Thursday, June 26, 2008

5 Reports On Online Marketing & Home Based Business Opportunities  

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    1. Advertising sales forecast has just been released by ZenithOptimedia - details from the report today and noted "The forecasts for internet advertising have been revised upwards. The report now forecasts 29.9% growth this year (up from 28.6% forecast three months ago) and 85% growth between 2006 and 2009 (up from 82%). Online video and local search are the new, fast-growing segments, but display, classified and the rest of search are still growing rapidly as well. Internet advertising is expected to account for 9.5% of all expenditure in 2009, fractionally up from the 9.4% forecast three months ago..... The study expects newspapers' share of world ad expenditure to fall from 29.0% in 2006 to 26.2% in 2009. Full Story on - Ahorre.com


    2. Hispanic households tend to be younger on average than the U.S. population at large. Of the more than 10 million Hispanic households, 38 percent are currently headed by someone under 35, and an additional 25 percent are led by someone between the ages of 35 and 44 (the national average for homes with heads under 35 is 23 percent.) By 2010, the under-45 Hispanic market will increase to 8 million households, and its purchasing power will leap from the current level of less than $295 billion to $397 billion. In other words, $3 out of every $5 flowing to Hispanic households in 2010 will be in the hands of this younger-than-average segment. Full Story on - Ahorre.com

    3. The Future of Advertising and Marketing Programs : Fundamental changes in the way marketing programs are planned, created and executed are expected in 2007, according to the Association of National Advertisers ANA. Here are ten ways the marketing landscape is likely to be transformed, as predicted by the ANA’s leadership team. Full Story on - Ahorre.com
    4. The Census Bureau of the Department of Commerce announced today that the estimate of U.S. retail e-commerce sales for the first quarter of 2008, adjusted for seasonal variation, but not for price changes, was $33.8 billion, an increase of 0.8 percent (±1.0%)* from the fourth quarter of 2007. Total retail sales for the first quarter of 2008 were estimated at $1,024.2 billion, an increase of 0.1 percent (±0.2%)* from the fourth quarter of 2007. The first quarter 2008 e-commerce estimate increased 13.6 percent (±1.2%) from the first quarter of 2007 while total retail sales increased 2.8 percent (±0.2%) in the same period. E-commerce sales in the first quarter of 2008 accounted for 3.3 percent of total sales. Full Story on: Census.gov


    5. “Home-based businesses collectively generated a remarkable amount of economic activity, especially for women and minorities,” said Census Bureau Director Louis Kincannon. “Just released data also show most businesses are started by people and families who dig into their own pockets.” Almost half (49 percent) of the nation’s businesses are operated from home, and more than 6-in-10 owners used their own money to start the business, according to new U.S. Census Bureau reports on characteristics of businesses and business owners. Nearly 1-in-10 U.S. businesses -- both employer firms and nonemployer firms -- were started by owners who used personal or business credit cards to finance the startup or acquisition. Nearly 3-in-10 (28 percent) of all entrepreneurs started or acquired their business with no capital at all. Full Story On: Census.gov


    6. More Demographic Reports on US Home Business Workers / Engterpreneurs : Census.gov. Download the Free Report on Home Business Workers in the US (.pdf)

eBay Provides Secondary income to 724,000 US Enterprenuers!!  

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Since eBay became more than just an online garage sale, many retail industry observers have wondered just how important eBay is as a selling force. A new survey by ACNielsen International Research for eBay provides an answer: very important. The survey reports that 724,000 Americans derive their primary or secondary income from eBay, a group which eBay characterizes as “professional eBay sellers.” Another 1.5 million say they supplement their income by selling on eBay.

In the first six months of 2005, eBay members in the U.S. sold merchandise worth approximately $10.6 billion. The number of eBay entrepreneurs in the U.S. has increased 68% since the last comparable study in 2003, when 430,000 Americans said they were making some or all of their income selling on eBay.

“In just 10 years, eBay has become the destination for Americans pursuing their visions of entrepreneurship,” said Bill Cobb, president of eBay North America. “We’re proud to play a central role in small business development in the U.S. and around the world.”
EBay hopes to increase that number by hosting eBay Days Small Business seminars in eight cities in the U.S. this summer.
Courtesy: Ahorre.com

Monday, July 16, 2007

Canada E-Commerce Continues to Grow  

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Courtesy: eMarketer.com

Sites are popping up in the Great White North.

Canadian retail e-commerce just tallied its fifth straight year of double-digit growth, yet online sales still account for less than 1% of the total retail market, according to Statistics Canada's "2006 Survey of Electronic Commerce and Technology."

Nearly half of Canadian retail firms now have a Web site, compared to the 42% that did in 2005. The percentage is even higher among companies with 100 employees or more, of which 88% have a Web site.Online sales more than doubled in Canada from 2003-2006. eMarketer expects the
average amount that Canadians spend online will grow strongly over the next three years. Seasoned online buyers (rather than new ones) will drive overall market growth.E-Commerce* in Canada, by Sector, 2003-2006 (millions of C$)

What do Canadians buy online?

J.C. Williams compared Canadian and US online consumer behavior. Canadians are either on par or ahead of their US peers in purchasing electronics, travel and event tickets online. Canadians lag behind in the purchasing of clothing, music and videos, gifts and toys.
Average Annual Amount Spent Online* by Online Buyers in Canada Ages 18+, 2005-2009 (% increase** vs. prior year)
Jeffrey Grau predicts that "it is only a matter of time before Canada's B2C e-commerce market lives up to its potential. The country is a world leader in Internet adoption, time spent online and electronic banking and bill payment."

Mr. Grau also notes that "plenty of consumers are held back from online shopping because they do not want to pay for shipping or they are concerned that it will be difficult to return an item purchased online if it fails to meet expectations." Multi-channel retailers can avoid this by offering in-store pickup and returns, he says.

Product Categories Purchased Online in the Past Six Months by Online Buyers in Canada vs. the US, April 2006 (% of respondents)











Read eMarketer's Canada B2C E-Commerce report.

Referential Press Releases:

Friday, May 25, 2007

Why Gender Matters in E-Commerce Strategy  

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Why Gender Matters in E-Commerce Strategy

By- Michael Vorel


As a developer of e-commerce stores, we analyze a variety of factors when deciding upon an internet strategy to appeal to men or women and have broken down some interesting gender facts.. But first let me tell you about..
Excerpts From a Business Week Article – “I Am Woman, Hear Me Shop” – Feb 14, 2005
Rising female consumer power is changing the way companies design, make, and market products — and it’s about more than adding pastels.

Who’s the Target?
It’s not free-spending teens or men 25-50. It’s women, thanks to purchasing power and decision-making authority. Working women ages of 24-54 — of whom the U.S. has some 55 million — have emerged as a potent force in the marketplace, changing the way companies design, position, and sell their products.

Women earn less money than their counterparts
78 cents for every dollar a man gets. But they make more than 80% of buying decisions in all homes. And they shop differently from the way men do: Females research more extensively and are less likely to be influenced by ads. “Today’s woman is the chief purchasing agent of the family and marketers have to recognize that,” says Michael Silverstein, principal at Boston Consulting Group and author of Trading Up: The New American Luxury.

Women’s decision-making authority
Has grown in part because more households are headed by women– 27% at last count, a fourfold increase since 1950. Their buying power has grown, too. In the past three decades, men’s median income has barely budged — up just 0.6% — while women’s has soared 63%. Some 30% of working women out earn their husbands, notes Martha Barletta, author of Marketing to Women How to Understand, Reach and Increase Your Share of the World’s Largest Market Segment. And 75% of them with the title of vice-president or higher at Fortune 500 companies out earn their husbands, bringing home on average 68% of household income, according to Barletta.
More Interesting Facts on Buying Trends: (March 13, 2007 Internet Retailer)
(from BIGresearch LLC for the Retail Advertising and Marketing Association).

The study is based on a poll of 15,287 consumers in December 2006.- More women than men search online because of print coupons (41.8% vs. 29%) and in-store promotions (29% vs. 24.5%).- 92.5% of adults said they regularly or occasionally research products online before buying them in a store. Products most often researched online before being purchased in a store include electronics (50.8%), apparel (31.9%), and appliances (27%). Men are twice as likely as women to shop for automobiles online (20.2% vs. 10.2%), though women research home products.- After searching online, 69.5% of consumers said they were most likely to share their search information about products & brands with others through in-person conversations, while 53.1% through e-mail; 50.9%, phone; and 30%, cell phone.- Among 18- to 24-year-olds, 37.5% said they were most likely to share search information through online instant messaging; 23.7%, text messaging; and 20.6%, social networking sites like MySpace.com and Facebook.com.
Ok, what does that mean to me as a potential or exisitng store owner?
We’ll it means that you need to think about your web site design & merchandise to cater to women but not to alienate men as they can be a shopper who may spend more on fewer items. Watch the trends in My Space, YouTube, Facebook and see how it relates to your customer. If you are a betting person I would bet on the female audience to bring in the sale.