E-Commerce

Eight in ten Australians bought goods or services online in the past 12 months, with groceries the most regularly purchased online.

WITH innovation and a greater online presence, Australian retailers can win back the support of the local consumer.

Older Australians are ditching the major retailers and shopping centres with 47% of over 55’s spending less than they did the year before, according to an Essential Report survey. Meanwhile younger Australians are saving more, spending less on retail and entertainment but more online compared to 12 months ago.

In an iMedia article I wrote earlier this year, I correctly asserted that 2011 would be the year in which social commerce arrives. Currently, there is more innovation within this field than ever before, as brands and agencies are able to close the loop between social and commerce. According to comScore, e-commerce sales in the third quarter of 2011 reached $36.3 billion, which is a 13 percent increase over last year. This means that e-commerce sales have been growing consecutively for the past eight quarters, year-over-year.

A new eMarketer report outlines this year's forecast for holiday season online sales and analyzes why ecommerce holiday shopping will perform better than the brick-and-mortar variety. The key will be more online buyers spending more of their holiday budget on the web.

By its very nature the web is a complex place with too many websites to count and information & data on just about every topic conceivable. It’s no wonder a large portion of internet users don’t even contemplate interacting with websites by making online purchases or completing web forms.This isn’t to say however that you can’t increase the likelihood that these people will interact with your website. Your website is your storefront, you have as much or as little creative freedom as you like – so make sure you use this freedom everywhere you can.

We surveyed over 400 online companies (250 purely ecommerce) to find out what preparations are underway, what website changes are planned, and what incentives will be rolled out in support of the holiday shopping rush. The Holiday Readiness Handbook 2011 is ready for download.

While many would say that the customer is king, not all businesses agree on what constitutes an optimal online customer experience. And not all have the budget to adequately tap into what consumers want.

If it’s not 100 percent clear and intuitive what customers have to do on your site, chances are they will abandon it during the most crucial stages in the conversion funnel.

Regardless of how much traffic it gets, if your website isn’t capable of converting visitors into customers, you could spend thousands on advertising and still never see a sale.