A little info on E-commerce...
Online Shopping: What's Hot and What's Up And Coming
The online retail industry's highly-publicized potential actually may be starting to unfold. While most analysts and researchers would agree that computer hardware and software make up the largest category in e-commerce, recent data reveals that the trend of buying online may be reaching out to the more non-traditional categories. A recent study released by Cyber Dialogue, a market research company, and Organic, a strategic marketing and Internet consulting firm, indicated a rapid growth of Internet purchasing, across all categories. While sales of software, PC hardware, as well as books and music still lead online sales, their report revealed a significant increase in gift, apparel, automotive, and food purchases.
So, just who is on this sudden shopping binge? To a large extent, the universe of online shoppers, according to eStats, are overwhelmingly white (74%) male (79%) and affluent ($75k+). They are also technologically savvy. However, the new study by Cyber Dialogue and Organic found that women, for the first time, outspent men in certain categories. Twenty-six percent of women, for example, purchased gifts online.
No change at the top.
yet Forrester Research calculates that PCs, porn, CDs and gift items such as flowers still make up a little over half of all online consumer revenues. According to a study done by the University of Michigan Business School, the following were the top purchases made online:
% of Purchases Online for Various Categories
Category % of Users who
have Purchased
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Software 16%
Books 14%
Computes 13%
Music 11%
Home electronics 6.5%
Videos 5%
Travel services 5%
Tickets for events 4%
Casual clothes 3%
Other clothes 1.5%
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Source: eStats, University of Michigan Business School
Other Hot Areas Blooming
Financial services, currently dominated by online brokers such as e*Trade, Fidelity, and Charles Schwab, is one of the largest and fastest growing e-commerce categories. According to statistics from eStats and Forrester Research, $11 billion of assets are currently managed online. That amount is expected to increase to nearly $500 billion by the year 2000. Also, according to Forrester, "the total number of online brokerage accounts is projected to increase nearly seven-fold, from 1.5 million in 1996, to 10 million accounts by the year 2001."
Online automobile purchases are another hot area. According to a report from the US Department of Commerce, sixteen percent of all new car and truck buyers used the Internet as part of their shopping process in 1997, up from 10 percent in 1996. By 2000, the Internet will likely be used in at least 21 percent of all new car and truck purchases. For example, Auto-by-Tel, the Web-based automotive marketplace, processed an average of about 29,000 purchase requests for autos each month in 1996. At the end of 1997, the Web site was generating $500 million a month in auto sales ($6 billion annualized) and processing over 100,000 purchase requests each month.
Rounding out the bottom of the field, eStats estimates that travel now makes up 24% of total online revenues. Electronic grocery shopping also shows potential, according to eStats. Experts currently predict that online grocery shopping will account for 3% of all U.S. grocery sales within three years. ($12 billion in a $400 billion market). A figure that could approach 10%, or $40 billion, by next year.
--Laura Rush |
