June 16, 2009 by James Oliver
We see practically every day on the news that high street behaviour has been hugely affected by the recession. But how has the world of online commerce changed? Well, according to research carried out by IMRG Capgemini e-Retail sales, perhaps surprisingly, online sales have not gone down – in fact, they have risen by 14 percent over the last year. This proves that consumers have not stopped buying altogether, in many cases they are merely adapting how they shop.
The assumption is that consumers are going online in order to find savings not available on the high street. This reasoning is borne out by the behaviour of consumers online who are researching more meticulously than ever, and not just on big-ticket items either, on all kinds of goods.
So how does someone adapt their ecommerce site to meet the demands of this new kind of online customer. Well, the first is of course, add value – do deals make savings, in general, give your customers a reason to shop with you, then push those savings in your PPC ads.
The new breed of choosy customer has also produced a real spike in the number of people using price comparison sites, so getting yourself on one of these has never been more important. There is however, also evidence that these customers have been doing their own research and legwork via peer reviewing facilities like blogs and message boards.
On the latter point it might be worth reaching out to relevant blogs and content sites, maybe offer a product for review, or sponsor a competition etc.
So, basically, at the moment if you’re a player in the world of online commerce, you need to be cheap and add value. You also need to have a strong off site presence and reputation.
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