Posted November 28th, 2011
by Roger McGershen
The holidays are here! The holidays are here! Internet retailers are excited as they should be. This is the time of year where we can really make up a whole year of sales and turn it into a positive one if it hasn’t been one, yet.
According to online measurement firm, ComScore, online shoppers spent $816 million on Black Friday which is actually up 26% from the Black Friday in 2010. More positive news comes from Thanksgiving Day which online shoppers spent $479 million which is an 18% increase over last Thanksgiving online spend!
November is a very strong month for Ecommerce, may be the strongest with December either beating it or coming close. Of course that depends on the internet retailer and the sales it chooses to push on certain dates. According to Comscore, Ecommerce has been up since 2010 for the first 25 days of November estimating online spending at $12.7 billion, making that number an increase of 15% from 2010.
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Posted in eCommerce News
Posted September 28th, 2011
by Rafael Solorzano
If you’re always on your computer and like tech, you’re always wondering what operating system is better or you may just have made up your mind. While Apple has started taking some market share, the reality is that Windows is still relatively dominant. Just go ahead and take a look at your Google Analytics to see what OS (operating system) users are using. Yep…Windows still leads the way and I’m sure by a considerable amount. That’s what we’ve been seeing on our end.
If you’re deciding whether to buy a MAC or PC, just know that Windows 8 will be released and said to be quite different as an operating system then its past versions.
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Posted in eCommerce News
Posted September 13th, 2011
by Roger McGershen
In the 2011 holiday season, ecommerce sales are expected to grow about 12% in online retail. Although the economy is still very fragile and concerns over a second recession still loom, ecommerce has continuously shown positive growth.
How time flies! We’re already nearing the middle of September 2011 and that means the holiday season is literally around the corner. The biggest mistake an ecommerce rookie can make is thinking it’s still too early to focus or worry about preparing for the holidays. The essential key factors for holiday success in ecommerce are:
1. MARKETING
2. INVENTORY
ECOMMERCE HOLIDAY SEASON SALES 2005-2010
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Posted in eCommerce News
Posted August 11th, 2011
by Roger McGershen
Comscore reports for the seventh consecutive quarter, ecommerce was up again in quarter two of 2011 which is estimated to be $37.5 billion dollars in the U.S. market. As other markets in the economy continue to struggle in this down economy, ecommerce has remained relatively healthy to other markets. This shows a growth of 14% over Q2 2010.
Although Q2 has positive results, Q3 is what we really want to focus on. Why? In very recent events, the direction of the economy with a downgrade in U.S. credit rating making the market be very volatile thus really decreasing consumer confidence, we’re not sure how this will affect the ecommerce sector. What we do know right now is that consumer confidence is low. As unemployment remains the same and markets continue to be fragile, the world economy is on the rocks.
As consumers shop with caution and watch every dollar, again, Q3 of 2011 will be a very telling quarter for ecommerce and the economy in general.
Other highlights from Q2 2011 include:
>>The top-performing online product categories were: Consumer Electronics (excl. PC peripherals), Computer Hardware, Computer Software, and Event Tickets. Each category grew at least 15 percent vs. year ago.
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Posted in eCommerce News
Posted May 2nd, 2011
by Roger McGershen
You’d think that in 2011, most U.S. based business would understand the importance of having a website presence and the importance of being and selling online. WOW. To my surprise, that is still not the case. Why? I’m not sure. This post is based on a survey poll done by Newtek Business Services which surveyed 1,200 independent business owners.
Here are key facts on this survey:
-The low percentage of clients taking payments online—20 to 25 percent—suggests that many business owners do not know that their site can be a useful tool for selling merchandise as well as collecting receivables and payments for service.
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Posted in eCommerce News
Posted April 8th, 2011
by Roger McGershen
If there is one market that is growing in the global economy, that country is Brazil. Over the past 2 years or so, we’ve seen Brazil have a serious boost in the world stage with its large population and booming economy. While there was never too much interest for ecommerce in South America from American internet retailers, times are a’ changing.
According to the latest Forrester Research study reported on InternetRetailer.com, Brazil will reach $22 billion in 2016, up 178% from 7.9 billion in 2010. The study also shows that much of that ecommerce growth will come from consumer’s electronics which now account for about 37% of the sales online in Brazil.
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Posted in eCommerce News
Posted April 6th, 2011
by Roger McGershen
In 2010, eCommerce saw a nice rebound, especially around the holiday time and was a very positive sign of the economy in time of a serious recession. Ecommerce has always been a rock solid industry as a whole in the economy. In 2009, there were some reserves about eCommerce being the ‘safe’ bet as one of the worse recessions in U.S. history proved to hit even the ecommerce sector.
2011 is showing very positive signs of being a good year as the forecast from last year is that sales are expected to raise 13.7% to $188 billion in sales, reports eMarketer. According to eMarketer, this project is assuming that the U.S. economy continues on its path to financial recovery and consumer confidence grows.
As projected in the image, Q4 seems as promising as ever and it’s never to early to plan for the holiday season, especially when it comes to how you will manage inventory and customer support which prove to be the most crucial in eCommerce when things get rolling. Large companies have seen web sales grow as the retail sector remains netural in terms of consumers shopping. As the ecommerce industry continues to expand into the social web, we will continue to see further growth throughout the next few years as social shopping also becomes a trend.
Tags: 2011 ecommerce growth, 2011 ecommerce sales Posted in eCommerce News
Posted March 9th, 2011
by Roger McGershen
As the web evolves, it makes businesses more universal than they have ever been. Selling online gives us the opportunity to reach a worldwide audience rather than just a local or domestic consumer. While many identify the U.S. market as the best, and it is, the Europe market for eCommerce is opening up and more and more internet retailers are identifying the opportunity if they aren’t already selling abroad.
The challenges that you may face as an internet retailer selling abroad may be the following:
>Shipping: Your shipping may be set-up only for domestic and you want to ensure you’re shipping products the best and safest way possible to make sure they are traceable. Services such as Fedex or UPS offer good services abroad.
>Fraud Protection: Many internet retailers face a big chargeback issue. While chargebacks may be a problem domestically in the U.S., you have a much better chance at fighting a chargeback in the U.S. than a card used in Europe where you can’t even do anything outside the credit card companies’ involvement.
>Language: This isn’t a big problem but nevertheless an issue you may encounter. Europe has many languages and you may find a hurdle in the road of translation.
>Time Barriers: Your customer service has to be on point in order to service customers in other parts of the world as time differences may be a challenge when trying to service the best way possible.
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Posted in eCommerce News
Posted January 27th, 2011
by Rafael Solorzano
As we look toward a better economic climate coming in to 2011, Forrester, a research company, is predicting that online sales will average a 10% growth over the next 5 years. While we saw an economic downturn in 2008, eCommerce has remained one of the only positives in the market and in the last quarter of 2010, particularly December 2010, eCommerce saw a great boost from the holidays.
“…Forrester projects that online retail sales in the U.S. will increase 11.98% this year compared with 2010, to $197.3 billion from $176.2 billion. The annual rate of increase will decline slightly each of the next several years, with online retail sales in 2015 rising 7.81% over 2014, to $278.9 billion from $258.7 billion, Forrester projects. That represents a 9.62% compound annual growth rate for the U.S. over the five-year forecast period.
In Western Europe, Forrester projects online retail sales will rise 13.10% this year over 2010, to €91.90 billion ($125.57 billion) from €81.25 billion ($111.02 billion). As in the United States, Forrester projects the annual rate of increase will decline slightly in each of the next several years, with online retail sales in 2015 rising 7.84% over 2014, to 133.64 billion euros (US$182.53 billion) from 123.92 billion euros (US$169.31 billion). The projected compound annual growth rate for Europe over 2010-2015 is 12.47%,” reports InternetRetailer.com
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Posted in eCommerce News
Posted November 23rd, 2010
by Roger McGershen
As we are in the holiday season mix, the eCommerce section plays a huge part of holiday shopping, maybe more than ever as internet shopping increases yearly. As that happens, competition online gets more fierce and more promotions and offers must take place for ecommerce websites to compete against each other.
All you hear about lately is how large online retailers are offering free shipping for the holiday season. InternetRetailer.com reports that last year, 68 of the largest 100 internet retailers offered free shipping, so that number is down, nevertheless, it is more than half of the largest retailers that are offering free shipping. Many small business ecommerce websites depend on shipping fees to either cover the cost of the actual shipping or profit anywhere from $1-$15 on shipping depend on the shipping method.
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Posted in eCommerce News
