E-Commerce killed the Shopping list

And according to recent research conducted by DIBS, we can still expect further growth of E-commerce within the next twelve months. Regardless of sector, sales figures have shown that consumers love the convenience of online-shopping. So much so that 78% expect to maintain or increase their online spending levels as opposed to only the 10% of consumers expecting to decrease their online spending.

According to DIBS, E-Commerce “rocketed” last year (DIBS E-Commerce Index Europe 2010). It can be similarly be related to a snow ball effect; the more people who shop online, the higher the expectations grows as consumer habits evolve. Once it starts rolling, the opportunities for online merchants accelerates only further.

A happy consumer is a good consumer!

Let’s have a look at OBAN’s “optimism rates” broken down by country;

Many of us have heard the theory that residents of the Nordic countries are the happiest in the world. Personal experience has taught OBAN that they are generally very optimistic people. And why wouldn’t they be; Good food, great weather, beautiful scenery... Whatever it is, the positive outlook has spread to online. Online retailers, be prepared:

In Sweden 91% of the consumers expect to maintain or increase their spending, in addition to similarly high levels of 87% in Finland, 85% inDenmark and 84% in Norway. Compared with the more sought after E-Commerce markets, these stats grow to appear even more impressive. When asked the same question, 76% of consumers in Germany expected to maintain or increase spending, whilst the UK, Spain and France trailed at 73%, 68% and 61% respectively.

And the winner is...

Beyond national trends, which sectors and products have the top prospects for e-commerce in 2011? Well here are the top 3. (DIBS E-Commerce Index Europe 2010)

Across Europe around 80% of those surveyed said they expected to increase the money spent on the purchase of computers, with the positivity proving fairly consistent in all countries. Similarly encouraging signs can be seen for fashion retail as well, with 80% of respondents indicating that they would maintain or increase their spending in the sector.

And as the sector’s sales continue to rise, we see the development of innovative technologies to attract consumers. At a recent International e-commerce event in London, one software developer presented a pioneering tool to scan any individuals body measurements, creating an ‘online avatar’ of one’s body, thus allowing clothes to be tried online. A number of outfitters within the luxury sector have already started applying this tool for their online shops.

Outside of retail, the travel sector has much reason to be positive. 62% of the consumers surveyed said they expected to increase their travel expenditure online. Norwegian and Danish consumers particularly stood out as a growth market. An impressive 78% of Norwegian consumers expect to spend more on flight tickets within the next twelve months, highlighting just one of the travel sector’s encouraging prospects within the market.

The above figures show that the travel sector is heading for continued growth, as major markets such as Germany, Spain and France expect to increase travel expenditure – although this is predicated to happen at a slower pace than for the Nordic consumers.

Last but not least, the third sector in our ranking that can expect fast growth is “food and beverages”. Close to 80% of the UK consumers expect to buy more food online and over 40% expect to buy more alcohol online, followed closely by the French and Swedish consumers.

Finnish and Norweigian consumers also expect increases. However, only 10% of Germans and 8% of Danes expect to buy more alcohol online.

Merchants share the optimism

The Nordic merchants share the optimism of the consumers in the region. Nearly 81% of Nordic online merchants expect increased sales in the coming 12 months. Online retailers in Sweden and Norway have the highest expectations; 90% of Swedish online merchants and 87% of Norwegian online merchants expect to increase sales in the coming year. The corresponding figure for Danish online merchants is 70%.

Increasing visibility = increasing credibility

A logical conclusion from the above figures is that as consumer levels grow, we can expect to see similar increases in the breadth and depth of competition as retailers work harder to convert customers. As such, it is paramount that online retailers improve their visibility on search engines as well as social networking platforms on both a local and international level. It will be crucial in the future to include online marketing, especially international search within the overall marketing budgets. A lack of visibility for retailers in these growth markets will represent a significant opportunity lost, particularly whilst consumer prospects are so positive.

At OBAN Multilingual we always say that in order to maintain a strong position in competitive online markets you need to analyse both your local and global competition in each target market. Localisation is the key to success, particularly as consumers begin to become more savvy through the presence of increased choice.

Think like your target audience and moreover, speak their language. Don’t base keyword research solely on translations from English to a particular language, whether for PPC or SEO. Translations rarely work to anybody’s advantage where search is concerned.

Examples have included where OBAN found ‘perfect’ German translation of a GPS technology term that had only 140 searches a month on it, compared to the 200,000 equivalent searches for the English term they used in the UK. OBAN Multilingual’s German team identified an alternative term, which had over 400,000 searches a month.

Greig Holbrook is Director of Oban Multilingual, the international SEO specialist. If you are interested in more information about effective International SEO for your business, please feel free to contact us anytime or visit our website on www.obanmultilingual.com