Ecommerce Growth Has Slowed But Still Positive. Beat The Recession With Online Sales
E-commerce websites have been growing by double digits over the last few years
. The economic recession has slowed down the growth, but sales are still rising, contrary to the falling sales of brick and mortar stores. The projected online sales rates for this holiday season are projected to be slightly higher than last year's sales, partly due to easing of the recession. Slow growth is here to stay, mainly due to the maturing of e-commerce businesses.In 2008, overall sales across retail stores hit a low during the holiday season, the first time in the last 23 years. It was a good enough reason for businesses to focus on their e-commerce outlets and they did rightly so.
The next phase for e-commerce businesses
E-commerce businesses were riding on a wave of fast growth till 2007 when the sales grew 18% YoY. Sales growth slowed to 13% in 2008 and is expected to slow down further to about 10% in 2009. This growth has come in spite of the global economic crisis, and is a clear indication of the strength of e-commerce. One thing is clear though, it is going to be harder for online businesses to sustain the heady growth rates of the past ten years. It may be time to work hard at website design and marketing strategies to continue growth and stay abreast with competition.
All e-commerce companies that have experienced the one-time high in online sales after launching the website know that this phase has to be followed up with a lot of hard work. Constant improvisation and optimization of the website is required. In the current recession, this strategy becomes even more important. E-commerce websites must adopt latest technologies, design and marketing strategies to improve the customer experience and increase sales.
Effective e-commerce development during recession
Here are a few tips on e-commerce development during the economic slowdown:
A good time to launch new e-commerce websites
Businesses are deferring the launch of new projects during the economic slowdown, but not e-commerce websites. As mentioned above, online sales are growing in spite of the recession even though traditional brick and mortar retailer have seen a decline in their sales.
Effective website design to improve conversions
E-commerce websites should incorporate website design elements that improve the customer experience. Minimize the clicks involved in a transaction. Generate add-on sales suggestions.
Higher ROI
Higher return on investment (ROI) is what differentiates an e-commerce outlet from a traditional departmental store. E-commerce outlets do not have the same overheads as brick and mortar stores, and should focus more on business aspects that will increase ROI.
Offer incentives to buy online
Retail owners would do well to provide incentives and offers to divert their customers to their web outlets. E-commerce websites have lower overheads and the profit margin is higher.
Draw attention to discount offers
Customers have tight budgets and e-commerce website design should highlight the discounts and offers and make them readily accessible. This encourages more buying.
E-commerce websites may be experiencing a slower growth rate than past years, but the fact that they are still growing in the recessionary environment speaks volumes for their success. E-commerce businesses should keep the website dynamic and market it aggressively to retain their market share and increase ROI.
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