Retail merchants pleased with ecommerce, many plan to invest more
A whopping 81 percent of senior retail executives are satisfied with the return on investment of their ecommerce activities and now many are planning to reinvest in their digital store operations, according to a new report from the E-tailing Group.
The report, based on the responses of approximately 150 senior executives, noted that 29 percent of those polled were "very satisfied with their ecommerce ROI and 52 percent were "somewhat satisfied." Meanwhile, 8 percent were "neutral," 10 percent were "somewhat dissatisfied" and 1 percent were "very dissatisfied."
In that regard, many respondents plan to invest more capital in the development and improvement of their ecommerce activities. Nearly three-quarters (71 percent) said they would be spending more on their ecommerce platform, with 27 percent planning to invest "significantly more" and 44 percent intending to allocate "somewhat more." Only 5 percent said they would spend less money on ecommerce.
Key metrics used to track the performance of ecommerce activities include revenue (86 percent), traffic to a retailer's home page (81 percent), average order size (65 percent), conversion (60 percent) and units per order (47 percent).
For 2012, the E-tailing Group believes merchants will spend more money developing mobile commerce initiatives as well.
"We anticipate that this will be a chaotic year with retailers sorting out emerging channels and device growth; yet all the while relying on their websites to serve as the mainstay of the shoppers’ experience," explains Lauren Freedman, president of the E-tailing Group. "Holistic thinking and gaining an understanding of one’s evolving customer will be essential to personalize and prioritize experiences in the connected world in which we find ourselves today."
Reaching consumers through digital means will be crucial to electronic and mobile commerce. Nearly one in five respondents believe developing these fledgling channels will be a top challenge in 2012.
"This certainly makes sense in our omni-channel world where merchants are universally selling on the Internet (99 percent) and 61 percent already have an mcommerce presence," the report added. "Notably from a channel perspective, among those surveyed, 86 percent are deploying email, 54 percent also have a store channel and 48 percent run catalog-based business models."
According to data from comScore, ecommerce expenditures have grown steadily over the past year. In the fourth quarter of last year, for example, Americans spent 14 percent more shopping online than they did a year prior.
