Ecommerce & Web Marketing Research: May 21-30 2005

Would you like to receive regular email updates of my ecommerce and marketing research, plus news of additions to the site? Subscribe today for free via the form in the right hand column of this page!

Return to research index

May 31 2005

MSN making further inroads into China

MSN now has a localized representation in China, msn.com.cn. MSN Messenger is also being upgraded for Chinese users, of which there are over 7 million. Added to that, Chinese Hotmail users will soon also gain the equivalent storage space of their US counterparts, 250 megabytes.

Microsoft has also recently purchased elements of TSSX, a Chinese mobile software and services company. Microsoft will integrate TSSX's products with those of MSN Mobile. China has an estimated 340 million cell phone users, the largest market in the world.

May 30 2005

Browser wars - statistics

Firefox - an IE killer? Not yet. The following are April's browser usage statistics from TheCounter.com's network; based on close to 27 million visitors for the month. Internet Explorer still maintains over 90% of market share

Free web traffic statistics How many visitors hit your site? How long do they stay? Try a free traffic monitoring service

May 28 2005

Genealogy - a US/UK online favorite

Recent research from Nielsen//NetRatings, reveals that online genealogy (researching a family tree) is experiencing a surge in popularity.  1.7 million surfers, or
7% of the total UK online population and 8% of US surfers researched their family history during April. Visits to genealogy related sites has increased by 44% in the last year and the average time spent on these types of sites by visitors has nearly tripled in the last 12 months.

Read more (pdf 46kb)

The email love affair

Reported by CNET, the results of an AOL survey have shown the importance of this communications medium in people lives. Among the key findings:

• 77% percent of those surveyed have more than one e-mail account

• 41% percent stated that checking their email was the first task they did every morning

• 60% check their email while on vacation

• 47% check personal email at work

• 25% share their email address with a friend, family member or colleague.

Read more

Autoresponder software  & mailing list managers Get more from your email marketing - tips, reviews  & free trial software/services.

China enforcing web site registrations

In an attempt to better monitor online activities, China is forcing all web site owners to register their sites by the end of May, or face being shut down.

The growth of online activity in China has been phenomenal. According to ABC Australia, It's estimated that China will have 120 million Internet users by the end of 2005, which represents a 28 per cent increase from 94 million at the end of 2004. In 1997, there were only 620,000 users. China is now the second largest online market globally.

Read more

May 26 2005

Consumers turning to web for fuel efficiency info 

A report release from comScore based on their Media Metrix qSearch has stated that close to 700,000 Americans searched on terms related to fuel efficiency during March 2005. An increase of 112% over February in these searches coincided with rising gas prices.

Hybrid vehicle searches tended to originate with consumers in the 45 to 54 years age group and the majority have a household income of $75,000 or more.

If you're looking for an idea for an online business, my money is on alternative energy related sites. Peak oil theory is no longer just a theory, it's reality - the really big oil crunch is coming soon and it will reshape our society in unknown, but dramatic ways. Build those sites now :)

May 25 2005

Online sales to top $170 billion in 2005

An annual Shop.org study shows that US online sales rose 23.8 percent to $141.4 billion in 2004.  The study estimates that online sales will rise 22.0 percent to $172.4 billion this year. With the increasing utilization of ecommerce and online shopping by women, a number of categories are expected to show marked growth - these include cosmetics and fragrances, over-the-counter medications and personal care, jewelry and luxury goods, flowers, cards, and gifts.

Read more of the Shop.org report

Company pays affiliates to install exploit code

According to a report on Internet Week, a Russian company is paying affiliates to install a single line of code on their pages which will compromise the security of site visitor systems. According to the companys' own figures, it's estimated that up to 195,000 machines have been compromised in the past week. If you're an affiliate marketer, stay clear of this one - learn more about this affiliate program.

May 24 2005

Foreign online purchases on the increase

According to a report from Internet Retailer, many US ecommerce merchants are reaping the benefits of catering to customers outside North America. Key finding of the Foreign Sales Survey include:

• 36% of ecommerce merchants surveyed report 10% or more of their online sales are from non-US clients

• 52% feel that foreign orders will account for 10% or more of their ecommerce sales within 5 years

• 71% cater to foreign clients

• 29% of respondents do not sell to foreign clients due to shipping issues

• 25% do not cater for non-US online purchases due to fear of fraud.

• 48% of ecommerce merchants who cater to non-US online orders report a higher level of fraud in comparison to US purchases.

Read more of the Foreign Sales Survey

Learn about preventing credit card fraud via your ecommerce site.

May 22 2005

Employees unhappy with company IT infrastructure

A survey carried out by Forrester Research indicates that many employees aren't very happy with the quality of support offered by their companys' help desk and that information on company intranets can be hard to find.

• Help desk support ranked last in employee satisfaction in the Forrester survey. The issue isn't so much one of the way that inquiries are treated in terms of courtesy, but one of resolution. 
• Under 50 percent of the respondents report were satisfied with the way that IT changes and new technology releases were communicated by their IT department.
• 61 percent of employees surveyed stated that the search functions of their Intranet needed improvement.

Read more of the Forrester survey of employees and their attitudes towards IT.

Google Ig?

If you take a trip out to Google and to this page in particular (I've called it "Ig" as it doesn't have an official name as yet), you'll notice that the Mighty G is getting ready for further personalization of it's home page. 

On the "Ig" page, you can customize news and stock market snippets, get a summary of your Gmail contents, check out the weather for your area, even get the "Word of the Day". It's an interesting new feature aimed at taking on portals such as Yahoo's My Yahoo offering. 

Visit Google "Ig"

Online seniors to be a huge market

The population of those 50 years of age and over is growing faster than that of the under 50's. The "Baby Boomers" of the USA have over 1 trillion dollars in spending power, yet it appears to be a demographic missed by marketers. 

According to a recent report on eMarketer, there are currently just over 33 million 50-64 year olds online in the USA, which is approximately three times the number of 65+ online users. There's no doubt that the coming years will see a boom for those ecommerce merchants catering to senior citizens, so it's time to jump on the bandwagon now :)

Read more of the eMarketer Seniors Online report.

Return to research index

Free ecommerce magazines! Totally free Internet industry print magazines! No obligation to buy, no shipping fees, no hidden conditions - delivered to your door! Dozens of free magazine subscriptions! NEW!! - Visit our web templates store Great designs for your site. Professional design, also logo templates and flash intros. Compatible with FrontPage, Dreamweaver and Photoshop. Download a template today! Autoresponder software guide/reviews An all-in-one mailing list manager and autoresponder software solutions review. Ecommerce - The Internet's best shopping carts & web marketing solutions Powerful, easy to implement shopping cart with full web marketing modules, including affiliate program functionality. Our review includes free & low cost carts & ecommerce solutions. Looking for tools for writing/creating a web  development or marketing proposal?

Home