Signs that e-commerce is more than a trend are evident in a study by Morgan Stanley. SmartCompany Australia has the story, with Patrick Stafford at the helm. “We expect the in-store retail sales compound annual growth rate to slow to 3.6% over the next four years, down from 5.9% over the past 10 years,” the report states. “In contrast, we expect online sales will grow 20+% a year.”
Read the full story at smartcompany.com.au
As a point of comparison, Reuters notes that some businesses are arguing that brick-and-mortar structures go hand in hand with their e-commerce cousins. Remarked John Currie, CFO of Canadian yogawear company lululemon, “E-commerce and stores don’t compete. They work together.” Sharing in that belief is Jane Elfers, CEO of Children’s Place retail stores. “Having a strong [brick-and-mortar] name, I think the customer feels very comfortable buying online from us.” With the symbiosis of brick-and-mortar and e-commerce in mind, both lululemon and Children’s Place are planning to open numerous new locations this year.
Read the full story at reuters.com
Also of note, companies are now using video in large numbers, reports SundaySky, an e-commerce video solutions provider. In their “State of Video in E-Commerce–Q1 2011” report. The article, posted on ReelSEO, features a who’s who graph of video online retailers and indexing results. If you are interested in (further) developing your company’s video presence, this article has some interesting data. The case study about Zappos alone makes this article worth the read.
Read the full story at reelseo.com
