Online Merchants Plan More -- Social Networking, M-Commerce & Personalization Technology

09/02/2008

According to a new survey by Internet Retailer, more e-tailers plan to beef up static sites with more interactive technology, eg, videos; consumer feedback and reviews; and mobile shopping ability. Almost 95% of those surveyed thought it important to offer this type of technology to online shoppers, with almost 42% calling it very important.

Changes Coming
Some of the changes coming according to those surveyed include educational videos on their sites – approximately 54% plan to offer this within a year; just over 17% expect to offer this in less than six months. Mobile commerce (i.e., m-commerce) is on the way as well, with some 52% of e-tailers expected to offer online shoppers ways to shop using wireless devices. Just over 57% of e-tailers will begin to interact via social networking sites, e.g., by offering coupons, uploading videos and/or interacting in forums.

Where They Stand Now
Of the 124 Internet-only merchants surveyed, only 6.8%, for example, offer mobile commerce. Just under forty percent (39.3%) participate in social networking, and only 27.6% offer personalized product recommendations.

The New Age of Shopping Online
In an increasingly mobile society, e-tailers are realizing that having the best website is no longer enough. This means that Internet marketers have to move away from increasingly outdated ways of thinking about online shopping.

Interacting with consumers in this new age means giving them the ability to shop how they live – i.e., on the go. Hence, m-commerce, social networking and personalized product recommendations are all a part of this new way of creating brand name recognition, attracting new shoppers and hanging onto existing customers.

Internet marketers and e-tailers have gotten the message loud and clear.

In fact, almost eighty percent (79.2%) cited attracting new shoppers as the reason they are investing in this new technology. Almost as many (72.5%) cited hanging onto existing customers as their reason. Rounding out the top five reasons for investing in this new technology: better customer service (56.7%); improved advertising results (55.8); and heightened brand awareness (52.5%).

Social Networking: Too Large to Be Ignored
Internet marketing experts estimate that there are between 250 and 300 social networks worldwide with approximately 1 billion users. Social network users are some of the most frequent online shoppers. Hence, social networking is simply too big for e-tailers to ignore.

The Internet Retailer survey found that right at forty percent of respondents already use social networking, e.g., Facebook (32% had a page); MySpace (27% had a page); and YouTube (26%).

Moving forward, Internet marketers predict that many e-tailers may create their own social networking sites. Couple this with personalized web shopping tools like product recommendations, and retailers will be able to increase sales even more by cross-selling and upselling.

For more insight visit Internet Marketing Services