Tag: Retailing

Europe-wide survey finds online shopping fails to deliver for customers

Posted by | Jun 17, 2008 | |

Online shopping may be a favourite for convenience and price but it still fails to deliver for a significant number of purchasers.

That’s the finding of a Europe-wide survey of consumer rights centres which shows that the number one problem shoppers have with online suppliers relates to delivery of goods.

Half of all 10,386 complaints about online purchases reported to the 27 branches of the European Consumer Centre (ECC) network last year were about delayed, missing or damaged deliveries, with traders tending to offload blame to postal and courier services.

A further 25% of the complaints related to the quality or suitability of the actual product or service, while 11% were about disputes over terms in the transaction contract.

Problems encountered by Irish customers included a customer who bought tickets for two Irish international rugby games from a Spanish trader but didn’t get the tickets in time for the matches and is still trying to get a refund, and a woman who ordered a camera from a French webtrader only to be informed the item was not in stock. She was moving house and could not wait several weeks for delivery and so cancelled the order but had to get ECC Ireland onto ECC France before she got her refund.

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Consumer Electronics and E-Commerce

Posted by | Jun 16, 2008 | |

Many consumers to pull back on gadget spending

Despite the jittery economy, eMarketer predicts that retail e-commerce sales in the US will reach USD 146 billion this year, up 14.3% over 2007.

However, some categories of retail e-commerce may not fare as well as others. Two traditionally strong online sales categories—computers and consumer electronics—may see a slowdown, based on a Piper Jaffray study of online buyers. Along with jewelry and watches, more respondents said they were likely to decrease spending on these categories than on any other.

That conservative approach will also affect total retail sales for those categories, judging by a similar study by The NPD Group. More than one-third of responding consumers said they planned to spend less on entertainment products and devices, compared with 18% who said they would spend more. Almost one-half said they would keep spending the same amount as last year. As a result, NPD said that sales of such products would slow slightly.

Seasonality is another important trend to watch. For online retailers, the holiday season is the best time for consumer electronics sales, according to Nielsen Online data. In November 2007, the average order size for consumer electronics hit an annual high of USD 135, a rise from October’s USD 127 average, settling to USD 132 in December. The rest of the year, Nielsen data shows the average order size hovered around USD 93 to USD 100.

By contrast, online sales of computer hardware peak in summer based on strong back-to-school demand. The category had monthly average online sales of USD 272 and USD 256 in October and November 2007, respectively. These sales were far larger than those in the consumer electronics category—but also far lower than the averages posted for computer hardware in July (USD 455) and August (USD 387).

While last year’s monthly sales patterns will likely hold true this year, exactly how much consumers will spend remains in question.

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Logistics hot spots go East

Posted by | Jun 16, 2008 | |

A European study shows Poland and the Czech Republic are new logistics ‘hot spots’

Retailers looking to improve their pan-European logistics networks should consider countries such as the Czech Republic and Poland, according to new research from supply chain consultancy Total Logistics www.total-logistics.eu.com and logistics property business King Sturge www.kingsturge.co.uk. The study shows that several eastern European countries have overtaken Germany in the race to be the location of choice for European businesses.

The study assessed the relative attractiveness of each country, taking into account such issues as warehousing costs, labour rates and road transport costs.

Kenneth Porter, partner at Total Logistics, said: “Working through a number of different scenarios was a fascinating exercise as it demonstrated the relatively poor performance of Germany from a warehousing perspective, given its central location and otherwise excellent reputation. Even when we factored out the comparatively high cost of labour in the country, Berlin, Bonn and Dusseldorf came out relatively poorly against other cities such as Prague, Warsaw, Katowice and Vilnius.”

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US Retail E-Commerce: Slower But Still Steady Growth

Posted by | Jun 12, 2008 | |

Although consumers are reacting to the economic downturn by spending less, this will create more of a hardship for retail stores than for e-tailers. A drop in new online buyers—an inevitable sign of the maturation of the online retail channel—will contribute most to the decline of e-commerce sales growth.

The US Retail E-Commerce report charts and analyzes the factors that are contributing to the changing dynamics in online sales.
Consumers are reacting to the economic slowdown by cutting back on discretionary spending. However, store sales will be hit harder than Internet sales because affluent shoppers, who form the core of online buyers, tend to ride out economic downturns better than lower- and middle-income consumers.
Some consumers even plan to increase online spending to save gas money or find bargains.
eMarketer estimates that US retail e-commerce sales (excluding travel) will reach USD 146 billion in 2008, up 14.3% over 2007. Still, over the next few years sales growth rates will steadily decline.

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