Despite the economic slowdown that was sweeping the globe, experts say that online retailing will survive this financial crisis .Based on the third instalment of “The State of Retailing Online 2008: Profitability, Economy & Multichannel Report” done by Forrester Research, 35 percent of online retailers surveyed said they expect their online businesses to perform better than expected in the next 12 months, while 33 percent expect their online businesses to perform as expected.
This positive thinking may be the result of a change within consumer behaviours, resulting from the recent economic drawback: people flock to the internet for their shopping needs.
PriceGrabber.com(R) studied the impact of a tough economy on holiday shopping in its latest Consumer Behaviour Report. Sixty one percent of consumers are going to make an effort in cutting back this holidays according to results. Ninety-seven percent of survey respondents expect to do some purchasing online this holiday season. Fifty five percent are going to buy their gifts online this year, increasing by ten percent from last year. Thirty-seven percent say that online shopping appeals to them because it is “easier to compare products and find the lowest price.” Twenty-four percent prefer the “convenience of shopping anytime and anywhere.”
Forrester research results show 81 percent of online retailers that their e-commerce businesses were profitable last 2007. Because of this, the internet marketing bug seems to be spreading to more businesses. According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) survey, 70.3 percent of businesses today have a website.
Malcolm Pinkerton, Verdict’s senior retail analyst states “As the cost of broadband falls, consumers become more accustomed to internet shopping and retailers continue to enhance their online propositions. This channel will find itself extremely well placed to capitalize on falling consumer confidence and lower levels of disposable income currently affecting the retail market.”
This means more people are now able to utilize the internet as a means of shopping.Shopping online provides numerous advantages for shoppers, the foremost of which is convenience. Internet gives shoppers the ability to browse and compare product prices at any given time of the day, as online retail stores are open all the time, without leaving the comforts of their homes.It also gives the shoppers a chance to buy as much as they could without worrying how to transport them, as online retail stores provides delivery services. Parking spaces, crowds and long lines are no longer an issue.
In UK, a study reveals that one of the reasons of the increase of online shopping rate came from users in their 40s and 50s, having more trouble accessing built shopping centres because transport is usually not as readily available to them, are beginning to use the Internet for their own online shopping.
Despite the ongoing financial crisis, online retail stores’ sales continue to rise In fact, according to Ed Garrubbo, chairman of the Electronic Retailing Association, the recession may actually contribute to e-commerce because cautious consumers are doing more research and comparison shopping via ecommerce web sites before making a big purchase.
