Tag: E-Commerce

Online Shopping set to exceed GBP 5 billion in December

Posted by | Dec 4, 2007 | |

ONLINE SHOPPING SET TO EXCEED GBP 5 BILLION IN DECEMBER
– Monday 3 December likely to be the most popular day to shop online
– Online shopping advice guide issued to help consumers stay safe
– New advice website launched at www.shopsafeonline.org.uk
APACS, the UK payments association, has today (29 November 2007) revealed that Christmas shoppers are expected to spend over GBP 5 billion online this December. To help protect cardholders from fraud during this busy shopping period, APACS has published a consumer advice guide and launched a new website aimed at making online Christmas shopping a fraud-free experience.
APACS figures show that the number of adults shopping online has more than doubled in the last five years to almost 30 million. This makes it more essential than ever before that online shoppers take the necessary steps to ensure they don’t fall victim to fraud.

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US online retailers increase payment options

Posted by | Nov 29, 2007 | |

Online fraud and the credit squeeze has forced US retailers to increase the number of payment options available and it seems to be boosting sales.

Due to U.S consumers’ worries about the risk of fraud from online purchases with credit cards, e-retailers are increasingly offering alternative payment options. E-retailers on average accepted 2.6 different payment methods this year, up from 2.1 in 2005, says a report from U.S. payments processor CyberSource.

Offering more payment methods appears to boost sales. Last year, sales increased by an average 14 percent for e-retailers offering three or more payment options, CyberSource says.

More than half of online users who are worried about ID theft say that concern has affected their online shopping, a Gartner survey in August 2007 found. Among those consumers, 13 percent said they have stopped shopping online; and 68 percent said they’re more cautious about where they purchase goods online.

In the US there are an increasing amount of users who are not shopping online because of a fear about ID theft and getting their credit card number stolen.

This can be a problem for lesser-known small and midsize retailers, who are most likely to lose business from consumers concerned about online payment, Avivah Litan, a vice president and analyst at research firm Gartner says. “The promise of the Internet was that it would level off the playing field, but it didn’t turn out that way.”

Alternative payment options include Bill Me Later, which sends customers a monthly bill and lets them pay by cheque or money order; and Google Checkout and PayPal Express Checkout, which let customers’ provide financial details only to them, rather than giving personal information to retailers.

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Social networking sites to boost e-retailers this Christmas (UK)

Posted by | Nov 23, 2007 | |

This Christmas GBP 750m of sales will be generated by young people swapping tips on Bebo, MySpace and Facebook, according to a survey published today.

Research from the Royal Mail and thinktank The Future Foundation found that these social networking websites have now become a more powerful force in deciding what we buy than word of mouth.

“An online recommendation can be a lot more powerful,” said James Murphy, editorial director at The Future Foundation.

“Seeing something written down gives it added credibility, it hangs around for longer and people are able to compare and corroborate any advice.”

The poll of nearly 1,500 people found that 66 pct bought a product following an online recommendation, compared with 52 pct who made their purchase following a verbal tip off.

Social networking sites have been the internet success story of the past 12 months. Facebook, for example, expects to have more than 60 million members by the end of the year. MySpace already claims more than 200 million users.

Chris Robinson, managing director of e-retailer Firebox.com said online recommendation is the most powerful marketing tool the company has.

“We’ve tried to build it into our business model by doing things to create those conversations, such as delivering our goods in brightly coloured boxes and adding in a free bag of sweets. It gets people talking.”

The report forecasts that by 2012, 84 pct of consumers will have access to the internet and 63 pct will be using it to buy goods online.

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Postal services: providing local access to international markets

Posted by | Nov 21, 2007 | |

Speaking yesterday at the World Trade Organization’s “Aid for Trade” conference in Geneva, the UPU Director General called attention to postal services’ role in stimulating international trade, particularly for small and medium-sized businesses. Edouard Dayan cited as an example the Brazilian Post’s successful “Exporta Fácil” (“Easy Exporting”) project, felt to be among the most innovative international trade initiatives. Using Exporta Fácil, available at over 8,000 post offices as well as on the Internet, small and medium-sized Brazilian businesses let the postal operator take care of their exports, handling the entire logistics side, as well as completing customs export formalities. “Using this service, 6,000 businesses that had never exported before were able to access external markets in 2006,” said Dayan. “This is a concrete indicator of the postal network’s impact on a developing country’s ability to engage in world trade.” With over 660,000 post offices in 191 countries, mostly located in outlying areas, the postal sector is the world’s biggest physical distribution network. By revitalizing the trade infrastructure, it can help small and medium-sized businesses take advantage of the globalization of trade. Dayan added that the postal sector, with its physical, electronic and financial capabilities, wished to develop partnerships to help provide greater openness to international trade. The UPU’s regional approach to development and initiatives such as the integrated postal development plans, developed to gain government commitment to the postal sector, are in line with the orientations felt necessary to help developing countries take advantage of worldwide trade.

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Online sales ease crunch for U.S. package giants

Posted by | Nov 21, 2007 | |

The U.S. economy is being threatened by everything from the housing credit crunch to high gasoline prices, but John Nikolich has yet to see it.

Indeed, neither company seems to expect much beyond modest package volume growth.

Officials at UPS said in October that its growth this peak season would be slower than in the previous four years. FedEx last week cut its forecast for the company’s current quarter that ended Nov. 30, citing fuel costs and weak freight volumes in its trucking unit.

But the saving grace for this year’s peak season? While in-store retail sales will see slight growth, online sales are expected to rise at a far higher pace.

Although consulting firm TNS Retail Forward has projected the credit crunch will slow overall retail sales growth in November and December to 3.3 percent — the lowest since 2002 — bringing the total to some USD 471 billion.

Though still a small portion of that total, as in previous years online sales should grow much faster than in-store sales. TNS predicts they will jump 18.5 percent to nearly USD 42 billion.

“We do expect to see a rising percentage of package volumes coming from the e-commerce channel,” UPS spokesman Norman Black said. “This is a trend we’ve seen for some time and we don’t expect that to change. People like shopping online.”

In a press release on Oct. 29, FedEx CEO Fred Smith noted that despite slowing overall U.S. economic growth “e-commerce will continue to drive holiday spending” this year.
“Online sales should be a core component of the growth they (UPS and FedEx) are predicting,” S&P’s Corridore said.

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