eCommerce News of Note for 2015

We’ve just wrapped up another holiday shopping season and retail numbers are still being crunched to determine whether the holiday season can be considered a success. Preliminary figures from MasterCard SpendingPulse indicate that overall holiday sales jumped about 7.9 percent when compared with 2014. And Forbes reports that Cyber Monday (November 30, 2015) pulled in a whopping $3 billion alone!

How did eCommerce fare?

Again, we’re still waiting for the holiday numbers. But according to Statista, “In 2015, holiday season retail e-commerce revenues are projected to amount to 79.4 billion U.S. dollars, a 13.9 percent increase from the previous year.” That’s a “b” for “billion,” and that’s a lot of eCommerce transactions.

So it’s clear that the impact of eCommerce as a portion of retail sales is not negligible. Many figures have been floating around saying that traffic in physical retail establishments fell anywhere from seven to ten percent from 2014. There is no reason to believe that the trend will let up.

Are these Numbers a Surprise?

It’s been a no-brainer for over a decade that in order to survive in the ferociously competitive retail industry, it’s imperative that you maintain a solid eCommerce presence. But is there anything new that was learned in the past year? If anything, the main lesson learned is that eCommerce continues its march forward. Here are a few key indicators.

• Perhaps the biggest story was a non-story: the weather. How does the weather impact eCommerce? In times past, we might have attributed a rise in eCommerce sales to cold, nasty, wintry days as shoppers stayed home to shop rather than venturing out. But that theory is no longer applicable as evidenced by the very mild temperatures that dominated most of the U.S. during the traditional holiday shopping season from Black Friday to Christmas.
• Another important trend that can’t be ignored is the huge volume of shoppers using a mobile device to conduct ecommerce transactions. It’s now estimated that up to one third of ecommerce sales are completed using a mobile device rather than a computer. In 2015, we saw thousands and thousands of retailers, from small independent shops to larger chain stores with brick and mortar locations, upgrade their websites to be as mobile-friendly and responsive as possible in order to meet this rising demand.
• The store neve closes. Over the last year, it became more obvious that the convenience of being able to shop whenever and wherever one wants is a critical factor when consumers make a purchasing decision. Therefore, it’s crucial that your eCommerce platforms—things like your inventory, fulfillment facilities, and customer service—be up to the task.

In Need of an eCommerce Website Solution?

With the projection that revenue generated from online sales worldwide will continue to grow at least ten percent a year until 2020, there’s no time like today to ensure you have a strong eCommerce site.

The designers and developers at efelle are experts at providing premium website design services for eCommerce online store websites. Since 2005, efelle has worked with hundreds of businesses to help them with their web development needs. Call us at 206.384.4909 or fill out our online contact form to get in touch with a custom eCommerce specialist.