Category: Ecommerce

A recent study by Coda Research agency has revealed that mobile eCommerce in the US shall grow at a compounded rate of 65% between 2009 and 2015. According to this study, mobile phones will constitute 8.5% of all eCommerce revenues in the US. Here is an estimate of the value of mobile commerce in absolute terms

2009 : $1.210 billion
2010 : $2.420 billion
2011 : $4.429 billion
2012 : $7.356 billion
2013 : $11.666 billion
2014 : $17.463 billion
2015 : $23.831 billion

Have you ever purchased any product through your mobile phone? I have not. A recent study conducted by Retrevo concludes that mobile phones are getting increasingly popular among the younger generation to research on products, they are yet to transform as a mobile shopping medium in a great way. As must be evident, people above the age of 45 are still warming up to the concept as compared to the younger bunch.

Here are the results from the study

Population that researches on products using mobile phones
18-24 : 55%
25-34 : 52%
35-44 : 36%
45 + : 17%

Population that has made a purchase via mobile phones
18-24 : 17%
25-34 : 15%
35-44 : 10%
45 + : 3%

One of the most interesting aspects about owning an online store is that many of the things that go with running an ecommerce shop may be outsourced – The back-end can be run with third party software, the payment gateway need not be your own, outsource the marketing and SEO to agencies dedicated to the same, etc.

So, which of these third party services are most sought after by eCommerce store owners? A study conducted by Internet Retailer concludes that fulfillment and processing returns is the segment of business most often handled by third party providers. Here are results from the study

Fulfillment/Returns : 10.1%
Customer Service : 9.3%
Payment Processing & Fraud Management : 7.7%
Marketing Services : 6.5%
Customs Product Code Harmonization : 6.1%
Translation Services : 6.1%
Website design and hosting : 4.0%
eCommerce Systems : 3.6%
Others : 1.2%

eCommerce is truly taking over traditional retail stores in many segments like books, apparels and software. However, there is still a far way to go in segments such as health where sales through conventional retail stores is way bigger than online sales. Here are some numbers revealed by the US Census Bureau

Books and Magazines
Retail Store : $2.7 billion
eCommerce : $4.2 billion

Clothing
Retail Store : $7.0 billion
eCommerce : $13.6 billion

Computer Hardware and Software
Retail Store : $11.9 billion
eCommerce : $11.1 billion

Drugs and Health Aid
Retail Store : $50.0 billion
eCommerce : $4.8 billion

Electronics
Retail Store : $2.9 billion
eCommerce : $8.4 billion

Food, Beer and Wine
Retail Store : $1.7 billion
eCommerce : $2.3 billion

Furniture
Retail Store : $4.1 billion
eCommerce : $7.8 billion

Music and Videos
Retail Store : $1.0 billion
eCommerce : $2.8 billion

Office Supplies
Retail Store : $2.7 billion
eCommerce : $5.7 billion

Sporting Goods
Retail Store : $2.2 billion
eCommerce : $3.0 billion

Toys and Games
Retail Store : $1.7 billion
eCommerce : $2.7 billion

Others
Retail Store : $16.5 billion
eCommerce : $12.5 billion

Frauds in online commerce appear to be on the wane. This is according to a study published by CyberSource. According to the study, total revenues lost in 2009 due to online fraud was $3.3 billion – a 17.5% drop from the $4 billion recorded in 2008.

Here are the estimated revenues lost due to ecommerce fraud and the percent of total online revenues transacted they constitute

2000 : $1.5 billion (3.6%)
2001 : $1.7 billion (3.2%)
2002 : $2.1 billion (2.9%)
2003 : $1.9 billion (1.7%)
2004 : $2.6 billion (1.8%)
2005 : $2.8 billion (1.6%)
2006 : $3.1 billion (1.4%)
2007 : $3.7 billion (1.4%)
2008 : $4.0 billion (1.4%)
2009 : $3.3 billion (1.2%)

With 384 million internet users, China is seeing a massive growth in ecommerce. Close to 7.9% of the population now makes online travel bookings. Here are the categories that have seen the maximum growth in the past one year

1. Online travel booking : 85% growth
2. Online payments : 80.9%
3. Online stock trading : 67%
4. Online banking : 62.3%
5. Online shopping : 45.9%

Internet retailers are among those with the highest number of consumer complaints filed against them. This is according to the North American Better Business Bureau (BBB).

Here are the stats for online retailers for the year 2009

Industry Rank by No. of Complaints : 5
Total Complaints : 21.494 (9.4% increase from 2008)
Percentage of Resolved Complaints : 71.7%

According to a study by Javelin Strategy and Research, the volume of debit card usage online in US is expected to grow over the next few years. However, as a percentage of total online transactions, it is expected to remain stagnant at about 27%. Here is a forecast for the volume of dollars expected to be traded through debit cards and the percent of online shopping that it constitutes.

2008 : $47 billion (26%)
2009 : $57 billion (28%)
2010 : $67 billion (28%)
2011 : $81 billion (28%)
2012 : $90 billion (27%)
2013 : $98 billion (26%)
2014 : $105 billion (26%)

Mobile commerce is a huge industry in some parts of the world. For instance, in Japan, $10 billion worth of goods and services were puchased online in the past one year. How does it translate elsewhere? According to a study by ABI research, this is how things have stood in the US for the past couple of years. The study also forecasts the numbers for the future

2008 : $369 million
2009 : $1.2 billion
2010 : $2.4 billion
2015 : $119 billion

During the recent quarterly earnings announcement, Amazon chief Jeff Bezos announced that several million Kindles have been sold till date.  The precise number of Kindle ereaders sold is not known and is estimated to be around 3 million.

Amazon has also not revealed the exact number of online book sales via Kindle. But here is a riddle they want you to solve:

For ‘paid’ books available in both ebook and paper format, Amazon has sold 6 Kindle ebooks for every 10 physical books sold. With free ebooks downloaded, the number of books sold on Kindle is even higher.

This is the closest we will come to know regarding the number of ebooks sold on Kindle