Ecommerce & Web Marketing Research: September 21 - 30 2005

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September 29 2005

Media devices - the most time consuming  activity

In the USA, the average person spends more time using media devices — including the web and IM — than any other activity while awake. This rather startling revelation was made as a result of research by Ball State University.

The research shows that the average person spends about nine hours a day engaged in media related activities! While TV is still the most time intensive activity, the computer came in at second at around 2 hours per day and use of the web and email peaks on Fridays.

In regards to Internet use, it appears that people ages 18 to 24 and those older than 65 spend less time online than other age groups.

I've always been a big advocate for people getting online, communicating with friends and family via the Internet and telecommuting to work; but this research really disturbs me - 9 hours a day on average?? Does anyone have the time to stop and smell the roses any more without having their cell phone attached to their ear? As a species, we're definitely creating a new reality. It's a constant distraction from what is actually around us in our own environment. It's a little scary.

A bumper holiday season for online shopping?

Emarketer thinks so, predicting the largest online holiday shopping season ever; regardless of gas prices or weather woes. In fact, it may spur on consumers to spend more of their holiday dollars online. Some historical and predicted sales stats for US purchases:

Read more of Emarketers predictions for this holiday season

Some further points for consideration when planning Christmas web marketing.

September 27 2005

Search engines - market share

Research based on 2 million visitors to OneStat's network of client web sites over the last two months shows the following breakdown of site traffic in relation to search engines:

According to OneStat, Google's share has decreased by .3%, Yahoo remains stable and MSN Search has gained .3%

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

Advertising/marketing executives email peeves

A recent survey carried out by Creative Group of 250 advertising and marketing executives of large US companies revealed the following pet peeves in relation to email communications:

I'd say it's pretty much the same irritations as for the rest of us in small business - but where's the mention of those damned animated smileys in the footers of emails these days - or am I the only one who gets them ;)????

Read more of the survey

Learn more about online business email etiquette.

September 25 2005

Email marketing metrics report findings

Mailer Mailer has released a very comprehensive Email Marketing Metrics Report based on 350 million email messages that were sent in the first half of 2005 and in 2004. Amongst the key findings:

• Best converting emails are in HTML with subject line and message personalization

• Email campaigns sent during the first half of this year had a slightly lower click than for 2004. Open rates are becoming harder to judge given image blocking features introduced in recent years by email software and services providers

• In terms of open rates, the best days of the week to send email campaigns appears to be on the weekends and Monday (depending upon audience)

• Regarding click rates, highest days are Sunday, Monday and Tuesday

• While the vast majority of emails are opened within 24 hours, there is still appreciable activity 6 days later.

• Bounce rates on first mailings increased over 2004 by just over 1%.

The Mailer Mailer Email Marketing Metrics Report has a stack more useful information and well worthwhile downloading.

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

Purchase returns statistics & ecommerce

A recent survey conducted by Internet Retailer states that 40% of respondents say costs associated with handling a purchase return is between $6 and $10. Ebay is used by nearly 40% of merchants as a means of disposing of some or all returned purchases and over 89% provide pre-paid return labels with each online order. In relation to the volume of returns:

Read more of the Internet Retailer online purchase return survey.

September 24 2005

Corporate VoIP adoption gaining

Research by The Radicati Group shows that a majority of companies are beginning to upgrade their PBX systems to hybrid IP/TDM solutions; which allows for a gradual migration rather than a major overhaul. Radacati estimates that by 2009, VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) lines will account for 74% of all corporate telephony lines and revenue for hybrid/pure IP PBX's will grow from approximately $1.5this year to $9.9 billion in 2009.

Learn more about VoIP and ecommerce.

September 22 2005

RSS user statistics

Nielsen NetRatings has reported that RSS users visit an average of 10.6 news sites compared with 3.4 news sites for non-users.

83 percent of survey respondents were unaware they were using RSS technology i.e., the user was using services such as MyYahoo to customize content.

Among RSS users who understood RSS, the vast majority were male, and nearly half had been using online services since 1994. 

The survey also states that RSS users not only visit more news Web sites than non-users, they also visit those sites more often.

Read more on the RSS survey

Learn more about using and creating RSS web feeds.

September 21 2005

Marketing to women - the Dove example

I think just about everyone has seen Dove's new campaign targeting women - Campaign for Real Beauty. Personally, I think it's great and very smart marketing. My partner has somewhat of a differing opinion. She tends to feel that many women don't want to see who they actually are, but what they can become, even if it's a little out of reach - if it's done in a non-patronizing way.

At any rate, why does the Dove campaign work so well? This article by Martha Baletta gives some insights and provides tips that we can all use when marketing to women

Read Martha's article

Review some stats and tips in my article on marketing to women.

Lunchtime and Primetime best for conversions

According to marketing firm Atlas Solutions, who researched hourly conversion rates, lunchtime and primetime hours appear to be the best timeslots for converting direct response interactive marketing campaigns.

The hour from midday EDT hour converted 35 percent higher than the overall average. 4 a.m. EDT had the lowest conversion rate, with less than half of the day’s average, and overall mornings showing the least activity.

Read more of the report

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