This past holiday season saw ecommerce spending at record levels. comScore reports that retail e-commerce spending in the U.S., for the first 56 days of the November to December 2010 holiday season, reached a record $30.81 billion! This is a 13 percent increase year-over-year.
But the trend that grabbed our eye in this new year was a report by financial powerhouse, J.P. Morgan, entitled, “Nothing But Net – 2011 Internet Investment Guide“. The big news from this report? That global ecommerce revenue is projected to grow by a whopping 19 percent in 2011 to $680 billion worldwide.
The author of the report, J.P. Morgan senior analyst Imran Khan, anticipates that global e-commerce revenue will hit a staggering $963 billion by 2013.
According to Khan, global e-commerce expansion is largely being driven by a rapidly expanding middle class around the world, increased access to broadband, and the continued struggles of traditional brick and mortar retailers to keep up with online shopping offerings and their pricing.
Here’s the big trend that you should pay attention to and ensure you’re “mobile ready” with your website, ecommerce engine, and/or are providing a platform which your retailers can leverage: Khan also cites the rise of mobile shopping as both a potentially huge boost to e-commerce success and a big part of the pressure traditional retailers are facing to compete.
“We think that the proliferation of mobile devices and mobile apps could have a profoundly negative impact on the business model of traditional retailers,” he writes. “Historically, getting a customer in the store was half the battle for a retailer. Mobile apps turn this dynamic on its head by giving more power to the shopper, even in-store.” This is especially true with the volume of smartphone applications that enable a consumer to scan a barcode and instantly see where that product is offered for less (and possibly even nearby geographically), at the consumer’s preferred store, or online.
The report isn’t generally available at this time, but there is an embedded version here and you can buy it from them for $35.