It's good to be in e-tail. While many brick and mortar retailers were finding solace yesterday in posting less severe losses than analysts expected, a report by Forrester Research and Shop.org says online dollar sales were up an average of 11 percent for the first three months of the year.
"It seems that consumer confidence is getting better," Sucharita Mulpuru, an analyst with Forrester, told Bloomberg News. "There is so much price competition out there that you can find great deals. Hopefully the worst is behind us."
Separately, new research from Opinion Research Corporation (ORC) concludes that a growing number of consumers are going online to shop, although many (45 percent) are spending less on shopping trips. Twenty-four percent of respondents said they went online only to buy necessities, with the same number of people saying they went online in search of the best deal.
"While our data indicates that people are spending less, it is equally clear that shoppers are increasingly turning to the Internet as the channel of choice when they do buy," said Linda Shea, senior vice president and global managing director of ORC'S Customer Strategies Practice, in a press release. "This underscores the need for merchants to realize that even in a self-service environment, customers need enough information to make a purchase decision and validate that they are making the right decision."
According to Ms. Shea, "The most successful online merchants are investing in tools and technologies that facilitate the shopper's entire purchasing experience, from comparison shopping and bargain hunting to effective use of coupons and credits to easy return policies."
The biggest frustrations that consumers reported having with online shopping included not being able to speak to someone to answer questions (25 percent), learning items are back-ordered or out-of-stock after they are put in a shopping cart (11 percent), receiving an item that doesn't look like its depiction online (11 percent), websites that malfunction during the payment phase (9 percent), not being able to find an item (8 percent), unclear shipping information (5 percent), uncertain return policies (5 percent) and not receiving acknowledgement that an order has been placed (2 percent).
Discussion Questions: What are the biggest factors you see behind the continuing growth of online sales, even as physical store sales lag? Where do you see the greatest opportunities and challenges for e-tailers as they look to grow their businesses?