E-tailers Should Be Confident, Yet Clever

In spite of predictions of US retail e-commerce sales expected to take a dive of 0.4% from 2008 to total ca $132 billion in 2009, I can still see light at the end of this tunnel.

Many economists are predicting the recession will indeed end this year, with online sales looking set to begin to climb again in 2010. The growth will most likely come from the hardy online buyers who will help drive the e-commerce machine successfully into 2010 and beyond.

With an estimated 150+ million people (aged 14+) in the US predicted to shop online in 2009, that’s 86% of internet users who will browse, research or compare products online this year alone. Unsurprisingly, the positive rise is set to continue. This particular trend however, perhaps points to another interesting area – and one online retailers need to be ever mindful of – internet shoppers are keener than ever to compare prices, seek out retailers with no (or at the very least, low) shipping fees and look for discounts at every opportunity.  ‘Shopping around’ is the new black! The recession has made product research even more important than it previously was to the pre-recession frugal online buyer.

These statistics however, make no mention of cross-channel shopping habits. Agreed, they are notoriously much harder to measure than an e-commerce sale, nonetheless, cross-channel sales could equate to more than triple the e-comm sales predicted – not a small sum to be sniffed at by retailers. Yet, to my mind, they’re still a long way from building their multi-channels in to what could be classified as a cohesive presence online. If the e-tailers can succeed at implementing this, then perhaps they could help drive a real boost to consumer confidence.