According to
analysts Forrester the area of e-commerce is set to continue expansion until 2010. The reality is probably that e-commerce will be a major force in business sales for a lot longer than that. Items like jewelry, electronics, small appliances, food, clothing, beauty care products, eBooks, toys, and the list goes on, are showing strong growth patterns emerging. Forresters research shows travel to be the largest selling are in internet business. E-tailers are able to conduct easy online marketing e.g. web site surveys, customer help desk, forums to study customer behavior. Add that to the web site statistics on page hits, sales history, and e-store statistics and a complete customer profile appears before your eyes.
Selling online can be very cost effective; marketing will be a large cost to keep new customers coming in. Do remember the huge customer base means you will have a lot of competition with similar product stores. The best place to start finding out about selling online is online. Here are some resources to get you started:
- Google Zeitgesite lists the most popular items on google.com
www.google.com/press/zeitgeist.html
For U.K specific
www.google.co.uk/press/zeitgeist.html
- Similar information can be found at Ask Jeeves, along with details of a changing selections in the industry sector, like computers, cars or computer games.
- By keeping up with what is selling online, seeing popular searches and most watched items you can decide which category suits you to sell in. An excellent resource with all this information is eBay Pulse.
As with all marketing forecasts, collecting this type of information, it helps you best judge what to sell, and where. Once the online retailers cotton to how this type of information can make them sales the industry will be set on fire. To plan this from the outset will mean a strong base and a definite competitive advantage.
