E-Commerce
drag2share: These are the most popular marketplaces to buy stuff online
ased on the latest data from company filings charted for us by BI Intelligence, China’s Alibaba was the most popular online marketplace in 2014, with more than 330 million customers purchasing a product on either the company’s Tmall or Taobao marketplaces (Tmall is an invite-only marketplace for brands, while Taobao is a consumer-to-consumer marketplace).
After Alibaba, Amazon had the next largest e-commerce marketplace last year — and the largest in the US — with more than 270 million customers. Meanwhile, don’t look now, but BI Intelligence believes Groupon is an “appealing operator” that could re-emerge as a major player in e-commerce. The daily deals site had nearly 44 million customers buying a product or service last year, and it just launched a third-party marketplace this week.
US E-Commerce Benchmarks, by Device, in Q2 2014
source: http://www.marketingcharts.com/online/us-e-commerce-benchmarks-by-device-in-q2-2014-46549/?utm_campaign=rssfeed&utm_source=mc&utm_medium=textlink
Source: Monetate
Notes: Tablets (2.67%) continued to far outpace smartphones (0.94%) in conversion rates in Q2 (as they did in Q1), with the average conversion rate for tablet visitors being almost as high as the rate for desktop visitors (2.98%). Of note, though, smartphone traffic exceeded tablet traffic for the first time in Q2, at 15.6% share and 13.9% share of total e-commerce site visits, respectively. Globally, average order values were highest on desktops ($181), followed b! y tablet s ($150) and smartphones ($116).
Facebook Is Emerging As A Huge Engine For Driving E-Commerce Traffic, And Online And Offline Purchases
Facebook, the social giant, is the social commerce leader by a number of metrics. Facebook doesn't just generate more online and offline retail sales than other social sites and apps. It also beats its rivals in terms of conversions, the value of sharing, and visits. In a new report from BI Intel…
http://www.businessinsider.com/how-facebook-drive-e-commerce-sales-2014-10
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Packaged-Goods Marketers Wade Warily Into E-commerce | Digital – Advertising Age
source: http://adage.com/article/digital/packaged-goods-marketers-wade-warily-e-commerce/294937/?utm_source=daily_email&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=adage&ttl=1411431322
Online sales of food and beverages will account for only 2.3% of the $304 billion that will be spent on e-commerce retail in 2014, according to projections from eMarketer. Add in health and personal-care brands and consumer-packaged goods will account for only 8% of the online market. Put another way, online buying comprised only 1% of the $666 billion in consumer-packaged-goods sales in 2013, according to a recent report prepared for the Grocery Manufacturers Association by The Boston Consulting Group, Google and IRI.
Why have big brands been so slow to implement e-commerce strategies? There are major questions about marketers’ ability — and will — to overcome the executional challenges of online grocery selling, which requires vastly different marketing strategies than operating in physical stores. No longer is it about promotional spending and free-standing inserts; the e-marketer operates in a world where search is the new shelf space and the online retailer controls the consumer relationship.

If the industry can adapt, the potential is huge. The GMA report stated that e-commerce could grow to 5% of CPG sales by 2018, or more than $35 billion in sales, and accelerate to 10% “soon ther! eafter.” What’s more, the report stated that this 5% share would account for nearly one-half of the total CPG growth in the next five years, which underscores the slowing growth of traditional retailing.
Companies that fail to implement digital strategies “risk stagnation, loss of share and even shrinking sales,” the report stated, while early movers “have the opportunity to establish positions that will be difficult to dislodge.”
But changing big food’s mindset is a tall order, said a former food-company executive who also has experience working for a retailer. “National media dollars have to start shifting, so that the call to action for the customer isn’t ‘Hey, come to our website,’ it’s ‘Buy this at Amazon,'” this person said. But “it’s just so hard to jump into the future when so much of your cash comes from the past.”
‘Generation Z’ Is Poised To Drive A Surge In E-Commerce Growth
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/generation-z-e-commerce-shopping-2014-9
It’s important for retailers to know who their potential customers are online — and what they’re interested in — to market to them effectively.
BI Intelligence finds that there are surprising and important differences in behavior depending on gender, age (especially for Generation Z), income, and education. Generation Z, those aged 18 to 24, spends almost one in ten of their dollars online.
And they are spending a much higher proportion of their income online compared to other generations.
Access The Full Report, Charts, And Data By Signing Up For A Free Trial Today >>
Here are some of the most important stats about who shops online, and how:
- Age: Despite having relatively low incomes, millennials, those consumers aged 18 to 34, remain the key age demographic for online commerce, are spending more money online in a given year than any other age group. They spend around $2,000 annually on e-commerce.
- Age: Despite having ultra-low incomes, Generation Z, those aged 18 to 24, spends the highest share of their income online: 9%. As they age and make more money, that will drive big gains in e-commerce growth. (See chart, above.)
- Age: Boomers and seniors are not only shopping offline. They are pretty mobile-savvy. They have adopted mobile commerce. One in four mobile shoppers in the U.S. is over the age of 55. That’s about even with their share of the overall U.S. population.
- Gender: The conventional wisdom is that women drive shopping trends, since they control up to 80% of household spending. However, when it comes to e-commerce, men drive nearly as much spending online in the U.S. as women.
- Gender: Men are more likely to make purchases on mobile devices. 22% of men made a purchase on their smartphones last year, compared to 18% of women.
- Gender: Many men want to buy everything online: 40% of men aged 18-34 say they would ideally “buy everything online,” compared to only 33% of women in the same age group.
- Income: Online shoppers tend to live in households with higher-than-typical incomes. An Experian survey found that 55% of e-commerce shoppers in the U.S. live in households with incomes above $75,000.
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In full, the report:
- Explains why men are so much more important for e-commerce retail, compared to in-store, and why they are more likely to buy on smartphones than women.
- Indexes e-commerce spending by age group against the amount of time a given demographic spends online.
- Breaks down online spending habits of teens, including the brands and products they shop for.
- Examines the factors behind what drives online purchases among millennials.
- Identifies Gen X, boomer, and older consumers’ online spending tendencies.
- Looks at how education and income influence e-commerce spending.
For full access to all BI Intelligence’s reports, charts, and newsletters covering the e-commerce industry, sign up and get started.
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US B2B CMOs Expect E-Commerce to Account for ~10% of Sales in the Next Year
source: http://www.marketingcharts.com/online/us-b2b-cmos-expect-e-commerce-to-account-for-10-of-sales-in-the-next-year-45681/?utm_campaign=rssfeed&utm_source=mc&utm_medium=textlink
Source: The CMO Survey [pdf] (Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business)
Notes: As B2B vendors see commerce shifting online in response to customer demand, US CMOs from B2B product and services firms expect roughly 10% of their sales (10% and 9%, respectively) to be through the internet in the next 12 months. Not surprisingly, that’s a lower share than forecast by CMOs at B2C firms, who envision 14-15% of their sales to come via the internet.
Here’s Why Alibaba Is Becoming A Huge Threat To Amazon And eBay
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/why-alibaba-is-becoming-a-huge-threat-to-amazon-and-ebay-2014-8
Alibaba is expected to IPO in September and a new financial report from the company reveals that the Chinese e-commerce giant continues to grow at a blistering pace. The company’s growth pattern, and its recent entrance into the U.S. market, makes Alibaba a serious threat to e-commerce giants like Amazon and eBay.
Access The Full Report And Data By Signing Up For A Free Trial Today >>
Alibaba is growing ~50% annually in volume terms.
The gross merchandise volume (GMV) — or, the value of all merchandise — sold on Alibaba’s e-commerce sites reached $248 billion in 2013, 52% more than it sold in 2012.
GMV in the second quarter of 2014 was $82 billion, which is 45% more than the same quarter last year.
Alibaba sells 4X as much stuff in dollar terms as eBay does, and it’s growing much faster.
It’s useful to compare Alibaba and eBay because they are both marketplace businesses — meaning they don’t actually own the merchandise they sell. Rather, retailers, merchants, and consumers use their sites to sell directly to consumers.
Alibaba owns two main e-commerce sites.
- Tmall, an Alibaba site where retailers sell directly to consumers, grew 81% year-over-year in the second quarter.
- Taobao, where consumers sell to other consumers, grew 33% year-over-year and still accounts for the majority of sales via Alibaba.
Mobile commerce is driving an increasing share of Alibaba’s business.
One in three dollars that flowed through Alibaba’s e-commerce sites came from mobile shoppers last quarter, up from 12% one year earlier.
For context, 30% of eBay’s GMV comes from mobile.
More than a quarter billion people bought something through Alibaba in the second quarter.
Alibaba’s customer base is already far larger than eBay’s, and it’s growing much faster.
Alibaba is still very dependent on Chinese shoppers.
Less than 1 in 10 revenue dollars from Alibaba’s e-commerce sites come from customers outside China. However, with the recent launch of its U.S. site 11Main.com, that could soon change. For comparison, almost 40% of Amazon’s revenues come from outside North America.
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How E-Commerce Is Finally Disrupting The $600 Billion-A-Year Grocery Industry
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/e-commerce-disrupting-600-billion-grocery-industry-2014-8
At $600 billion a year in sales, food and beverage is by far the largest retail category in the U.S. by a wide margin. However, it’s also the category that has been the least disrupted by e-commerce; less than 1% of food and beverage sales currently occur online, according to BI Intelligence’s estimates.
But shopping habits are changing, and niche online grocery services that compete on convenience and selection are gaining traction. Meanwhile tech giants like Amazon are fronting the cost of expensive delivery infrastructure that has so far held back grocery e-commerce.
In a new in-depth report, BI Intelligence looks at why the grocery business has proved so challenging to e-commerce companies — from consumer reluctance to complicated and expensive logistics — and what new strategies e-commerce startups and big-name tech companies are pursuing to push more grocery sales online. Between 2013 and 2018, online grocery sales will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 21.1%, reaching nearly $18 billion by the end of the forecast period. For comparison, offline grocery sales will rise by 3.1% annually during the same period.
Here are some of the key findings explored in the report:
- There are a number of disadvantages to buying groceries online on both the consumer and business side, such as the cost and complexity of logistics, shipping fees, and the quality and freshness of orders. For online grocers to deliver the freshness consumers want, they have to be able to deliver orders fast while maintaining the quality of easily damaged foods like produce.
- But there are still some advantages to online grocery shopping, in particular convenience and a large selection of products. Only 15% of U.S. adults have purchased general food items online, but 25% said they have bought specialty food and beverages online, which are hard to find elsewhere.
- New startups that focus on concierge shopping and subscription prepared meals are innovating on the online grocery model and offering services that really are differentiated from traditional supermarket shopping. We believe these services could change the way people shop for food. In addition, established online grocers have an opportunity in enterprise grocery sales, which lowers costs through bulk purchases.
- Some of the biggest names in tech — Amazon, eBay, and Google — are beginning to offer and promote same-day delivery services. As consumers get used to the convenience of ordering something online and receiving it the same day, grocery e-commerce may benefit too, with people more likely to buy food they know they will get quickly. While same-day delivery comes with a big price tag, 25% of millennials said they would pay a premium for same-day delivery.
E-Commerce Companies Have A Big Opportunity To Go After The Specialty Food Business
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/e-commerce-companies-compete-against-legacy-grocers-on-specialty-food-2014-7
E-commerce has yet to prove that it can make a serious dent in the $600 billion a year grocery industry in the U.S., but one promising opportunity is in selling specialty, hard-to-find food and beverage items online.
Only 15% of U.S. adults have purchased general food items online, according to a new survey from Harris Interactive, compiled in the charts below from BI Intelligence. However, 25% said they have gone online to buy specialty food and beverages that are typically hard to find, such as exotic seasonings or ingredients.
This suggests that e-commerce companies can compete against legacy grocers on selection of products.
There is additional evidence in the Harris survey which suggests that consumers feel relatively indifferent to whether they buy specialty food and beverage items in-store or online — a stark contrast to general groceries.
Among U .S. adults, only 57% said they prefer to buy specialty food and beverage items in-person compared to 78% who said so about general groceries.
BI Intelligence is a subscription tech research service, covering the e-commerce, payments, and digital media industries. For full access to all our downloadable charts and reports, sign up for a free trial.
SEE ALSO: The Surprising Demographics Of Who Shops Online And On Mobile
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Q2 E-Commerce Trends: Mobile Traffic Grows; Paid Search Remains Valuable
source: http://www.marketingcharts.com/wp/online/q2-e-commerce-mobile-traffic-grows-paid-search-remains-valuable-44369/?utm_campaign=rssfeed&utm_source=mc&utm_medium=textlink
Smartphone traffic to online merchants continues to grow, but tablet traffic remains more valuable, according to the latest quarterly performance index from MarketLive, providing further support to the notion that smartphones are for research, tablets for purchases. The MarketLive study indicates that smartphones alone accounted for almost 1 in 4 visits to the tracked merchants during Q2 2014, up more than 50% from a year earlier. But despite being behind in traffic, tablets accounted for almost twice as much revenue as smartphones.
For the quarter, tablets comprised 12.7% of revenues, compared to 6.7% for smartphones. Even so, smartphones’ share of traffic and revenues grew at a faster rate than tablets.
The difference in revenue share is the result of better conversion rates and higher average order values on tablets. For the quarter, the subset of MarketLive sites (required to be active from January 1, 2013 or prior in order to measure same-site trends) measured for the report saw smartphone traffic convert at an average rate of 0.67%, well behind the rates for tablet (2.01%) and desktop (2.22%) traffic. (That order has also been found by Monetate, with tablet conversion rates closer to desktops than smartphones.) Average order values (AOVs) on smartphones ($98.73) also lagged comparable figures for both tablets ($112.05) and desktops ($118.20) by a considerable margin.
Other key performance indicators similarly favored tablets:
- Average time on site: 3:46 tablets; 2:40 smartphones;
- Add-to-cart rate: 11.5% tablets; 4.9% smartphones;
- Cart abandonment rate: 77% tablets; 88% smartphones;
- Checkout abandonm! ent rate : 45% tablets; 69% smartphones;
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