» eCommerce Stats

Many Americans are online and on the cell networks accessing the web, but what are they doing? Did you know that according the Neilson, people spend almost 25% of their time online on social networking sites and blogs, up 43 percent from 1 year earlier! According to new research released today from The Nielsen Company, Americans spend a third their online time (36 percent) communicating and networking across social networks, blogs, personal email and instant messaging.

Check the charts below for some eye-opening information….

Additional findings include:

• Online games overtook personal email to become the second most heavily used activity behind social networks – accounting for 10 percent of all U.S. Internet time. Email dropped from 11.5 percent of time to 8.3 percent. (Source: Nielsen NetView)
• Of the most heavily-used sectors, Videos/Movies (which includes video-specific and movie-related websites only – and is not inclusive of video streaming behavior elsewhere) was the only other to experience a significant growth in share of U.S. activity online. Its share of activity grew relatively by 12 percent from 3.5 to 3.9 percent. (Source: Nielsen NetView)
• June 2010 was a major milestone for U.S. online video as the number of videos streamed passed the 10 billion mark. The average American consumer streaming online video spent 3 hours 15 minutes doing so during the month. (Source: Nielsen VideoCensus)
• Despite some predictions otherwise, the rise of social networking hasn’t pushed email and instant messaging into obscurity just yet. Although both saw double-digit declines in share of time, email remains as the third heaviest activity online (8.3 percent share of time) while instant messaging is fifth, accounting for four percent of Americans online time. (Source: Nielsen NetView)
• Although the major portals also experienced a double digit decline in share, they remained as the fourth heaviest activity, accounting for 4.4 percent of U.S. time online. (Source: Nielsen NetView)

Email Remains Top on Mobile Internet Activities
The way U.S. consumers spend their Internet time on their mobile phones paints a slightly different picture to that of Internet use from computers. In a Nielsen survey of mobile web users, there is a double-digit (28 percent) rise in the prevalence of social networking behavior, but the dominance of email activity on mobile devices continue with an increase from 37.4 percent to 41.6 percent of U.S. mobile Internet time.

Yesterday eBay laid out their date for the ending of 3rd party checkout on its systems. No more will you have to use services to facilitate checkout, eBay will do that….

As you know, checkout is a crucial part of every eBay transaction. A consistent checkout experience helps buyers complete their purchases in confidence. For sellers, checkout touches critical business processes including payment collection, shipping, and tax reporting.

That’s why I’m writing today-well in advance-to let you know that as of June 30, 2011, eBay Checkout will be the only checkout process on eBay.

We’re now working closely with ChannelAdvisor to make your transition smooth and seamless. We’re also making significant enhancements to eBay Checkout to provide the key features and services you expect:

• More credit/debit card processing services
• Enhanced shipping support including support for more carriers, standardized services, and more control over shipping to Alaska, Hawaii, U.S. protectorates, and APO/FPO addresses
• An advanced sales tax calculator
• and more

— Todd Lutwak, eBay
Vice President, Seller Experience

eBay Moves on 3rd Party Checkout and Alibaba buys Auctiva (ColderICE.com)

Online Commerce Overview

According to comScore’s eCommerce Brief, total online spend grew 9% Y/Y to $18.5B, which reflects a moderate acceleration vs. up 7% Y/Y in June and up 8% Y/Y in May.

Reportedly, comScome reveals that July Y/Y growth also shows a modest acceleration vs. 8% Y/Y growth reported in Q2: 10 & Q1: 10. Some key segments that contributed to this are primarily the 20% Y/Y increase in Books and Magazines, 16% Y/Y growth in online sales of Computers and Peripherals with a 16% Y/Y growth in online sales and finally a 12% Y/Y increase in Computer Software and Jewelry purchases.

The U.S. Department of Commerce reported that Total U.S. Online Retail Spend increased 14% Y/Y to $39.7B in Q2, 0.3% below the 14.3% Y/Y in Q1. A 12% Y/Y Growth in 2010 U.S. eCommerce is estimated at this point, which means that approximately $160B in Online Retail spend in 2010 and is driven by 5% overall growth for U.S. Retail Sales and approximately 25 bps of overall Offline-to-Online Retail share shift in 2010.
 

eBay shares are down 10% YTD in a roughly flat market, including down as much as 30% from late March highs. Y/Y Online Retail Traffic was up 14.6% Y/Y, modestly positive, vs. Q2 and Q1 traffic trends at about 13.0% Y/Y growth. comScore tracked 16% Y/Y Amazon’s growth for the U.S. website, a deceleration vs. 21% in Q2 and 24% in Q1, and they’ve tracked a 2% Y/Y decline to eBay’s U.S. Website, a better trend vs. its 5% Y/Y decline in Q2 and 4% Y/Y decline in Q1, despite tougher competition.

Specifically for eBay, PayPal continues to produce impressive Growth/Profits with H1:10 Payment Volume growth off-eBay an impressive 46% Y/Y ex-FX, and Payment Segment Profits up 55% Y/Y. The upshot is a long-term bottom-line PayPal growth outlook of 20%-30%. Also, eBay’s Marketplace may finally be showing improvement.

Some key points that on eBay’s Marketplace are, ChannelAdvisor, which reported stabilization (0% Y/Y change) in eBay Same Store Sale for July, after Y/Y declines in May and June of 4% and 5%. While comScore July eBay traffic data showed 1.5% Y/Y decline vs. an average of 4%-6% Y/Y over the prior four quarters and finally, the 8/10 launch on eBay UK of a Shopping Basket test may finally address arguably the single biggest User Interface gap on eBay.

Today eBay released the 2nd quarter earnings. Banter was raised as eBay Inc. has a 6% increase over last year and Paypal has some strong earnings for the quarter…yippee, "whoop d sh*t". Sorry if you don’t find me too impressed. There is holes in this Swiss cheese and the real deal is this. eBay.com that’s the US marketplace is down from 6% growth in the first quarterly to a tiny 2% this quarter and overall down -12% from 2008. So they have suffered a -4% decline on the platform, had NO growth in ASP and zero performance with conversion.

The patron saint of Best Match has not blessed us with the promised land. Wow, am I to be surprise? Yeah, but wait to you hear all the other issue surrounding this news. Look it is too long for me to type here, so I lay it out in plain English for you. Is it just me? Are my assessments here wrong? This seems so ridiculously bad to me, I dunno?!?

Links to the earnings reports for 2010 (released today)  and 2009 for comparison.

Apple Reports Third Quarter Results

All-Time Record Revenue Earnings Increase 78 Percent

CUPERTINO, California—July 20, 2010—Apple® today announced financial results for its fiscal 2010 third quarter ended June 26, 2010. The Company posted record revenue of $15.7 billion and net quarterly profit of $3.25 billion, or $3.51 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $9.73 billion and net quarterly profit of $1.83 billion, or $2.01 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 39.1 percent compared to 40.9 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 52 percent of the quarter’s revenue.

Apple sold 3.47 million Macs during the quarter, representing a new quarterly record and a 33 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 8.4 million iPhones in the quarter, representing 61 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 9.41 million iPods during the quarter, representing an eight percent unit decline from the year-ago quarter. The Company began selling iPads during the quarter, with total sales of 3.27 million.

“It was a phenomenal quarter that exceeded our expectations all around, including the most successful product launch in Apple’s history with iPhone 4,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “iPad is off to a terrific start, more people are buying Macs than ever before, and we have amazing new products still to come this year.”

“We’re really pleased to have generated over $4 billion of cash during the quarter,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO. “Looking ahead to the fourth fiscal quarter of 2010, we expect revenue of about $18 billion and we expect diluted earnings per share of about $3.44”

It was once said that a picture is worth a 1000 words. Well sometimes it takes us 1000′s of words to make others understand the power of social media. Maybe a picture would help trim the fuzzy logic and communicate the point.

The Six Gs of Social Media Marketing by kivilm

The 4Cs Social Media Framework by Gauravonomics

Social Media Monitoring Chart by hyku

Some people ignore or abandon social media because of its digital nature – they might not view the benefits of online social networking in the same way they see the ROI of being a member at their local Chamber of Commerce.

In my opinion, online social media and face-to-face networking need to be viewed through the same lens. Both involve social interaction, contributing to a community and getting out what you put in – The only difference being the medium.

5 Ways to Cultivate an Active Social Network by Intersection Consulting

Social Media Monitoring Funnel by Ignite Social Media

Social networking has been growing exponentially and throughout that speedy process newer and newer platforms have been evolving and making a name for themselves in small niches. Marketers have realized there is money in this evolution and they are targeting it more than ever. As eCommerce merchants we need to embrace the growing change and the need to be “informed” and target our audience through the free spaces that exist like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. The only investment needed is time and resources as you continue to grow.

Social Commerce is defined as the relationship and fusion of eCommerce and social media together to help buyers and sellers make better purchasing decisions online. This combination is the next generation of interaction between buyers and sellers.

Take a look at these studies and see for yourself what respondents had to say.  And then ask yourself if you feel the same way.

According to Bazaarvoice:

“81 percent of respondents said they’d received advice from friends and followers relating to a product purchase through a social site; 74 percent of those who received such advice found it to be influential in their decision. 90% of consumers online trust recommendations from people they know…

Friends still play an important role in influencing consumers; 83 percent of online shoppers said they are interested in sharing information about their purchases with people they know, while 74 percent are influenced by the opinions of others in their decision to buy the product in the first place…

Users put great trust in their social networks…respondents said they considered information shared on their networks when making a decision…

Facebook, blogs, Twitter and customer reviews are considered the most effective tactics for mobilizing consumers to talk up products online…

Recommendations from family and friends trump all other consumer touch points when it comes to influencing purchases …Consumers trust friends above experts when it comes to product recommendation”

Users are finding the value in sharing online. They feel safer and they can trust that their friends can help them make better buying decisions. Helping a friend and/or follower make a purchase online is one of the best ways to build advocacy online and throughout your social networks. Try sharing one of your listings with your Facebook friends or Twitter followers and watch the interactions that happen. People are interested in what you are buying and selling and if they need it they are going to feel more comfortable buying it from you. What’s even more powerful is sharing a purchase you made with friends, pointing them in the right direction for the next purchase they may make online.

People love to share themselves and share their experiences with those who care to listen. It is human nature. In the eCommerce space buyers want to feel comfortable buying from sellers and sellers want to feel confident that they are targeting qualified buyers who want what they have to sell. Being uncomfortable has been one of the most important inhibitors that have existed over the last 10 years in the e-commerce space.

TEST: Ask a friend online or follower for some advice on a purchase or a product and see how they respond. Check and see who else responds too.

Just take a look at the graph depiction below on advertising. An overwhelming amount of the respondents trust recommendations from people they know.

About the author: Fredrick Nijm is the co-founder of Addoway, a free social marketplace that helps you buy and sell with your   friends and the people they know.

Addoway helps online merchants utilize social commerce to grow their online business, while providing shoppers with great deals from people they trust. Addoway accomplishes this by providing merchants with a unique web store builder and social marketplace where shoppers can utilize their social graph to identify trustworthy merchants to buy from.

Been around the world and back again! You got it man, tonight we kick off Season Too of Late Night Beta w/ ColderICE and it’s LIVE. Yep, tonight at 10:30 pm est, you need to be there or be a total square. I can’t wait to get my drink on and talk with you guys LIVE in the chat rooms. I got so much information and few cool ass tool to demo for you. So get your self a cocktail and make sure you are in the house at 10:30 pm est TONIGHT!

OH and BTW you do not want to miss the first 5 minutes of tonight’s "season too" opener! I got something special for the ones who get in the room ON-TIME and the late folks will just have to miss out, sorry here is that link for the show one more time…Late Night BETA w/ ColderICE

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RESTON, VA, May 21, 2010 – comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its Q1 2010 U.S. retail e-commerce sales estimates, which showed that online retail spending neared $34 billion for the quarter, up 10 percent versus year ago. The strong acceleration represented the first time growth rates reached double-digits since the second quarter of 2008.

“The first quarter returned the U.S. retail e-commerce market to healthy double-digit growth rates,” said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni. “While these spending gains provide reason for optimism, we should note that upper-income households are currently shouldering much of the growth. Should the economy falter in the second half of the year and upper-income consumers return to a savings mode, we could still see growth decelerate. But for the time being, this momentum is encouraging.”

Other highlights from Q1 include:

• Growth in the first quarter was predominantly driven by upper-income consumers, with spending among the $100,000+ household income segment up 14 percent.
• Pureplay (online-only) retailers continued to gain e-commerce spending market share from multichannel retailers.
• Larger online retailers continued to generate higher growth rates than smaller retailers, but the smaller retailers are finally beginning to see positive growth once again.

Webinar Series: State of the U.S. Online Retail Economy through Q1 2010

Join Mr. Fulgoni as he presents an update of the state of the U.S. online retail economy through Q1 2010 in a live webinar on Thursday, May 27 at 2 p.m. ET/1 p.m. CT.

The webinar presentation will include an overview of changes in consumers’ online spending patterns through Q1 2010, survey findings that highlight consumer sentiments regarding the economy, as well as an analysis of spending patterns across key product categories, retailer sectors and consumer demographic segments.

To register for the webinar, please visit:

https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/872855664