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The Sceptics Have Been Once Again Proved Wrong Regarding the Future of Online Shopping and Internet Marketing
The Online Shopping is proving the sceptics wrong. For past couple of years there has been a growing fear psychosis amongst internet marketers. Its probably because of the vulnerability of the internet to unpredicatble attacks from hackers and phisers that had for years terrorised many potential buyers from using their credit cards on the net and giving out the details.
On that basis many marketing pundits had predicted that the days of online marketing could be perhaps numbered.
However, thanks to the growing confidence amongst consumers on the reliability of secured online transaction in encrypted form as well as the efficiency of the internet marketing and shopping, more and more people are actually using the net to make their purcahses from online stores and websites.
Australians Spent $11 Billion on Online Shopping
Perhaps it might interest you to make note of that according to a consumer report prepared by AC Nielson the Australians on an average spend around $1900.
In the 12 months running upto June 2006, it has been found that the total amount that the Aussies had actually spent on online shopping was something like a whopping $11 Billion through online transactions alone.
Online Shopping Has Been Least Affected by the recent Economic Crisis
The recent housing crisis in the US, the spiralling oil price hike, the fall in value of the dollar in the international market, all these factors together have hastened the sudden downturn of the US and world economy.
All this boiled down to people spending very less of their hard earned money. So like many others the online shopping would take a severe beating too.
In fact according to the University of Michigan Consumer Index as well as that by Reuters, that the economy is in such a bad shape that the consumer morale is very low.
In fact never before in the last 28 years the confidence of the consumers have hit the bottom. In fact its perhaps the lowest in all these years.
No wonder its quite expected that online shopping and marketing too would slip down the greasy and messy economic pole.
But this hypothesis has been proved wrong, which explains how much the internet could be relied upon by potential buyers and consumers to gather information and make their choices for better bargains on thingst that they wish to buy or avail of at highly reduced prices than in the offline market.
In fact visits to the various websites have shown that there has been a remarkbale surge in the number of visits.
Hitwise Index Shows Online Websites Have Registered More Hits than ever before.
According to Bill Tancer, General Manager at Hitwise, that there has been a significant rise in the number of visits to this particular collection of 100 top of the line online websites that together constitutes the Hitwise index.
The Hitwise index have actually shown an increase of 10.1% from the same period in 2007 to date and over 16.4% since 2006.
Amongst those categories of niche websites be it electronics, apparel or music, a close scrutiny of consumer and surfing habits have revealed that only those category of websites that gave reliable information on various products with comparative prices across multiple shopping sites are the ones that registered the most hits and great volumes of internet traffic.
The online classifieds website Craigslist.org is up 93.4% comparing the week ending May 31, 2008 to the same time period in 2007.
In fact the searching habits have drastically changed in the last few months as more people searched for used items instead of brand new ones. Hence the keyword "used" has been more in use than any other term. Its because people are curtailing on expenditure and are preferring to have an used item instead of a new one to save on prices.
According to the consultants in Forrester Research there are no signs of Easing of Online Sales.
Europe Online Sales
In Europe alone, total online sales is expected to rocket 63% from an estimated $246 billion this year, to $401 billion in 2011.
US Online Sales
In the U.S. too , total sales are expected to soar 93% from last year to $335 billion in 2012.
Canada Online Sales
According to Statistics online sales in Canada is nearing $8 billion annually.
UK Online Sales
These days its been estimated that on an average the UK shoppers are spending as much as£145m a day online.
As a matter of fact that during the beginning of this year in the first six months the online sales soared to £26.5 billion, as shoppers increasingly turned away from the high street and instead began to hunt for bragains on the internet for better opportunity to get things that did not pinched their pockets much.
Since January, internet shopping has increased by 38 per cent compared with the
same period in 2007, according to a new report.
Brick and Mortar Sales Increased with Online Presence
Online selling through websites would also have its impact on offline sales. In fact it would be a major boost to all sorts of corporate " brick-and-mortar" sales too.
"It's our most powerful marketing tool and a significant driver of store traffic," says David Duplantis, the senior vice president who oversees web sales for Coach, the American leather goods manufacturer.
Coach.com receives as many as 60 million visits a year, and 40% of Coach customers say they view products online before making in-store purchases.
Its only the luxury brands that have scrupulously avoided the net like plague. Its largely beacuse of their bad experience that they suffered during the Dot Com crisis when they suffered tremendous loss while going online that went bust. It was because they little understood how online marketing really works and had tried to ride the hoopla by investing heavily. Ever since that loss they suffer from the syndrome "Once beaten twice Shy".
In fact Chi-chi brands also worry the web is more hoi polloi than haute couture. They are afraid of turing into some kind of an online store such as Amazon or eBay, thereby losing their edge and an identity in the market.
Its not just the bargain hunters and price conscious folks who are using the internet.
Rich Folks Too are Shopping Online
The rich too are no different. They too are proving much more internet savvy and are spending lots.
Like everyone else these days, they have been won over by the convenience of online shopping. Around 80% of high-net-worth consumers — in Western societies defined as those with annual gross income and assets of at least $500,000 — use the Internet daily, and they regularly buy products online. This means the potential of luxury brands are great online. Unfortunately only a third of the premium brands actually sell online.
Japanese Companies are starting Online Shopping Malls in China
On the contrary Japan Post Service Co., a mail delivery unit of Japan Post Holdings Co., will open an online shopping mall site on Aug. 18 for Chinese consumers and Japanese residents in China. This is because of the craze amongst the Chinese tourists visiting Japan to buy things that are of Japanese make.
The site will be operated in both Chinese and Japanese. Customers will be able to pay for purchases with credit cards and have their orders sent to China by express mail service.
According to the Jiji Press at present, seven companies plan to have products on the mall, including Sanrio Co. <8136>, Mizuno Corp. <8022> and Tasaki Shinju Co. <7968>.
Japan Post Service, which aims to raise the number of companies using the site, is targeting 300,000 shipments in fiscal 2014 that ends in March 2015.
China has More number of Internet Users than even the USA
This is significant since China said the number of Internet users in the country reached about 253 million last month, helping China overtake the United States as the world's biggest Internet market. That means Japanese companies wishes to cash in on this great opportunity to make hay when the sun shines.
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