% of respondents. Half of all shoppers
will buy offline or reduce online purchases in response to perceived high shipping
charges. 40% will download a coupon, 35% sign up for e-newsletters, 29% read articles.
Users will not use a difficult website, and will abandon a previously patronized
brand, or forego price savings, with a site that is hard to use.
-source: Jupiter Research, Genex
[COMMENT 2003-07. Other companies in this field
include BizRate and PriceGrabber (also powering AskJeeves shopping). Froogle,
still in beta and not very reliable yet, remains the non-commercial entrant from
Google, and Yahoo! is rapidly deploying its new search capability in this area.
As the economy languished in the last three years, the sheer efficiencies of the
Internet produced many little booms like this.]
2003-05 UPDATE - Market Snapshots
of the WEB
April 2003. Comparison shopping site
NexTag reported its sixth consecutive profitable quarter. Its site received 3.5
million unique visitors last December. The site is a peer competitor with DealTime.
-source: NexTag, Nielsen/NetRatings
March 2003. Online shopping search company
DealTime is acquiring volunteer consumer review company Epinions. The resulting
property will equal MSN.shopping in size, 4th largest shopping site behind Amazon,
eBay, and Yahoo! Shopping.
-source: DealTime, Epinions, Jupiter Research
2003-03 UPDATE - Market Snapshots
of the WEB
February 2003. Out of all the sectors
of the US economy, it is the online services of retailing, travel, brokerage and
auctions that are strongest in terms of customer satisfaction, loyalty, and future
economic growth, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI).
Ecommerce could play an important role in fueling recovery of the economy as a
whole.
-source: University of Michigan
2003-01 UPDATE - Market Snapshots
of the WEB
January 2003. As predicted, Q4 online
shopping showed a 40% increase over Q4 2001, at $17.44 billion, for a yearly total
of $47.98bn.
- source: BizRate
December 2002. Nearly 20 percent of US
Internet users have redeemed a coupon online
- source: eMarketer
2002-11 UPDATE - Market Snapshots
of the WEB
November 2002. 93 percent of American
Internet users have bought online.
- source: Business Software Association
October 2002. 74% of US consumers have
little confidence in an economic recovery for at least 6 months. Consumers do
not intend to increase spending this holiday season, but expect to spend proportionately
more on the Web.
- source: BIGresearch, NRF
October 2002. Consumers are much more
accustomed to the Web, and e-commerce has improved its service. Fourth quarter
online sales will be at least 30% increased over Q4 2001 in the US. Global sales
will increase 48%, to $38 billion in Q4.
- source: GartnerG2
2002-09 UPDATE - Market Snapshots
of the WEB
September 2002. The Internet economy
will continue to expand, even as the general economy contracts. In a tough economy,
the time- and money-saving benefits of online shopping become necessary.
- source: BizRate.com
2002-03 UPDATE - Market Snapshots
of the WEB
March 2002. For the first time, online
customer service scores higher than customer service offered by traditional retailers
(77 points out of 100 versus 74 out of 100).
- source: US-based survey by University of Michigan Business School
February 2002. In a survey of thousands
of online shoppers in 124 countries, two-thirds said they do not have concerns
about buying from overseas web sites. Almost universally they expected to increase
or maintain online spending in the next year. And shoppers were nearly three times
more successful at finding what they wanted on the Web by using search engines
than by responding to advertisements.
- source: WorldPay
January 2002. Online holiday shopping
spending for 2001 was up 15 percent on the previous year; online retail spending
has not been hit as hard by the economic downturn as overall retail spending.
- source: Nielsen/NetRatings, Forrester, others
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