17 Mar 2009
The continued growth of web shopping despite the recession has been confirmed once again as sales via the internet during February increased by 13 per cent on 2008 figures.
According to the latest IMRG Capgemini e-retail sales index, sales of beer, wine and spirits had a monthly increase of 30 per cent and gift buying was also up by 34 per cent due to Valentine’s Day.
But online promotions in January, the overall challenging retail climate and fewer trading days, led to a drop in online spending in February compared with January, with a monthly fall of 11 per cent.
“These results show that the strong post-Christmas sales push and a toughening retail market have indeed led to a drop in spending from January to February,” said head of consulting for retail at Capgemini UK, Mike Petevinos.
“However, year-on-year growth for e-retail continues in stark contrast to the high street. Consumers are still turning to the internet to make their purchase decisions and ensure their disposable income goes further.”
An interesting article! The retail market has been hit hard by the recession, but the e-retail sector has continued to defy the odds and grow - not surprisingly perhaps given the low advertising costs and transparent methods for campaign evaluation. We conduct our own annual click-through analysis across Europe from more than 10bn banner enquiries to our ad servers and data collected between October and December 2008 from 5,000 web sites found that rates vary considerably throughout the course of the year, with significant differences from country to country. In general, click-through rates peak toward the end of the year while users tend to ignore ads after the major shopping period in January, fluctuating between 0.11% and 0.19% during that period. We'll see peaks and troughs throughout the year as the different occasions and events prompting online shopping to occur.
The growth figures for online retail may be down for February, but they are still up on last year considerably which to me indicates just how strong the online market is now. The opportunity for advertising are far reaching too - with video, mobile and display ads playing a key role and all have huge advantages over traditional advertising sectors - fully flexible, feature-rich and accountable. It's something that will see the retail industry through the recession and grow exponentially over the next 5 years.
Kit Desai, Country Manager, ADTECH UK and Ireland
Posted by: Kit Desai, Country Manager, ADTECH 18 Mar 2009
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