Customer Experience Management strategies Web-Synergies-Insights
June 19, 2013 01:56 PM

Ecommerce tops $1 trillion and counting 19 June

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In mid 2011 Paypal made a prediction that the Singapore online shopping market would reach S$4.4 billion by 2015.

At that time online shoppers spent about S$420 million on local websites although their preference was, as it is now, to use overseas sites for purchases. Greater choice is often cited as the reason for this behavioral preference.

A later 2012 report from the same company confirmed that avid Singaporeans shoppers spent 14% more on US shopping than they did the previous year. But Singaporeans also had a penchant for China’s online stores where the growth year on year was 15%.

Computers and their peripherals, electronics and travel remain the favorite items for online purchase.

Global e-commerce sales topped $1 trillion in 2012 and this figure is rising rapidly.

But ecommerce can have its challenges as well. With a physical bricks and mortar store the number of items a retailer can stock is restricted by the physical shelf-space available. An online retailer can offer ten times as much but is this always a good thing? Or perhaps one should say, too much of a good thing?

The reality is that sheer number of choices available to consumers can prove counter productive when it comes to sales.

VP of the UK/European Region at RichRelevance, Darren Hitchcock, said in an Econsultancy articlethat their study found that only 44% of products online were getting attention; which means that 56% were bypassed. And to compound the problem 75% of page views were confined to just 10% of products.

And the rapid adoption of mobile devices is driving the online shopping trend. For example, mobile powered 28% of UK Christmas online shopping in 2012/2013. It is estimated that consumers now spend $18.6 billion using their mobile devices for e-commerce. That’s 11% of all transactions and excludes travel purchases which the survey team at comScore counts separately.

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Personalization which makes the customer more engaged with an online seller is really the key to a good e-commerce site. It needs to be supported by a robust and efficient e-commerce system that instills confidence in the would-be purchaser.

With online security being such a concern do your site and systems instill confidence? Consumers need to be confident that you will treat their information securely. TechCrunch reports that ID fraud is now a $20 billion problem and growing at twice the rate of the e-commerce market. So consumer confidence is a must if you are serious about e-commerce.

A 2013 B2B Commerce Survey from Oracle shows that Business-to-Businesses (B2Bs) are becoming the new Business-To-Consumers (B2Cs).

“80% of respondents agree that customer expectations have changed due to B2C retail practices. Personalization, online catalogs and SEO continue to be the top three B2C practices that influence revenue the most for B2Bs.”

So if your primary focus is B2B rather than B2C, Web Synergies can provide you with solutions that streamline technology, processes and management practices and deliver a business oriented and interactive online experience.

We design solutions that let you deliver personalised content to your buyers; giving access to inventory availability and order status, while automating your quote-to-cash processes.

Ready to explore how your company can save time and money with our B2B E-commerce solutions?

Contact us today.
Email: sales@websynergies.biz

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