Insights about the european e-commerce market and oportunities for the american e-tailers
1. Set goals. They don’t have to be uncountable, one or two that are realist like : raise conversion rate or double trafic.
2. Facilitate team work by organizing fun company events.
3. Be flexibale with “Agile” software.
4. Involve customers.
5. Use leverage.
A PayPal survey claims that almost half (45%) of online buyers “have abandoned theirs carts multiple times in the past three weeks, with the average cost of abandoned goods in US shopping carts at $109″.
Why ?
One the first reasons could be the high shipping prices. Then there is the constant concern of credit card data security when purchasing online.
Sysomos has just released a new study about Twitter.
According to a study, Spain seems to be the more expensive country concerning mobile plans. (45.38 euros per month) For example in France it’s 29.84 euros.
According to the Adex Report from TNS Media Intelligence, the total investment represent 346 million euros. A slight increase of 1.6% compared to May 2008.
ComScore – The number of Facebook uniques has overtaken MySpace.
“In May, comScore reported 70.28 million US uniques for Facebook (up 97% year over year), compared to 70.26 million for MySpace (down 5% year over year)”.
Social Networks May 2008 – May 2009
As said in our earlier post “Retailers E-Commerce Growth Drops Sharply : 14.3% vs. 19.8% in 2007“, growth is slowing down but still present. Therefore we cannot mention any recession. This means that the Web remains an interesting advertising medium in comparison to the offline media. Consequently, we expect a development of online advertising expenses in 2009.
In spite of the international crisis, IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) studies show that Internet advertising investments in the US have increased. They reached a total of 5.87 billion dollars which represents an increase of 11 %, if you compare the third quarter of 2007 and 2008.
Source: Quarterly $ Revenue Growth Comparison – 2000-2008 YTD, PwC/IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report (www.iab.net)
While no one can predict the length of the economic crisis or its severity, there is slim chance of any sort of recovery in 2009. eMarketer forecasts a decline of 4.2% in US television ad spending in 2009.
Though France is confronted to a similar economic context, we (interactive agencies) believe that e-Advertising will not be hit in any negative way for the following reasons
France, Electronic Business Group : 81 % of the announcers assert that their e-marketing budget is going to increase in 2009. The increase of these budgets would be of on average 63 %. Indeed Internet indeed continues to benefit from a transfer of a part of the announcers budgets previously dedicated to the traditional media.
On the other hand, the economic crisis impacts on the perception which sets forward a more profitable e-marketing strategy. Within total Internet expenses marketing investments represents 56 % of its volume in 2008, and this number should climb up to 63 % in 2009.
Forrester Research concludes that brands must seize without hesitating the techniques offered by Web sites where the Internet users participate or share contents and opinion This phenomenon is described as the “social media “.
Dashing into the “community” revolution will only be a first step towards a marketing evolution.
Online sales are still growing, but far more slowly.
In May 2008, eMarketer projected that US retail e-commerce sales growth would drop to 14.3% this year compared with 2007. Benchmarked against the new DOC (Department of Commerce) data, eMarketer predicts 2008 will now be the first year of single-digit growth of the decade.
Online sales (excluding travel) will total nearly $137 billion in 2008, up 7.2% year-over-year, compared with last year’s 19.8% growth rate.
eMarketer expects that consumers will spend only $30.3 billion online in November and December this year. Its May number was a mere 10.1% growth over last year’s holiday spending. But the new estimate is for just 4% growth.
The weak economy is placing downward pressure on e-commerce sales this season. Online shopping growth had already been slowing naturally as part of the channel’s maturation; the economy is slowing growth even more.
Wouldn’t the advice be to diversify your consumer targets ?
Russell Harte
Biggest health and beauty website in the UK, growing rapidly, loyal customer base, uk leading loyalty card with 16 million users.
But lots of competition on the market.
Why change : future
The web has not always been seen as a great channel in the company. Here is the evolution over the years.
- a lobbyist pursuite
- massive indigestion
- just another shop
- back on the radar
- complete multichannel integration
3 questions
How to change : engage
Internal engagement of the company employees : Shops, Logistics, Experts, Brand
External engagement + Partners
What to change : deliver
Selected a consultancy to helpp through the initial phase. It lasted 6 weeks, to review the different technology options. They generated about 700 requirements. 2 potential platform vendors and 6 potential integrators. 1 year and a half from the beginning to the live website.
At a result, everything single technology in the website has changed except SAP.
Next : mobile? in-store kiosks?
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal, it is the courage to continue that counts.” Winston Chruchill
