Making Sense of the Web

Will your online store ever replace brick and mortor?

Probably not but it depends on what you sell and what consumers need to know.  Digital Technology has made price comparisons so simple that you can find the best price anywhere from your living room vs days of searching.  Digital Marketing is the preferred method of receiving information.  The rapid increase in referral selling online may have removed some of the need for touch and feel behaviors and social media, in general, addresses one of the great drivers of shoppers - socializing.  So what's not to like?

My friend, Ian Haldimann's company helps develop strategic sales plans for businesses and has written some good information in their new blog...

eTail Velocity . . . What is this about?

This is a new site dedicated to educating you about ecommerce in this rapidly changing environment.  If you think ecommerce is just a passing fad, consider this:

• Wal-Mart’s U.S. operations reported a 2010 decrease of (0.5%) in sales

• Amazon reported:36% increase in sales with 8% increase in net income for the 4^th quarter 2010

These results aren’t just a representation of one quarter’s activity.  According to an April 5, 2010 article in Forbes, the second fastest growing retailer, online or other,  in 2010 is Amazon; Apple is first.

But Amazon is only one site.  The Retail Net group predicts that the volume of sales added by pure play online retailers will be nearly $40 billion.  And according to a January 17, 2011 article from Forbes, during the 2010 holiday season, online retailing accounted for 15.4% of overall retail sales.  This compares with Forrester’s report that 2009 online retail sales accounted for just 7% of overall retail sales.  This site is dedicated to showing you how to exploit the sales velocity of a critical sales channel.

Check it out and if you need help developing an online strategy, give me a call.  We can help you

• Develop an online strategy
• Create digital marketing campaigns
• Optimize your digital assets
• Develop performance based campaigns
• Analyze and evaluate results

WSI WebSense - it just makes sense!