Industry Wisdom

According to figures from the Interactive Media in Retail Group Index (IMRG), UK online shopping is currently growing 130 times faster than high street sales. Ease of access, greater customer choice and competitive pricing are some of the obvious reasons why the current generation of consumers increasingly logs on to shop. But what attributes make consumers seek out a particular online retailer? Is it prices pure and simple, brand, privacy and security guarantees, trust marks or seals, or something else entirely? The authors conducted an online survey assisted by focus groups and email interviews to gain insight into these questions and in particular, to explore UK consumer satisfaction with alternative dispute resolution (ADR) on one of the most frequently visited online sites in the UK, eBay.co.uk.

By Lilian Edwards  & Ashley Theunissen

DUBLIN, Ireland - Research and Markets has announced the addition of China B2B Market Quarterly Tracker Q4 2005 to their offering. Domestic e-commerce, particularly, the B2B market is developing very well. More and more small and mid-sized enterprises are beginning to use the B2B platform to carry out product and image marketing activities. This multi-functional platform will also largely promote credit management and trading practice.

On-line shopping and auctions in the Taiwan market will reach an estimated total sales transaction value of NT$93.5 billion (US$2.82 billion) and NT$51.6 billion, respectively, for a combined total of NT$145.1 billion (US$4.37 billion), according to a survey of 5,988 Internet surfers and operators of on-line stores.

Price Comparison Survey Illustrates Sizable Savings Available via Web Purchases

SAN MATEO, Calif., Oct. 26 - Vendio(TM), the leading provider of services that empower merchants to reach consumers and manage online transactions, today announced the results of an internal survey conducted over price discrepancies between offline and online retailers for a wide range of popular consumer electronics devices. From camcorders and digital cameras to DVD players and videogame consoles, consumers pay an average of 44.2% more at local retail outlets than they do in online stores.

2005 figures reveal:
- £2.8 billion spent on auction sites
- 4.9 million adults made their most recent online purchase from an auction site
- more than half of all adults made an online purchase during 2005

APACS, the UK payments association representing card companies, today (31 July 2006) released 2005 e-commerce figures, which reveal an increase in online spending at auction sites.

Internet users are coming out of one-dimensional usage of obtaining information to producing and interchanging information now. This effect in turn is producing not only individual media and text services but also C2C, direct sales outlets through online market place. The word ‘Prosumer’ that means ‘consumer is producer’ is not a strange word anymore. Especially with rapid growth of online market place in last 2 to 3 years, it’s now being called prosumer.

By Hyo-Jeoung Kim

A new study confirms that users of the popular eBay auction site and the online payment company PayPal remain the most popular targets of phishing schemes. More than three quarters of all phishing e-mails are targeted to the users of eBay and its PayPal subsidiary, according to the report. The fraudulent e-mails most often attempt to gather personal information including credit card numbers and passwords in the name of ripping off users, said researchers at security software maker Sophos, which has its U.S. headquarters in Lynnfield, Mass.

By Scott Ferguson

Dublin, Ireland  - May 22, 2006 - A Global Analysis of eBay has been added to international market research and data firm, Research and Markets' offering. Founded just 10 years ago, eBay is now a $3 billion company, and growing, serving more than 130 million registered users in 32 countries. However, eBay's growth is slowing in the US, putting pressure on non-US Web sites to accelerate their growth. While it is believed that eBay is wisely betting on global markets, specifically China, eBay should be expanding into more markets more quickly.

Analyst Sharon Hill wrote the following case study for Classified Intelligence, reprinted here with permission. The report shows how certain newspapers in the UK are using CityXpress to set up their own classifieds businesses to compete with eBay. Visit ClassifiedIntelligence.com (http://www.classifiedintelligence.com) for more information.

By Classified Intelligence LLC

NEW YORK - eBay Inc has had talks with both Yahoo Inc and Microsoft Corp to determine whether one of them might be a suitable ally against common threats from Google Inc, the Wall Street Journal said on Friday."After years of working closely with the search giant, eBay last year became alarmed as Google started assaulting its turf in multiple ways," the report said, including creation of a competing classified advertising service, the report said.

On Reuters.com

Omidyar: "We can't be all things to all people"

eBay founder on how companies can improve society. At PC Forum 2006 in Carlsbad, Calif., eBay founder Pierre Omidyar talks to Esther Dyson about the three "laws" that create socially responsible businesses: access, connection and ownership.

On silicon.com

The auction site's home channel heads the list of top home & fashion sites rated by NetView data. Weekly NetView and AdRelevance data from Nielsen//NetRatings.

By Nielsen//NetRatings