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E-commerce survey shows online sales boom for mail order and niche retailers: sector shows 53% growth
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Online sales via e-commerce in the mail order and niche retail sector are growing at an average of 52% and represent over 43% of total sales, according to a survey conducted by Screen Pages at its 3rd Annual E-commerce Forum.
A recent survey by the IMRG forecast a total online sales increase of 35% in 2005 to £19.6bn.
Plenty of opportunity remains for future growth, since adoption of popular online marketing methods is limited, with the exception of pay-per-click advertising:
The survey shows the following adoption rates of different online marketing initiatives:
• 77% of businesses are using pay-per-click advertising, representing a healthy adoption;
• 31% run affiliate marketing programmes, which according to Tradedoubler can account for 10% of online sales;
• 58% have invested in site search engine optimisation – a very low figure, given the modest investment to implement this;
• 65% run email marketing campaigns, again a low figure give its cost-effectiveness;
• 46% use web analytic packages, which begs the question of how these companies measure online sales performance.
Participants in the survey were among the 140+ delegates at the E-commerce Forum in % March 2005. They include Green Baby, Joseph Turner, Blooming Marvellous, Wallace Sacks, Wella, Dolls House, Artiqiano, The White company, Seton, Menkind, Bathroom Express, Signs & Labels and The Holding Company.
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