The just-released Internet Retailer Top 1000 reveals a number of surprising trends in North American e-commerce. For one, the largest players in web retailing grew 14% last year to nearly $300 billion—not half bad considering store sales grew only 3%. Yet, for the first time in nine years Top 1000 merchants have grown slower than the U.S. e-commerce market as a whole.
Tag: online shoppers
136 Million Holiday Shoppers to Shop Online
Although nearly 60 percent of holiday shoppers had already started checking off their shopping lists by November 10, millions more are eagerly waiting to hear what retailers have in store ÛÒ and online ÛÒ for the biggest holiday shopping weekend of the year.
Tap into the Gifting Market
Unity Marketing estimates that the gifting market totals $131.3 billion, and represents approximately $1 out of every $10 spent in the type of stores that fill America’s malls and shopping centers, the big boxes that line the streets and highways and the shops along main streets across the country.
E-Commerce Sales to Top $334 Billion in 2015
U.S. online retail sales will reach $334 billion this year and Online Retail Sales To Top $480 Billion By 2019, according to ForresterÛªs latest five-year eCommerce forecast. Already, 69% of the U.S. online population regularly buys products online, with clothing, consumer electronics
Online Shoppers Will Be Looking for Holiday Deals, Discounts
Online shopping is expected to see a spike over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend as mobile users will look for the best deals. Sixty-two percent of survey respondents say it will take a discount of 30% or more to persuade them to make a purchase, compared to 52% in 2012. In addition, 42% of consumers plan to spend at least half of their holiday shopping online, while 50% said they will shop at online-only retailers.
Marketers to Appeal to New Types of Digital Shoppers
These days, it might seem like all consumers are shopping online. But, not online shoppers are created equal and marketers must know which of these consumers to target in order to maximize their profit potential. Group M’s new Digital Consumer Journey white paper categorizes online shoppers to help enterprises understand the purchase path in online retailing and how to improve their marketing, especially in the context of a digital marketplace that has pitted Amazon against everyone else.
Consumers Less Patient for Pages to Load Despite Added Content/Features
Consumers are becoming increasingly less willing to wait for pages to load on e-commerce sites, despite the addition of more rich features such as video, zoom and animated content. Today’s online shoppers expect sites to be faster than ever. While most online shoppers said in a 2006 survey they would wait 4 seconds for a site to load, when the survey was repeated this summer, 47% said they grow impatient when web pages take more than 2 seconds to load. Improvements in technology, however, are allowing proactive companies to improve site performance. With the holiday season approaching, online retailers can tweak and test their sites to improve site performance.
