I am out in Palm Springs, CA this week for eTail (this link is actually for their next event). There is a really strong mix here of retailers selling online and companies built to strengthen their efforts (including ChannelAdvisor - one of our companies).
Interesting talk this morning by Carrie Johnson from Forrester. Some interesting highlights:
- As prices of technology are falling, number of users online are increasing, but avg household income is falling.
- #1 reason that prevents some people from shopping online is they don't want to enter in personal information. #2 is that they actually want to touch the product.
- Online sales should reach 200 billion this year (40 billion of that is travel related).
- But as the growth of the number above slows, companies selling online need to realize that it will be about stealing away market share from competitors.
- And something I was surprised to hear: cart abandonment is pretty high, over 50%.
There are probably 75+ vendors here and it is interesting seeing all the new technology and how they are impacting online purchases. But for some of the companies here (like in the e-mail marketing space) it seems they may have a hard time differentiating themselves from the guys at the booth next to them.
One company that seems to be gaining a lot of traction over the last 9 to 12 months is I4 Commerce and their Bill Me Later payment system. I know David Limp and the guys at Azure Capital Partners are investors in the company. They should be pretty excited.
More good eTail notes from Brian Smith at ComparisonEngines.com.
I think most people, such as myself, are afriad of online thief. You may not only lost your credit card number and your personal information. On some of ecommerce websites, consumers cannot tell whether the purchases are succeful or not. I would like to shop in store and phycially touch the items before purchasing.
Posted by: lovelyamy | March 14, 2006 at 12:09 AM
E-comm types seem to be unconcerned with abandonment rates that would cripple other retailers.
Imagine seventy percent of customers filling up their shopping carts at the grocery store and then dumping them when they reach the checkout lane.
They couldn't physically fit enough people in the store to make up for that kind of abandonment rate.
Imagine further that 95 out of 100 people walk out of the store without buying anything. The place would be a zoo! The costs of maintaining the store would be astronomical. But online retailers seem happy with these kinds of patterns.
Makes you go hmmm!
Posted by: plumsauce | March 03, 2006 at 01:37 PM
The high cart abandonment rate could be due to companies that require you to put items in your shopping cart in order to see the price. High abadonment rates shouldn't be a surprise when this sort of gambit is in play.
Posted by: Greg Hopper | February 25, 2006 at 07:59 PM