According to a survey, the economy is making online retailers to reform their marketing approaches to attain and retain customers. It also found that the number of companies concentrating on customer retention has almost doubled compared to year 2007. Several retailers look towards recession as an opportunity to acquire market share from exhausted competition.
According to The State of Retailing Online 2009, the 12th annual Shop.org study conducted by Forrester Research Inc, that surveyed 117 online retailers, found that Internet sales continue to exceed traditional retail sales, companies are realistic regarding prevailing challenges. According to the survey, half of respondents (54%) estimated total retail growth to decline during the next 12 months and 57 percent agree the economic slowdown is harming their company’s bottom line.
Four out of five retailers feel that web is better suitable than other channels to resist the recession and one-third say the decline has made them to capture more market share. Demonstrating the flexibility of the web, retailers report that their conversion rates continue to drift between 3 percent and 3.5 percent which is observed since many years.
According to Comscore report 2008, Jewelery and watches experienced 17% decline in dollar sales of retail e-commerce Categories
Others observed the economy as an opportunity to increase market share and are charging ahead with new initiatives. Nearly half of retailers surveyed (46%) have no proposals to decrease original budgets and will spend as intended on their web business, and one in four retailers (24%) will spend more on their online business than actually planned. Companies planning to have more expenditure will increase investments in many areas, along with search (80% of respondents), email (65%), and social marketing (60%).
