Tag: eBay

Over 875 Million Consumers Have Shopped Online – the Number of Internet Shoppers up 40pct in Two Years

Posted by | Jan 28, 2008 | |

More than 85 percent of the world’s online population has used the Internet to make a purchase — increasing the market for online shopping by 40 percent in the past two years — according to the latest Nielsen Global Online Survey on Internet shopping habits. Globally, more than half of Internet users have made at least one purchase online in the past month, according to Nielsen.
Among Internet users, the highest percentage shopping online is found in South Korea, where 99 percent of those with Internet access have used it to shop, followed by the UK (97pct), Germany (97pct), Japan (97pct) with the U.S. eighth, at 94 percent. Additionally, in South Korea, 79 percent of these Internet users have shopped in the past month, followed by the UK (76pct) and Switzerland (67pct) with the U.S. at 57 percent.
Globally, the most popular and purchased items over the Internet are Books (41pct purchased in the past three months), Clothing/Accessories/Shoes (36pct), Videos / DVDs / Games (24pct), Airline Tickets (24pct) and Electronic Equipment (23pct).
Credit cards are by far the most common method of payment for online purchases — 60 percent of global online consumers used their credit card for a recent online purchase, while one in four online consumers chose PayPal. Of those paying with a credit card, more than half (53pct) used Visa.
According to Nielsen, online shoppers tend to stick to the shopping sites they are familiar with, with 60 percent saying they buy mostly from the same site. “This shows the importance of capturing the tens of millions of new online shoppers as they make their first purchases on the Internet. If shopping sites can capture them early, and create a positive shopping experience, they will likely capture their loyalty and their money,” said Paul.

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U.S.-based online seller growth tops 20 pct in international sales

Posted by | Aug 13, 2007 | |

International sales and shipments made by U.S.-based eBay sellers grew 20.1 pct in the past year, up from 14.3 pct the previous year, the fastest growth in three years, says MyStoreMaps.com, a company that tracks worldwide shipping. Growth outpaced other countries mainly because of a weaker U.S. dollar, MyStoreMaps reports.

EBay sellers in all major western economies are seeing increased growth in international sales, says Brian Lawe, president of MyStoreCredit Inc., the parent company of MyStoreMaps.com

MyStoreMaps’ numbers are based the company’s data set of more than 3 million shipments made between buyers and sellers in 162 countries. Sellers outside the U.S. experienced growth at only half the rate of U.S. sellers. “For the same time period, the rate of growth in shipments for all non-U.S. sellers was only 10.6 pct,” Lawe tells Internet Retailer.

The ramp-up for international sales is three to four years behind domestic e-commerce sales, Lawe says. He attributes the past year’s growth to “a lower U.S. dollar rate, primarily, and buyers who have become very comfortable buying online from sellers in their own country.”

Trust has been the main obstacle to more international buying, Lawe says. As shoppers become more at ease buying from e-retailers in their own country, they begin to experiment. If nothing bad happens with their first overseas purchase, subsequent buys become easier, Lawe adds.

The most popular countries that U.S.-based eBay sellers ship to are Canada, at 28 pct ; United Kingdom, 20 pct ; Australia 10 pct ; and France, 6.5 pct , says Antoine E. Hall, vice president, operations and client services at MyStoreCredit.

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Market forces raise the bar for delivery

Posted by | Jul 1, 2007 | |

While retail web sites work to differentiate themselves from stores with web-only features, personalized services, detailed imaging and other tactics, there always will be one thing that separates sites from their braicks-and-mortar counterparts: a reliance on delivery services to fulfill online customers’ orders.

And as shoppers have become more accustomed to online retail, their expectations of timely and reliable delivery services—across a variety of delivery options—have only increased. A comprehensive shipping policy has become a crucial part of e-retailing, experts say.

“A critical component of the online checkout process is the determination and selection of a shipping option,” says Rob Garf, vice president of retail strategies at research and advisory firm AMR Research Inc. “Retailers must offer multiple delivery methods, including overnight, ship-to-store and split shipments, and be crystal clear regarding cost and timeframe.”

For Internet retailing, the average postal rate increase comes to about 6 pct, says David Marinkovich, senior vice president of sales and marketing at DHL Global Mail. “The cost of fuel is having a big effect on retail shippers, but the Postal Service rate change that went into effect May 14 is the most dramatic postal rate change ever,” he says. “Some retail organizations that sell products like CDs, video games, books and apparel are looking at rate increases of about 54 pct.”

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Google gives discount to FedEx users

Posted by | Jun 19, 2007 | |

Google Inc., owner of the most- popular Internet search engine, is offering discounts to customers of its online payment service who ship items with FedEx Corp., stepping up competition with EBay Inc.

Merchants using Google Checkout can save as much as 21 percent on express shipments, which are delivered in one to three business days, Mountain View, California-based Google said today on its Web log. Smaller discounts are available for international, ground and home deliveries.

“With the addition of significant shipping-via-FedEx savings, Google now offers merchants an even more compelling reason to adopt Google Checkout,” Piper Jaffray & Co. analyst Gene Munster said in a report. He rates the shares “outperform.”

The accord follows a similar agreement last week between EBay, which has a rival service to Google’s, and United Parcel Service Inc. EBay, the world’s largest online auctioneer, decided last year it wouldn’t offer Checkout as a payment option on its sites. Last week it also reduced advertising spending with Google.

Google unveiled Checkout a year ago as part of a plan to expand beyond its Internet-search business. The company added the service in the U.K. in April.

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Up for auction . . . 75,000 items that were 'lost in the post' by Royal Mail

Posted by | Jun 17, 2007 | |

Royal Mail has admitted selling off thousands of items that got ‘lost in the post’ to help meet its running costs.

The troubled company sells the contents of about 75,000 undelivered packages every year, at the risk of enraging hordes of customers already frustrated that their post has gone astray.

Even customers who paid over the odds for premium ‘secure’ services to cover valuable items have been shocked to find their goods put up for auction, in an operation that could be netting the postal giant millions of pounds a year.

The scandal was exposed by retired teacher John Beattie after he discovered that a set of antique bagpipes, which Royal Mail had lost, were for sale on internet auction site eBay.

He had originally sold the rare 1910 Henderson bagpipes to a fellow collector in Belgium for Pounds 1,500 last July, and despatched them using the Royal Mail’s Airsure premium airmail service, described as ‘fast, secure and reliable’.

Although the package was correctly labelled, it vanished without trace.

However, in March this year a friend spotted the bagpipes online.

It turned out that the package had spent three months languishing in the national undelivered mail centre in
Belfast, before the Royal Mail sent it to Surrey auctioneers Wellers.

In turn, they sold the bagpipes to an online bidder for Pounds 60. The instrument then turned up on eBay, advertised by a man in the Glasgow area.

Wellers has an exclusive contract to sell Royal Mail’s undelivered post, but senior auctioneer Glen Snelgar refused to comment on their arrangement.

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