Archive for July, 2008
Gas Prices Push Ecommerce Sales Up
Last Updated on Friday, 25 July 2008 02:13 Written by Matthew Friday, 25 July 2008 02:13
Depending on your perspective, online sales are up either despite or because of the economic slowdown. With gas prices continuing to climb, a growing number of shoppers are deciding to skip car trips to the mall in favor of online merchants.
Even as many brick-and-mortar stores are struggling, 11% of US consumers surveyed by Nielsen in June 2008 said they were shopping more on the Web as a result of gas prices.
“E-commerce is a bright spot,” said Jeffrey Grau, senior analyst at eMarketer. “While retail store growth is in the middle-low single digits, e-commerce is still growing at least in the mid to high teens.”
“With gas being such an issue, we know that mall traffic is down more than off-mall traffic,” said Mike Boylson, CMO of JCPenney, in a July 2008 New York Times article. Mr. Boylson said J.C. Penney had an 8.7% increase in Internet sales in Q1 2008, compared with a 7.4% decrease in sales at stores open at least one year. The Times also reported that Gap had an 11% decline in same-store sales in Q1 2008, but a 21% increase in online sales.
The effect of gas prices on consumer behavior has been building for a while. Some 13% of adult consumers in the US surveyed in January by Vertis Communications said they were buying more online.
Over one-half of respondents to an April 2008 Piper Jaffray study selected rising gas prices as an incentive to increase online buying, while slightly less than one-half (48%) cited lower prices as a reason for making Web purchases.
Another April survey by iCongo revealed that high gasoline prices were an incentive for 33% of shoppers to purchase more online.
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Sports Sites Score Big
Last Updated on Friday, 25 July 2008 02:14 Written by Matthew Thursday, 24 July 2008 01:41
it may not be a whole new ballgame, but the lineup is shifting.
Online sports properties have the perfect ingredients to engender the kind of customer engagement that all businesses crave. “Sports sites have a built-in audience of passionate fans who are loyal to the teams they follow,” says Paul Verna, senior analyst at eMarketer and author of the new report, Sports Site Marketing: Ad Revenue Models Pull Ahead. “These fans have an insatiable thirst for facts, figures, statistics and trivia—and they like to share their knowledge and opinions with others.” Most importantly to marketers, sports fans are willing to pay for premium content and merchandise, and are used to the presence of sponsors and advertisers around sports events. “As the Internet continues to evolve toward ad-supported models,” says Mr. Verna, “sports sites will follow suit.” eMarketer estimates that total revenues for
“The increase will be largely due to the growth of ad-supported sports content models,” says Mr. Verna. eMarketer estimates that US sports site revenues from advertising will rise from 55% in 2007 to 66% in 2012.
“Additional revenues will come from ancillary sources such as ticket sales, merchandise and memorabilia, partnerships, and Website and production services that sports sites provide for third parties,” says Mr. Verna.
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Vote For Patioshoppers.com
Last Updated on Tuesday, 22 July 2008 01:53 Written by Matthew Tuesday, 22 July 2008 01:53
A good friend and client is up for entrepreneur of the year. Mr Todd Chism is a great guy and terrific business man. We have voted for him and so should you. Take a look http://www.entrepreneur.com/eoy/chism.aspx
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