Shopping onlineTHE LATEST CHANGES IN ONLINE SHOPPING ARE UPON US!

The National Retail Federation’s (NRF) website Shop.org has compiled a fascinating list of how shopping online will change this year through “The State of Retailing Online 2008: Marketing Report”. You need to know how companies will try to sell you more.  Social marketing is on the rise, repeat customers will benefit from shipping deals and e-store discounts.  Internet shopping is not carefully regulated so you’ve got to avoid being harassed by these e-stores, and know how to successfully shop online.

SHOP SMART ONLINE AND KNOW WHAT YOU’RE GETTING YOURSELF INTO!

  • Paid search and email marketing surging—most popular marketing avenues for online retailers
  • Though most companies are unsure about the effectiveness of social marketing they are diving into it
  • Catalogs are the next biggest expenditures this year after email lists
  • From 2007-2008, online shopping grew from $175 billion to $204 billion, despite bad economic conditions
  • Fastest growing sector of online sales come from computer-related purchases
  • Apparel sales up $3.9 billion this year/figure likely to rise at a rapid pace
  • Home furnishings sales will likely double in the next 5 years
  • 5% of online sales revenue was spent on Web marketing initiatives
  • 92% of all online stores paid for email marketing and paid search
  • We will receive, on average, 77 emails a year from sites we visit and shop
  • Email lists are kept current by 72% of all online stores; shipping deals will be for loyal customers this year, and not new shoppers
  • E-stores pay $.50 for each customer to record email data
  • E-stores are bumping up catalogs to their core customer base, which explains why you are probably getting more catalogs
  • Expect a 46% increase in catalogs this year.
  • 35% of all online sales come from search engine marketing/referrals from other sites
  • Believe it or not, only 1% of all sales come from social networking sites!
  • Virtually no sales come from mobile devices
  • A whopping 90% of emails sent from online stores go through and are not considered spam
  • Only 22% of us are opening these emails—what a surprise
  • Most emails relate to recent shipments—we’re most likely to open those

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