euroblaze | OXID e-Commerce User Blog

According to the Retailer Association of Germany (Handelsverband Deutschland), the 2010 e-Commerce market segmentation has been as seen below.

Translation for English readers below:

• Bücher = Books
• Spielwaren = Toys
• Sportartikel = Sports Products
• Bau- und Heimwerkerhandel = Construction and Home Improvement
• Haushaltswaren, Glas, Porzellan = Home Appliances, Glass and Porcelien
• Elektronische Erzeugnisse = Electrical Components (Guessing this is statistician-speak for computer components as well)
• Möbel, Einrichtungsgegenstände = Furniture & Decoration
• Bekleidung = Clothing / Fashion

Recent studies revealed, that about 80 percent of all shopping decisions are controlled by emotions. And it makes sense, if you think about your own shopping behavior once in a while.

The science analyzing this topic is called neuromarketing and it shows us, what is happening in our mind while shopping and which role emotions play for our decision-making. Especially regarding popular brands, people rather decide via emotions than with reflection. A lot of decisions are taken subconciously and signals are translated directly to behavior, without taking a rational decision. This is also the reason why more than 90% of online shopping dropouts happen within the first 2 klicks. Do you remember when you navigated the last time on a website, and in less than a blink of an eye navigated away from it, because it was not appealing enough? I do!

For Shop Owners, this means a huge task to provide a website, that is attractive enough to countermeasure this high dropout rate.

Successful online shops attract all senses and provide an appealing interface.

According to a new study of Synovate, a global market research firm, almost 30% of U.S. consumers admit, that they are shopping online more because of rising gas costs.
The survey was performed between April and May and adressed 1000 U.S. adults, asking whether the rising gas costs are responsible for more online shopping rather than driving to local stores.

This may be U.S. statistics, but since gas prices are raising on a global level, comsumers all over the world might prefer buying products online rather than driving around. I think, gas prices definitely play a role, but online shopping offers also other advantages, like reading user reviews for selecting the product of your choice very carefully. And of course you have a bigger selection of products online, than standing in a local store, searching for the thing you need.

Source: Internet Retailer

According to the latest statistics, the e-commerce did much better last year than the classical stock market as a whole. As you can see in the graphic to the right, the Online Retail Index, which measures the growth of online shopping based on data collected from online shoppers, easily tripled the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which reflects the stock market. I am curious about how this proportions will develop in the end of 2011!

The local shopping startup Milo has recently been acquired by eBay – for 75 million dollars. Milo connects the worlds of online and offline stores by searching local store shelves in real-time to find the best prices and availability. The business concept of Milo is to show you what’s in-stock where, and tell you how much it costs at that very moment. Milo also allows insight into detailed product information and user reviews. In short, Milo makes it easy to access both online and offline shopping in one place.

For eBay, Milo represents just another way to get into the $917 billion market of online research to offline buying. And Forrester estimates that this will eventually reach $1.3 trillion and account for nearly 50% of total retail sales by 2013.

eBay plans to bring the inventories of its sellers to Milo. The company will also integrate Milo’s local product feeds into both its online marketplace and mobile applications. eBay’s barcode-scanning iPhone application RedLaser will also feature Milo local results.