E-commerce in 2009
Despite the rough economic times in the United States, economists still forecast steady growth in the already rapidly-growing world of e-commerce and online sales.
Strong online sales and service is a fundamental necessity of a successful company in today’s world. The days in which a simple shopping cart and check out process and e-mailed receipts were considered the cutting edge of doing business on the internet may as well be the Jurassic period. Today’s increasingly linked-in consumer demands up to date information and service, intuitive interfaces and the smoothest and most efficient content management systems and shopping cart solutions. It’s not simply picky users; it’s a fact of the rise and assimilation of online shopping and e-commerce into the fabric of every day consumer life.
That emerging trend, combined with the ever-increasing access of consumers to shopping via personal computers and internet-capable phones, has online sales holding steady and actually growing throughout 2009 and in the years to come. “The economy doesn’t really effect online sales the same way it effects physical retail,” economist and web analytics consultant Bill Greer says. “Certainly, U.S. consumer spending as a whole will dip, but e-commerce as a whole is only growing. More and more people are using the internet to do all of their shopping and buying.”
“Online shopping is well into an evolution that physical, brick-and-mortar stores went through with the emergence of the department store and super mall,” says Greer. “Before, consumers were willing to accept somewhat clumsy or bare online shopping options. They looked for what they wanted, found it, and ordered it. If they got a tracking number, it was a bonus. The model worked. But with the introduction of web 2.0 concepts like product recommendations and user rating and review communities, online shopping quickly became an experience unto itself.”
With the growth of e-commerce to every conceivable product and service, what sets a business apart today is quality of service and presentation of their products on their website. The customer has more options for a given service or product than they will spend time looking through. A few years ago, it was the lowest price that most customers settled on. But as e-commerce grows, reliability of the company has steadily increased in value on consumer survey and feedback. Greer explains that this is a natural result of e-commerce growth. “People who buy online all the time know that prices are going to be fairly standard across the board, give or take one-time special deals here or there. Power consumers look for reliable companies that they can trust—everyone’s ordered from a sloppy-looking company with a lower price and ended up with their item on an endless backorder loop, or gotten burned with a different product than they wanted, and said ‘never again’.”
With this rising consumer emphasis on quality and service, presenting an intuitive and up-to-date online sales platform for your company has become more important than ever. “The best way to convey professionalism is through your company’s web site and sales presentation,” Greer continues. “If your site is out-of-date, looks sloppy or has clunky shopping cart or content software, customers will subconsciously hold that against you. Think about it from a branding point of view. That doesn’t mean you have to make yourself the next Amazon.com, you just need to look professional and up-to-date.”
“A real life store wouldn’t stock their products in hard-to-reach racks or hold up lines because they use cash registers from the 1960s and expect good business, but many online businesses seem to adopt that model without knowing it, and it’s hurting them. In this age of e-commerce, businesses like that won’t last.”
The average internet purchase takes all of 35 seconds, from start to finish. First impressions of your website can mean the difference between a sale and the customer simply clicking away from your site, never to return.
