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The cost of e-commerce is weighing heavily on brick-and-mortar retailers, who have successfully increased digital sales but thinned their margins in the process, according to a new study from retail strategy firm HRC Advisory released Tuesday.
That shift has led operating earnings as a percentage of sales to decline by up to 25%, in part due to the major investments retailers are making in e-commerce and omnichannel plus the higher cost of e-commerce fulfillment, the study found. Returns of online orders are particularly expensive and returned merchandise is difficult to resell at full value, HRC added.
Although brick-and-mortar retailers have successfully increased their digital efforts, momentum is slowing. Online sales growth for 11 public department store chains fell from 39.3% in 2012 to 18.6% in 2015, HRC said, while the online sales growth rate for 22 specialty stores declined from 17.5% in 2012 to 9% last year....
AT Kearney released a report – The 2015 Global Retail E-Commerce Index. Their research analyzes retail e-commerce around the globe and ranks countries according to its proprietary Global Retail E-Commerce Index.™
The biggest news for this year’s index is that e-commerce continues to grow strongly in big markets and small with only a few exceptions. The index ranks countries by several criteria: online market size (40%), consumer behavior (20%), growth potential (20%) and infrastructure (20%) weighted to arrive at an overall Online Attractiveness Score....
Coupons are quickly growing as a significant component of beacon-enabled proximity marketing thanks to strong redemption rates, with brands and retailers forecast to deliver 1.6 billion coupons a year by 2020, according to a new report from Juniper Research.
The results point to how proximity marketing is gaining traction as retailers look to engage more deeply with consumers in and around their stores, prompting the volume of beacon-enabled coupons to grow quickly from the 11 million expected to be delivered in 2015. However, the research also underscores the potential danger of turning beacons into nothing more than another offer channel, which is likely to cause shoppers to lose interest....
While similarities exist across all age groups, some key differences emerge immediately. First the similarities: Most U.S. adults intend to spend the same amount or more while shopping online during this season as compared to a year ago. 85% of U.S. Adults 18 and older plan to do so, ranging from 86% of 18-54 year olds to 83% of those 55 and older. Additionally, most consumers across all age groups plan to spend at least as much as they did last year on the top retail categories of Clothing and Electronics. Roughly three-quarters of U.S. adults plan to spend at least as much this season as they did last year on Clothing and Shoes and roughly two-thirds of U.S. adults plan to spend the same or more on Electronics. However, Clothing and Electronics spending plans do vary by age group with younger shoppers more likely than older consumers to spend the same or more on Electronics (75% of A18-34 vs. 57% of A65+) and Clothing (82% of A18-34 vs. 71% of A65+ on Children’s Clothing, 78% of A18-34 vs. 63% of A65+ on Shoes).
Beyond spending plans, younger consumers are more prone to being influenced by digital and mobile media than older shoppers are in their Clothing purchases. Overall, 1 in 4 U.S. adults report that they are influenced by Email Ads and 1 in 5 by Internet Ads in their Clothing purchases. More U.S. adults are influenced by Email (26%) than Broadcast TV (21%) and more by Internet Ads (19%) than Cable TV (13%) in their Clothing purchases. Digital influence is more pronounced among 18-34 year olds shopping for Clothing: 1 in 3 are Influenced by Email Ads, 1 in 4 by Internet Ads and 1 in 5 by Social Media. This younger demo is also twice as likely as the general adult population to be influenced by Mobile Video, Blogs or Web Radio. 35-54 year olds parallel the general adult population in digital media influence on Clothing purchases and 55-64 year olds are a bit less influenced by these media. Fewer clothing shoppers 65 and older are influenced by any media but twice as many of them are influenced by Internet Ads (10%) than Cable TV (5%)....
No matter what niche you are in, setting up a successful ecommerce store requires both planning and a lot of smart work. If you take into account that customers now have around a gazillion of online stores to turn to for their shopping spree, you can understand why you have to develop both a short term and a long term strategy. From figuring out exactly what you have to sell to choosing the right platform for you (this comparison might be of use here), you have to take into account almost everything.
The following experts answered these two important questions: - In your opinion, what’s the one and most important thing any store owner should focus on right after they launch the website?
- What’s the worst mistake that would set a new online shop on the wrong path?...
As the 2016 year comes barreling towards us, it’s essential to look back at what you’e done with your business in order to establish a plan for the unexpected ahead. Even evaluating your entire ecommerce system is a wise choice, considering companies change, prices go up and offerings are not always what they once were.
Yes, the new year is a time for reevaluation, and the ecommerce world is no stranger to that. Therefore, keep reading to learn about the ten most interesting ecommerce trends for 2016 and beyond....
So the question that comes to mind is “What has caused this unremitting demand for online commerce? So, what really drives the customers to visit a particular online marketplace and choose the same for purchase? What are the factors that make shopping both a comfortable and pleasurable experience for them? And, on what basis do they decide to revisit the portal or repeat purchase?
Irrespective of how utilitarian the concept of online buying sounds, shopping either from a real or virtual platform does entail a splash of hedonism as also grants the whole affair a distinctive upmarket feel.
That’s precisely why there are as many customers who shop purely to elevate their moods (and trigger the release of dopamine) as those who shop to meet their immediate needs without the pressure of wants influencing the purchase. At the same time, given the rapidly transforming global marketplace led by technological innovation and a furious digitization spree, online buying has to a large extent become inevitable....
eCommerce is about making sales. Period. That means if you own an eCommerce website, maximizing conversions should always be one of the top items on your to-do list. Today let’s look at a few ways you can improve the conversion rate on your eCommerce site.
Search the web, and you’ll find all kinds of advice about how to “improve conversions.” Let’s focus on the ones that are important in eCommerce....
In terms of online spending there are many differences in Europe. A new infographic shows the average online spending in Europe. The infographic was made by Expert Market, using data from Statistica’s Digital Market Outlook. The British company ranked the countries that spend the most money online per average customer. To make it easier for comparison they put all the amounts in US dollars.
The global ranking shows Europe is doing pretty well, considering Norway is the number two with $2,448 spent online per average customer in 2015. Only the average revenue per user in Hong Kong was higher, with $2,868. In total, seven European countries ended in the global top 10, which consists of: Hong Kong, Norway, Israel, the United States, Denmark, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Finland, Sweden and Ireland....
The global ranking shows Europe is doing pretty well, considering Norway is the number two with $2,448 spent online per average customer in 2015. Only the average revenue per user in Hong Kong was higher, with $2,868. In total, seven European countries ended in the global top 10, which consists of: Hong Kong, Norway, Israel, the United States, Denmark, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Finland, Sweden and Ireland....
This holiday is poised to be the first mobile-dominant season for retailers and marketers need to be ready.
A growing number of Americans are turning to their smartphones and tablets as their primary device for accessing the Internet. In fact, one-third of all U.S. adults (33.7 percent) say they access the Internet more often through a mobile device than through a computer, up from 24 percent in 2013. Furthermore, Millennials are the first generation to be mobile dominant, with 53 percent of consumers aged 18 to 34 reporting that they use their phone more often than a computer to go online.
Considering that trend, it’s no surprise that when pulling data for our Holiday Hot Sheet series, we found that 35 percent of all Website visits came from smartphones or digital tablets during the week ending October 17, 2015. Shopping and Classified Websites, however, received an even greater share of visits from mobile devices that week, 44 percent to be exact. And some shopping sub-industries got a majority of traffic from mobile. Those included: Intimate Apparel and Accessories, which currently gets 55 percent of visits from mobile, Baby Products (55 percent), Health and Beauty (54 percent) and Ticketing (51 percent)....
If you have an ecommerce site, you may be struggling with how to implement an effective content strategy. You may have found that product and sales pages don’t easily lend themselves to compelling, share-worthy content. This is why many business owners get stuck: they think a content strategy only works for online publishers; not for ecommerce sites. They know the benefits of having a solid content strategy – increased traffic, organic search rankings, brand awareness, conversion rates, and sales – but don’t know how this works (of even if it can work) on an ecommerce site.
This article will walk you through some strategies for using content to achieve the benefits listed above for an ecommerce website....
Recent online shopping statistics have found that over two-thirds of Americans have made an online purchase. According to ComScore, this equates to approximately 78% of the entire population that’s over the age of 15.Needless to say, ecommerce is big business, and isn’t going anywhere, anytime soon. We’ve highlighted this nuance in a recent guide we penned: Bricks vs. Clicks: How the Ecommerce Monster is Slowly Ingesting Brick & Mortar Retail.
Look to it for more insight on how brick and mortar is slowly but surely being overtaken by ecommerce (even though it will never cease to be; ecommerce is catching up fast)....
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We (marketers) have all been waiting for this moment for the last decade: The moment social media goes from being an engagement platform to a revenue generation tool.
Yes, for years now, businesses large and small have had to struggle to defend their social media spends. After all these years, just 36 percent of all CMOs claim that they see clear quantifiable results from social media marketing. Questions like ROI, revenue attribution, last mile conversions have dogged the platform like a heavy albatross around its neck. Long-winded methods are adopted by various firms to showcase the impact that social media has on the bottom lines of businesses.
No more. Finally, enough factors have come together to prove the naysayers wrong. Now we have tools that can directly produce the results that marketers were hoping social media would be able to influence someday. Transactions are no longer limited to e-commerce sites, they happen right here on social media now. So what are these five ingredients that are responsible for this perfect storm?...
As the 2016 year comes barreling towards us, it’s essential to look back at what you’e done with your business in order to establish a plan for the unexpected ahead. Even evaluating your entire ecommerce system is a wise choice, considering companies change, prices go up and offerings are not always what they once were.
Yes, the new year is a time for reevaluation, and the ecommerce world is no stranger to that. Therefore, keep reading to learn about the ten most interesting ecommerce trends for 2016 and beyond....
A/B Tests aren't for every website. If you have a high value item that only 20 people see a week, but when it converts it means a bigger return, A/B testing would be a lot harder to implement in a way to get return on investment. A/B Tests and multivariate tests are perfect for websites where you have a solid amount of traffic coming in so that you can reach statistical significanc.
A/B Tests are only as good as your assumptions and guessesSo a deep dive into what has worked for other eCommerce websites is a prerequisite for implementing any meaningful change on your website. Familiarize yourself with many sources of information about eCommerce sites and come up with the tests that you feel are most likely to move the meter as far as revenue goes.
Two of the crucial moments on a website are when a visitor lands on your homepage and product page/buy button. So many of the case studies, I've read and implement changes around these crucial areas....
User reviews are a proven sales driver, a survey has revealed, so what are people really searching for and what decisions does this lead to?
Well, this infographic from PeopleClaim explains exactly how user reviews affect consumers’ decision-making when buying a product.
This infographic shows: - If an issue is handled quickly, 95% of customers will return - 70% consult reviews before purchase - Reviews drive higher loyalty and purchase satisfaction....
After researching for more than two weeks, it’s finally done! Here are the best 100 business blogs about ecommerce, SEO, conversions and marketing, and the most popular articles from each one. It’s a comprehensive list of tremendous resources, so please make sure you bookmark it for later reference if you don’t have 48h straight to binge it right now. Also, please consider to tweet or share it on Facebook if you think it’s a valuable resource.
OK, let’s get the party started...
Not every retailer had a great 2015. Some brands seriously struggled.
These are some brands that did not fare too well — many suffered from low sales and misguided sartorial choices. Some companies filed for bankruptcy.
Here's hoping 2016 will be better for them....
A new video made by Shopify, an e-commerce software company, delves into this bit of Internet history to track down the first official e-commerce transaction. The trail begins on the ARPANET, with a 1971 deal between computer science students at Stanford and MIT to buy some pot. But, explains the narrator, that technically didn’t count because money wasn’t exchanged online: they only used the network to arrange a meeting place.
Next, the trail leads to 1984, when a 74-year-old British grandmother named Jane Snowball used a Videotex—essentially a TV connected to telephone lines—to order provisions from her local grocery store: margarine, eggs, cornflakes. However, the groceries were delivered by hand, and Snowball paid for them in cash. That’s not exactly e-commerce.
The first true e-commerce transaction didn’t happen until 1994 with the advent of the Internet as we more or less know it today. Though Pizza Hut often gets credit for the first e-commerce transaction (they started selling pizzas online in late August 1994) the actual credit goes to Dan Kohn, a 21-year-old entrepreneur who ran a website based in New Hampshire called NetMarket....
It was yet another great quarter in the world of US retail e-commerce. Revenue was up by 11.8 percent year over year, and transactions increased nearly the same amount (11.6 percent) over Q3 2014.
As the leaves begin to change color and the sun begins to set on 2015, let’s take a look at some of the trends leading the way into Q4 and this year’s holiday shopping season.
These finding below are based on the Custora E-Commerce Pulse, a free online dashboard tracking online transactions from more than 500 million shoppers, $100 billion in e-commerce revenue, and 200+ online retailers....
In a market as saturated as the ecommerce platform market, it can be very difficult to figure out which shopping cart software best meets your needs. If you are considering starting your own store, then chances are you have already run into this struggle at some point.
So far I have reviewed most popular platforms as individual offers, and created this comparison chart, then ranked all platforms after their SEO effectiveness, but now it is time to see how the different platforms compare to each other: Shopify, Bigcommerce, 3dcart, Volusion and Big Cartel.
In case you’re in a hurry, here are some links to our top ecommerce platforms for you to choose from...
On Wednesday, October 21st the ecommerce UK event titled “The Year Ahead” was held in London. Top retailers spoke about which future trends to focus on and how to secure sales growth in 2016.
Should you offer free delivery or click-and-collect? Online-only ranges? Personalised email marketing? Launch a loyalty app? Run a customer feedback programme?
With the endless options to choose from, leading retailers spoke about what they actually think is worth investing in, and where they expect their growth to come from in the next 12 months. In the panel discussion, Practicology’s CCO Jeremy Wilson posed an interesting question to Jaeger, Selfridges and Baker Ross...
Summary
- 83% of consumers want free shipping for online shopping. - Target, Best Buy, and Amazon all have free shipping programs for the holidays. - Wal-Mart is denying customers the one thing they want.
This holiday season, online shopping will be bigger than ever. FedEx (NYSE:FDX) expects to deliver 317 million boxes between Black Friday and Christmas Eve, an increase of 12.4% over the same period last year. Meanwhile, brick-and-mortar sales are expected to grow only by 2.4%.
This article contrasts the Wal-Mart mindset with that of its close competitors Target (NYSE:TGT), Best Buy (NYSE:BBY), and Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN). The thesis of this article is that Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) is under-investing in the online segment for the all-important holiday season by not matching the free shipping policies of its major competitors. This is consistent with the company's misguided mindset of over-investment in stores and under-investment in E-Commerce....
If you are in the eCommerce market industry, you'll be smiling by the time you finish reading this article.
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Profits for brick and mortar retailers are getting hit hard as they try to compete by offering e-commerce sales.