Despite the down economy of the past year, many online retailers grew web sales at double-digit rates through the second quarter of this year, Sucharita Mulpuru, principal analyst for retail e-business at research and advisory firm Forrester Research Inc., said at the Shop.org Annual Summit in Las Vegas this week.
Retailers surveyed by Forrester in the State of Retailing Online 2009 report, which is sponsored by Shop.org, reported year-over-year growth of 18% in 2008, Mulpuru said. And as the economy continued to struggle this year, surveyed retailers reported year-over-year growth of 11% in the first quarter, followed by 12% in the second quarter, she added.
Mulpuru gave several reasons why retailers have continued to show positive results in online sales despite the economic downturn, including: They respond to a changing competitive environment, such as Blockbuster Inc.’s plans to grow through web-enabled kiosks; they have a strong respect for I.T. resources; and they recognize the value of online social communities and the trend toward mobile commerce.
Mulpuru noted that 7% of web retailers invest on average 7% of total revenue in I.T. resources, compared to 2% for all retailers. In addition, web retailers benefit from a community of e-commerce technology vendors that have a strong interest in developing more productive systems that integrate with most retailers’ technology infrastructure.
Mulpuru advised retailers to also focus on small wins, such as providing a smooth checkout process and letting customers choose among multiple shipping options.
But she also challenged retailers to deploy proven systems like proactive live chat, which invites shoppers through pop-up windows triggered by browsing activity to enter a live chat session with a customer service agent. “Live chat is underutilized,” she said, noting that only 24% of survey respondents said they used proactive live chat even though 80% recognized the value of live chat in general. “Retailers should consider using proactive chat.”
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