Half Full or Half Empty?
Michael Barbaro of the New York Times reports on the big holiday season enjoyed by 0nline retailers:
Online retailers, whose growth was expected to level off after a decade of dizzying gains, experienced a stellar holiday season, according to two preliminary reports released yesterday, as traditional stores like Wal-Mart and Target cemented their place on the Web.
…
This holiday season, about 33 percent of American households made an online purchase, up an estimated 10 percent from a year earlier.
Only 33 percent? More than 3 out of every 4 American adults use the Internet. So why are the rest not making purchases online?
The survey I conducted in November for the Cyber Security Industry Association reveals that as many Internet users are fearful their financial information may get stolen as believe that their financial information is safe when they are making purchases on the Internet (48 percent in each case). Still, Barbaro goes on to report that “analysts do not expect that the number of people shopping online will continue to grow at the same pace. Instead, they say, future sales growth will come as existing online shoppers buy more.”
My finding in the CSIA poll shows that online retailers do not have to settle for slow growth in their sales. Half of their potential market is simply looking for reason to believe that shopping online is safe. Don’t let the big holiday sales numbers mislead. E-commerce is underperforming.
[The Wall Street Journal and CNet News also did pieces on the sales numbers.]
