According to eCommerceBytes.com, eBay Australia's Fashion Gallery has launched a fashion-focused social media community on six of the largest social media sites with daily fresh content from how-tos and celebrity match-it buys to trend reports and street-style imagery.

Shoppers can access daily updates via Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr, with offerings on Instagram, Google+ and Pinterest supporting the primary platforms and videos on Youtube.

Complete article on EcommerceBytes.com

After buying Instagram and Tagtile, Facebook has acquired the company that created Glancee, a location-based application that allows people to discover others around them with similar likes and tastes.

On Glancee´s web page, the San Francisco-based start-up says that it is very excited about the acquisition, and that  it has joined the team in Menlo Park to build great products for the 900 million Facebook users. 

The move is clearly good for Facebook since the app helps users to widen their circle of friends.  It also confirms the American giant social network´s commitment to mobile technology, and there is talk that Facebook is going to launch its own intelligent mobile phone.

On behalf of the online publication eCommerceBytes, Julia Wilkinson, author of “The eBay Price Guide” and "eBay Top 100 Simplified Tips & Tricks"  asked online sellers how they use Youtube to increase sales.  Interestingly, they all said that a video should not look like an ad, because that could turn away prospective buyers. 

Instead, sellers advise using indirect sales methods like tutorials and “how-to” videos that show customers  how to do specific tasks on the sites they use to sell their products, and that give tips and advice, etc.

According to online sellers, another technique that does very well on Youtube is the “how it works” video that shows a specific product in action.

Another type of video that is becoming popular is the one that shows the process involved in making a product, especially handcrafted or unique items.  For example, videos that  show you  how to draw, make handcrafted earrings, etc. and that are interesting and increase website traffic and possibly sales.

Source and full text:  eCommerceBytes

The rise of Pinterest has brought much attention to the growing community of social image sharers, folks who collect and share images from around the web through social image sharing sites.  Retailers are searching for how to leverage the new tool for customer acquisition and engagement.   Bizrate Insights recently launched a new series of studies investigating how online consumers are shopping through this emerging channel.

Social image sharing sites such as Pinterest are inspiring product consideration and purchases

Over 37% of online consumers have heard of at least one of the most popular social image sharing sites*.  Pinterest leads in both awareness and visitation, with 36% aware and 19% visiting.  Of those who have visited at least one of the most popular social image sharing sites, over 1 in 4 have made a purchase based off of images found on the site.  An additional 37% have found items they have wanted to purchase but did not at that time.

*Social image sharing sites include: Pinterest, Juxtapost, Discoveredd, Fancy, Polyvore.

The Bizrate Insights Social Image Sharing and Online Shopping Series is a set of surveys conducted via the Bizrate Insights survey platform and offered to online buyers immediately after purchasing from the Bizrate Insights Network of over 5,000 ecommerce retailers in the US and Canada.  Data from this study was collected from 3,741 online buyers from March 22– March 26, 2012.

For more information, please download the free PDF report here.

One third of Danish online retailers are considering relocating part of  their operations to other countries, mainly due to pressure from foreign online companies that  deal with lower wages and taxes and can offer more competitive pricing.

As a result of the price differences, Danes spend € 1.2 billion a year shopping on foreign websites, while Danish online retailers´ foreign sales only amount to  €269 million.

Under these circumstances, online retailers hope for support in promoting business opportunities within a favorable legal framework and with measures to facilitate export, like those enjoyed by other sectors.

In the U.S., Hispanic consumers’ usage rates of smartphones, television, online video, social networking and other forms of entertainment make this group one of today’s most engaged and dynamic populations in the digital space, according to Nielsen’s recent State of the Hispanic Consumer: The Hispanic Market Imperative report.  Mobile presents a significant avenue of opportunity for marketers looking to reach Hispanic consumers – Hispanic mobile users send or receive 941 SMS (text) messages a month, more than any other ethnic group.  They also make 13 phone calls per day, 40 percent more than the average U.S. mobile user.

Social is another platform where Latinos are especially active and rising in numbers.  During February 2012, Hispanics increased their visits to Social Networks/Blogs by 14 percent compared to February 2011.  Not only are Latinos the fastest growing U.S. ethnic group on Facebook and WordPress.com from a year ago, but also Hispanic adults are 25 percent more likely to follow a brand and 18 percent more likely to follow a celebrity than the general online population.

Other digital findings from the report include:

• Hispanic video viewers are 68 percent more likely than non-Hispanic White viewers to watch video on the Internet, and 20 percent more likely to watch video on a mobile phone.

• Hispanics outpace all ethnic groups in mobile downloads of music and pictures.

• Hispanics are less likely to have Internet access at home compared to the U.S. average (62 % and 76%, respectively), but have increased home broadband use by 14 percent over the past year, which is higher than the 6 percent growth of broadband use in the general market.

For more information on Hispanic consumers, download Nielsen’s State of the Hispanic Consumer: The Hispanic Market Imperative report.

The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) today released the results of the 2011 Government E-Payments Adoption Ranking (GEAR) study, commissioned by Visa Inc. (NYSE:V). The GEAR study measures the extent to which governments in 62 countries provide e-payment services and the underlying factors that affect government e-payments adoption. It builds on an initial study conducted in 2007 with new findings that highlight the diversity of government e-payment systems already in place, as well as the abundant opportunities available to governments for improving e-payment services.

"Digital currency delivers essential benefits for governments, enabling them to increase efficiencies, promote financial inclusion and drive economic growth," said Joseph W. Saunders, chief executive officer for Visa Inc. "Today, Visa has more than 5,000 government programs in 47 countries. Results from this study highlight how governments use e-payments today - and how we can partner with clients to deliver products and services that address challenges governments may face."

The EIU defines e-payments in the study as the exchange or transfer of funds over an electronic platform. They can be made by various means such as payment card, direct deposit, direct debit, electronic funds transfer, and wire transfer. Some key trends and highlights from the study include:

• Income tax, VAT/sales tax payments, social security contributions and automotive tolls and fines are the most common types of e-payments offered by governments.
• Governments have made great strides in recent years in promoting electronic payments. For example, some countries offer direct incentives, such as lower VAT rates when a card is used.
• Seventy-six percent of the countries in the study have online procurement systems with varying capabilities to help governments streamline purchasing processes with suppliers and businesses.

The provision of some e-payment services has increased since the 2007 study was conducted. Nevertheless, there are still gains to be made, particularly for obtaining/paying for an ID card, requesting unemployment, workers' compensation and welfare benefits, and disbursement of loans to businesses.

Infrastructure plays a significant role in e-payment adoption

Since the 2007 study, there has been a marked improvement in technological infrastructure such as mobile and broadband. More than half the countries in the 2011 GEAR study have developed 3G and other mobile phone technologies, including 4G. The number of mobile phone subscriptions has soared since 2007, and the diffusion of broadband has grown swiftly. Government e-payments adoption stands to benefit from this, given that connectivity - through a variety of devices - is the primary enabler of such payments. Recognizing that investment in technological infrastructure can support economic growth, many developing countries are also investing in Internet infrastructure, including installing technologies that allow individuals to access the Internet through mobile devices.

For years, trust has been a key barrier to citizen adoption of government e-payments. This challenge is slowly being overcome by the roll-out of new and improved e-payment security systems and government enforcement mechanisms. More than one-third of the 62 countries in the 2011 GEAR study received the highest possible score for their efforts to promote e-payment security.

The future of government e-payment adoption will continue to evolve

The GEAR study also looks to the future, noting that as governments work toward adopting and improving e-payment services, their strategies will almost undoubtedly reflect each country's unique infrastructure and social, economic and policy context. No single approach to government e-payments adoption is universal. The study indicates several themes will play a role in e-payment adoption, including:

• Financial inclusion, particularly in the developing world, is likely to get a boost from the roll out of mobile banking services. Countries in Africa and Latin America are expected to see particularly strong gains in this area.
• Mobile payments will likely see a huge uptake in the coming years. With more than 5 billion mobile phone users worldwide, mobile payments are likely to boom.
• Automating standard services such as tax payments/refunds and social security contributions will likely be prioritized over other e-payment services.
• E-payment security will remain an important issue to address and developing proven security measures will be necessary for the uptake of e-payments to flourish.
• Public/private-sector collaboration on e-payment initiatives is likely to continue as governments try to do more with fewer resources.

According to Lucy Hurst, Associate Director of Custom Research, Economist Intelligence Unit: "Two key trends the study showed us are that momentum has continued in the development of e-payments despite all the potentially derailing factors that could have constrained it, like the economic downturn and fiscal austerity measures. Secondly, the overall trend since 2007 is for governments to continue to make commitments to the development of e-payment platforms. There is increased ease and efficiency in the way citizens and businesses conduct transactions with their governments."

For each of the 62 countries, EIU conducted online research for 37 indicators across seven categories: Citizen-to-Government; Government-to-Citizen; Business-to-Government; Government-to-Business; Infrastructure; Social and Economic Context; and Policy Context. Countries included in the study represent approximately 81 percent of the total world population and an estimated 94 percent of total world GDP, and vary in terms of economic development and political systems.

For more information about the study, visit www.visa.com/gear.

Location-based services (LBS) have topped the global league as the mobile feature set to grow the most, after world leading insights consultancy TNS revealed over 60 per cent of those that don’t yet use the service globally want to start using them.

TNS’s annual Mobile Life study – which explores mobile use among 48,000 people in 58 countries – shows the majority of people around the world now recognise the value of sharing their location to benefit from a range of services.  

Almost one fifth (19 per cent) of the world’s six billion mobile users are already using LBS, with more than three times this number (62 per cent) aspiring to do so in the future. Navigation with maps and GPS is currently the most popular motivation behind LBS uptake (46 per cent), but there is growing interest in more diverse activities, with 13 per cent of current social network users ‘checking-in’ through platforms like Foursquare, or Facebook Places – a 50 per cent uplift on 2011. 

LBS users are increasingly using services to enrich their social lives, with one in five (22 per cent) using it to find their friends nearby.  Around a quarter use the technology to find restaurants and entertainment venues (26 per cent) or check public transport schedules (19 per cent) and 8 per cent to book a taxi. 

Julián Atienza, Mobile Life director in Spain, explained: “We are really starting to see location based services ‘come of age’. People are realising that sharing their location often offers some kind of reward in terms of a discount or deal. It is the combination of time and context – directing people towards a deal when they can easily redeem it – that unlocks a powerful tool for marketers to develop precise targeting approaches.”

A complex map of global use

While the study has shown an increasing willingness to engage with LBS, there are also significant variations in people’s reasons for embracing the service across different markets. 

Of all current LBS users, Latin Americans most use the feature to find friends, with 39 per cent stating it as the top reason to share their location, compared to only 11 per cent in India.  Finding friends via LBS falls to just 9 per cent in North America and only slightly higher in Europe at 20 per cent.

Applications of LBS also differ widely around the world.  In the technology-saturated markets of developed Asia 36 per cent of people use location services to find restaurants and entertainment venues nearby, whereas in China this falls to 17 per cent. This puts Chinese people just ahead of Sub-Saharan Africa, where 10 per cent of LBS users use it to find places to go out.

Julián Atienza  continued: “These regional variations highlight the importance of having a targeted strategy when it comes to location based marketing. LBS offers marketers an unprecedented level of engagement and targeting, however it has to be done in line with how people in individual markets want to engage with brands to avoid being intrusive. Where brands get it right, we have seen significant rewards in terms of brand engagement, loyalty and sales.”

Despite the debt crisis and increase in crude oil prices, Germans are consuming like never before.  According to the German Trade Federation (HDE), the country´s retail trade is “very sound”.

The outlook for 2012 is for retail trade turnover to grow by  around 1.5%, while eCommerce could see a 13% increase.   In fact this year, eCommerce retail revenue is expected to average € 81 million a day.

The eCommerce website MercadoLibre reported huge growth in sales via smartphones (mCommerce)in Latin America.   Just six months after the launch of the smartphone-specific application, there were over 2 million downloads in Latin America, specially for the iPhone (40%), Blackberry (30%) and Android-powered devices (21%).

Daniel Rabinovich, CTO at MercadoLibre told Peru.com that in approximately nine months MercadoLibre´s mCommerce app has been downloaded more than 2.5 million times.  As a result,  3.5% of its website traffic  comes from mobile devices.

With MercadoLibre´s app for mobile devices users can browse,  search for products, rate sellers, ask questions, add products to Favorites,  and buy, sell and make payments directly via their cell phone.

The top selling products via mobile are: skates, abdominal machines, silicone covers for cell phones,  portable audio players, floor fans, video game consoles, model helicopters, iPad covers and cases, routers and low-cost items.

Amazon.com launched an eMarketplace for business, industrial, scientific and commercial customers called AmazonSupply.com offering 500,000 parts and supplies.  

Customers can shop for items by product, material and brand across 14 categories: Lab & Scientific; Test, Measure & Inspect; Occupational Health & Safety; Janitorial & Sanitation; Office; Fleet & Vehicle Maintenance; and Power & Hand Tools.

Source and complete article on AuctionBytes  

The company Casaleggio Associati, in partnership with Adobe Systems, released a survey, eCommerce in Italy 2012 , which presents the trends, evolution and strategies of a growing market.  According to the survey,  eCommerce in Italy was worth approximately € 19 billion in 2011, with the main industry sectors being recreation (primarily gambling, thanks to the relaxation of license restrictions) that took  a 56.9% share of the market, tourism (24.8%) and  insurance (5.9%).

Online gambling, approved by the Italian government and therefore legal in the country, makes it hard for players to use the websites of other countries, so 2011 proved to be a golden year for the online gaming market.   Poker cash games, for example, had already made € 883 million in January of 2012, while online casinos have registered € 365 million (+2.2%) since December 2011.

Another important factor is the boost in mobile commerce or mCommerce, whose accelerated growth can be linked to the increase in tablet devices, with already a million users in Italy.   A high concentration of tablet traffic occurs mainly between 7 pm and 11 pm, which makes it clear that the trend is to use these devices during leisure time.  

Italian companies still have a limited presence in the international market.  Compared to the past, it appears that there is need to expand the business abroad, not only to increase turnover, but to create an adequate economy of scale to withstand international competition.

According to Davide Casaleggio, a partner at Casaleggio Associati,  “the Internet still gets better results than traditional marketing; and it´s the sales channel that offers greater growth potential despite the economic downturn.

Thirty-three percent of companies do not sell their own products or services outside of Italy, while the remaining 67% are present in the international market through different channels.  Fifty-four percent of companies sell abroad directly, either through their website in Italian (24%) or through a multi-language site (25%).   Five percent have an agent or office abroad and 13% do business abroad as part of a multinational.

Annasara Bonandrini, Marketing Manager for  Digital Marketing at Adobe Systems Italy says that, e-Commerce is a strategic channel for companies that want to be competitive and that want to effectively reach their target audience. It allows for cross-platform experiences and an increase in customer service.

The reason for the move is the rapid increase in Internet use and growing demand for e-commerce. 

President Dmitry Medvedev announced on the official website of the Kremlin that given the rapid increase in Internet use and the growing demand for e-commerce, the Russian government has decided to foster e-commerce in the country.

In order to extend trade over the Internet, the government and the authorities must create ideal conditions, both in terms of online payments and adapting legislation to this type of commerce.

Moreover, with regard to the challenges posed by the growth of the Internet, the Russian parliament will debate several copyright amendments passed in the second reading of the changes to the Civil Code.

In 2011 Medvedev ordered that reforms be adapted, by which owners of intellectual property could relinquish their rights to an unlimited number of people free of charge.

The Latin American Institute for Electronic Commerce (ILCE), with the backing of the Mexican Internet Association (AMIPCI), is organizing the next meeting of the Regional Cycle of Talks with eBusiness Leaders, which will take place in Mexico City on April 26.  At each meeting, industry and company leaders share and exchange experiences about current issues, and on this occasion the topic of discussion will be “A Global View of Best Practices to Avoid Online Fraud and their Importance in the Growth of eCommerce and eBusiness.”

The event will be transmitted online for free at 8:30 GMT-5 (1:30 pm in Spain) with pre-registation at http://www.lidereseninternet.com/formulario-inscripcion.  There will also be online networking via SMS, Twitter, etc.

In 2011 Latin America registered $ 35 billion in online sales and it is estimated that by 2015 global sales will reach $ 1.4 trillion.  With such figures, online fraud detection is more challanging than ever for companies.  Fraud is a risk of not doing business face-to-face. This event will reveal the techniques that influence North American business and Latin American trends in this matter.

The meeting will be attended by renowned eCommerce industry leaders like Lee Araujo, managing director at CiberSource LAC, Mauricio Braverman, president of AMIPCI, and Marcos Pueyrredon, president of the Latin American Institute for Electronic Commerce.

A survey of 18,000 people in 13 Latin American countries (excluding Brazil), conducted by the company Tendencias Digitales, found that 59% of the people in Latin America shopped online in 2011.

Columbia ranked eighth, with 47% of Internet users shopping online.  Argentina and Chile with 71% and Uruguay with 70%, are the top ranking countries for e-Commerce.  The Dominican Republic with 40%, El Salvador with 36% and Guatemala with 30% are at the bottom of the list.

There are currently 133,909 people in Colombia that shop online.  According to Nielsen, that number will increase to 179,087 by December of this year.  Alberto Pardo, president of the Colombian Chamber of Electronic Commerce told ElTiempo.com that  “e-Commerce is without a doubt a growing market.  According to estimates, in 2011 $ 1.2 billion (more than € 892 million) in goods and services were sold in the country via the Internet.”

With reference to industry growth Pardo added, “it is expected that by the end of this year more than $2 billion (nearly €1.49 billion) will have been spent in Colombia shopping online. That is to say, 100% more than last year.”

According to All Star Internet Marketing, growth in the sector has been fueled by online marketing of airline tickets, technology, distributors of recognized brands,  department stores, tickets, discount coupons and all sorts of goods and services, which in 2012 will account for more than $ 250 billion (around € 185.9 billion) in sales worldwide.

Paraguay will update its National Payment System in response to the surge in electronic commerce.  A program executed by the Central Bank of Paraguay and recently approved by the National Congress, will provide necessary security measures to ensure that more Paraguayans shop online.  

The safety mechanisms meet international standards and are expected to be in place in September, according to the bank´s parent company.   Hence, the prospect of using the Internet for transactions, especially purchases known as e-commerce, becomes more promising following the announcement of this new payment system´s launch.

Experts agree that the main problem Internet users face when they shop online is that payment has to be made in cash, which is why it is not popular despite technological advances. Nonetheless, they maintain that with a mechanism that facilitates and ensures control over web payments, obstacles will be overcome to make way for the development of e-commerce.

Source: La Nación

A recent international survey from PricewaterhouseCoopers reveals the main factors that Danish citizens take into account when making online purchases.  Most surprising is their preference for online stores that offer free shipping.  However, this practice is widespread within the industry, with 59% of stores taking on to some degree, the cost of shipping to consumers.

Other factors considered important include the range of merchandise offered, availability and delivery time.

The survey also confirms known facts like online shoppers are not very loyal, since they go to other websites and/or retail stores to look for, compare and choose the best deal.

In some U.S. supermarkets, new generation tablet and phone users can interact with items in store aisles to manage their shopping cart purchases, obtain information and personalized discounts and to pay.  This new way of buying is becoming more and more frequent and may eventually replace the ubiquitous supermarket cash register.

Modiv Media, Inc. is one of the companies that have propelled the use of mobile phones in American supermarket aisles with their Modiv  i-Phone app implemented by stores to offer personalized deals to their customers.  The tool allows customers to scan bar coded items as they shop.  For John Stanton, professor of food marketing at St. Joseph´s University in Philadelphia, “the concept of scanning while you shop will de facto become reality everywhere’’ .

The app also offers customers personalized deals based on former purchases, preferred brands, items already in their cart and the aisles they are shopping.

The use of smartphones as a promotional tool has a direct effect on manufacturers.  A survey conducted by Aisle Buyer, a mobile shopping platform, found that 81% of consumers go to grocery and drug stores with a shopping list. But only 8% of them list specific brands to buy, which indicates that the majority make brand decisions in situ. In fact, according to the survey, nearly 75% of consumers in the United States would switch brands if the stores delivered real-time promotions to their mobile phones.

In addition, checkout can also be managed through the smartphone, either with the app described above or via other payment methods gaining ground in the U.S. like “Wallet” from Google.  Some Supermarkets, the ones that shoppers consider to be the most innovative, are beginning to use tablets to replace cash registers and upgrade their image or as shopper friendly tools to offer their customers more detailed information. 

The e-commerce market in Turkey is one of the fastest growing markets in the world, so much so that the Mexican newspaper El Financiero called it “the next China”.  In 2011, e-commerce transactions increased by 57% compared to the previous year, reaching 22 billion Liras (more than € 9.5 billion) according to Interbank Card Center. Not bad, considering growth in Europe in the next few years is expected to reach 12%, as reported by Forrester Research.

Moreover, the e-commerce sector is growing at a spectacular rate, with over 30 new companies started in the first month of 2012 alone. And there are others with a great following, like Markafoni, the second most highly visited private buying network in the world that attracted big investors such as eBay, Amazon and Napsters; and Trendyol.com, which reached more than $ 100 million in revenue (€ 74 million) in just a year and a half.

According to ComScore, with a population of 74 million, there are more than 34 million Internet users in Turkey, which in the global ranking of countries with the highest number of Internet users puts Turkey at 13^th place.  Half of the population is under 30 years old and actively use social networks.  That, along with an enthusiastic fervor for business enterprise, makes Turkey the ideal country to promote e-commerce.

US retail ecommerce sales, including digital downloads and event tickets but excluding travel, will rise 15.4% to $224.2 billion this year, eMarketer estimates. Fast-growing categories like apparel and accessories will help boost online sales figures, but underlying the trend is a deeper shift in the mindset of many consumers, which has turned them into omnichannel shoppers.

"In the past, cross-channel shopping amounted to using a retailer's different channels one at a time for separate transactions," said Jeffrey Grau, eMarketer principal analyst and author of the new report, "US Retail Ecommerce Forecast: Entering the Age of Omnichannel Retailing." "But today, consumers are moving between a retailer's channels-websites, stores, mobile devices, social media-in a fluid way."

A February 2012 survey by price comparison service PriceGrabber, a part of Experian, found most US online consumers plan to shop this year by combining online, brick-and-mortar and mobile retail channels.

Also notable, a large share of respondents (42%) told PriceGrabber they will shop mostly online in 2012-three-and-one-half times more than those that said they would shop mostly in brick-and-mortar stores (12%). "A consumer might research a product online, look at it up close in a store, solicit opinions from friends via social networks, use a mobile phone to check competitors' prices, but ultimately buy it in-store using PayPal on their phone," said Grau. "What will matter most is whether the experience was smooth. If the retailer disappoints the shopper during any of these channel handoffs, it will reflect poorly not only on that channel but on the brand as a whole."

Smartphones have become an important tool in the omnichannel shopper's arsenal. Post-holiday research from Google and Ipsos OTX illustrated the different ways US smartphone users combined smartphones and in-store shopping during the 2011 holiday season. Smartphones were used most frequently to drive consumers to stores. Once in stores, consumers used their devices to look up product information, which then lead to a purchase.

"Social media sites also influence online and offline purchases for a small percentage of consumers," noted Grau. "But the number is bound to rise as marketers become more adept at connecting with social network users."

Source: eMarketer

E-Commerce generates $208 million a year for the country. 

The 2012 Foro Pymes Competitivas, which took place in Guayaquil on March 26 and 27, brings together representatives of small and medium sized companies in Ecuador.  Organized by ECO Corporation, the event promotes the Internet as a cost-effective way to start-up businesses, save money, and replace or enhance traditional marketing in the press, radio and television. 

Eco Corporation manager Julio Emén, tells http://www.andes.info.ec/  that “on the web, a small businessman can promote his products and sell them at the same time, without the client having to be physically present.  This can only be done through eCommerce.”  But in order to take advantage, one must understand how electronic commerce works, and that is why this event takes place.

According to the Latin American Institute for Electronic Commerce (ILCE), eCommerce generates $ 208 million (approximately € 155 million) a year in Ecuador and it still has a long way to go before it is fully developed. 

ILCE points out that Latin America accounts for only 3.5% of eCommerce on a global level, however, it is experiencing an annual growth rate of 40%, which translates into $35 billion (€ 22.02 billion) a year.  There are already 190 million Internet users, 30% of which shop online.

Source:  http://www.andes.info.ec/  The Official News Agency of Ecuador and South America

The number of active Internet users in Brazil that access the World Wide Web from home or work was up 16% in 2011 compared to the previous year. They number 46.3 million people according to the report “2012 Brazil Digital Future in Focus”, prepared by marketing research firm comScore, which ranks the country as the seventh largest Internet market in the world.    

According to the report, in December, 2011, Brazilians spent on average, 26.7 hours surfing the Internet.  The most highly visited sites were web portals and social networks. Online buying, known as e-commerce, also saw the number of visitors grow (+30%) on web pages like Americanas.com, Mercadolivre and Buscapé.  Alex Banks, director of comScore Brazil says that “despite the significant increase, the heaviest online shoppers were the English and Americans, while Brazilians tend to make one purchase per month.” 

Research shows that online advertising in Brazil will continue to increase in 2012.  Last December, 62.9 billion online ad impressions reached 50.8 million Internet users in the country.  Netshoes, which sells sporting goods online, led the Internet advertising market, followed by VIVO.  

Facebook was the largest advertising platform in the country.  According to the director of comScore in Brazil, smartphones and tablets, which currently account for 1.5% of online traffic in Brazil, should offer advertisers great opportunities this year.  More than 42% of visits to websites last year were made via tablets and around 55% via smartphones.

The forecast for this year is that the online audience will continue to rise, in keeping with the rate of growth of access to social networks, search engines, videos and purchases.

For some, it is just a way to respond to the demand that exists on the international markets, while others are using it as a test prior to opening their shops abroad. Despite the apparent practicality, the logistics of the transactions have proven to be an arduous and complex task.

Issues such as order management, customs and delivery fees are some of the difficulties that firms are having to tackle. A good example of that are the many companies with software for warehouse management that does not recognize foreign postal codes. “It may sound like a stupid excuse not to sell on foreign markets because of this issue,” said FiftyOne CEO Michael DeSimone in an interview with WGSN- “but I can't remember how many times I have heard about it being a real obstacle to international online sales.”

In Western Europe, the Asian Pacific region and Latin America, the Forrester research firm expects growth for the online retail sector to reach 67% from 2011 to 2015, compared to 42% in the United States. International users visit American retail portals due to their lower prices and the availability of products that they cannot find on their domestic markets, say sources from Forrester.

Online shopping is at its height in Argentina, where in 2011 the transaction level increased by 49.5% compared to the previous year.

This new way of doing business generates employment. According to the chairwoman of the Argentine Chamber of Electronic Commerce (CACE), Patricia Jebsen, “online sales are estimated to represent 3.3% of the total sales, employing approximately 120,000 people; that is, around 1% of the Economically Active Population”.

This new way of doing business stands out especially due to its high rate of growth in recent years. In 2006, total sales were valued at €1.7 billion, while in 2011 the value was €8.7 billion. That means that the cumulative growth for this latest period was 504%. That takes into account only the transactions within the country; not sales abroad.

With these results, the country's businessmen and women expect growth in 2012, compared to 2011, to be 41%, representing sales valued at €12.5 billion.

Source: UNIVERSIA

One of the world's largest online payment companies, Paypal, owned by the Ebay platform, has begun the corresponding formalities with the Chinese regulators to operated on the Asian ‘giant's’ market.

Today, Paypal services are used by Chinese businesses for their transactions with foreign companies. The company's goal is to make its payment service available for domestic transactions as well.

Chinahas one of the world's largest electronic marketplaces. With over 193 million users, the online sales business volume for 2012 is expected to reach 750 billion yuans (€90.36 billion, approximately), while in 2015 it is expected to be the country with the online market that moves the most money on the planet.

Electronic commerce will grow in Mexico by between 30% and 35% this year, according to estimates by Gastón Funes, commercial director for Latin America at BuscaPé. Among the driving forces behind this growth, Funes highlights the creation of platforms the promote the incorporation of businesses in the online channel and mobile technologies.

The commercial director for Latin Americaat BuscaPé says that mobile devices will play a very significant role, as the number of users browsing on smartphones or tablets is now between 20% and 30%.

Another factor that will help in the development of e-Commerce, says Funes, will be the social networks.

The Mexican Internet Association (AMIPCI) estimates that the e-commerce volume in Mexico in late 2011 may have reached $3.6 billion (more than €2.554 billion), representing 28% growth compared to 2010.

Source and further details on this subject: El Economista

PayPal announced PayPal Here, the world’s first global mobile payments solution that allows small businesses to accept almost any form of payment. The new service includes a free app and fully encrypted thumb-sized card reader, which turns any iPhone, and soon Android smartphone, into a mobile payment solution. With PayPal Here, small businesses, service providers and casual sellers can send invoices or accept debit and credit cards, checks and PayPal using one simple product. 

PayPal Here gives merchants more choice than any mobile payment solution on the market today. No matter how consumers choose to pay, PayPal Here makes it easy, giving small businesses more sales opportunities. Merchants can accept payments by swiping cards in the card reader, scanning cards and checks using their phone cameras, or manually entering card information into the app. They can also send an invoice and set payment terms directly from the app.  And, of course, they can accept PayPal payments in a brand new way.

PayPal also released the latest version of its PayPal Mobile app for iPhone, a consumer app that complements PayPal Here. PayPal users will be able to use the “Local” feature on the PayPal app to find nearby businesses that accept PayPal Here. Once the customer is ready to pay, they can notify the merchant by a quick tap on their mobile phone. Merchants can use PayPal Here to accept the payment by simply referencing the shopper’s name and picture – no wallet needed. 

“Helping small businesses grow and accept payments has been in PayPal’s DNA since its inception 14 years ago,” said PayPal’s vice president of mobile, David Marcus. “We’ve heard small businesses loud and clear. They don’t want to miss sales opportunities because they can’t accept the payment type that their customers want to use.  They want quick access to their money, a reliable card reader, and one transparent, low fee to process these payments. I’m thrilled to launch PayPal Here because we’ve been able to bring all of these key features together into a product that’s so simple to use.”

PayPal Here offers a competitive fee structure with no monthly account or set-up fees.  Merchants pay a simple flat rate of 2.7 percent for card swipes and PayPal payments. In addition, every PayPal Here merchant will receive a business debit card for quick access to cash and 1 percent cash-back on eligible purchases. If merchants use the debit card for purchases, their fees effectively come down to 1.7 percent.

Beyond all of the unique capabilities offered by PayPal Here, the key differences from other existing mobile payment solutions are that it includes PayPal’s world-class fraud management capabilities, as well as 24x7 live customer support. PayPal has more than 100 million customers around the globe and 13 years of experience providing secure payment products that have helped millions of merchants grow their businesses globally.

PayPal Here is the latest addition to a comprehensive suite of payment solutions for small businesses – from PCI-compliant express checkout options and invoicing, to debit cards and mobile-optimized checkout. The company plans to announce even more functionality to its merchants later this year.

“Because PayPal offers me so many payment solutions, it’s really become my one-stop shop,” said PayPal merchant Aaron Thorne of Hiroshi’s Catering in Walnut Creek, CA. “Unlike other card readers, PayPal Here is fully encrypted so I can feel comfortable taking payments in multiple ways and providing security to my customers.”

PayPal Here: Summary of Benefits and Features for U.S. Small Businesses

• The most payment types: swipe credit and debit cards, manually key in or scan card information, scan and process checks (U.S. only), invoice directly from the app, and accept PayPal
• Immediate card acceptance: download the PayPal Here merchant app, sign up and start accepting payments immediately
• One simple flat fee: the mobile app and card reader is free for both merchants and consumers, with no account setup or monthly fees, competitively priced at 2.7 percent
• Be paid quickly: merchants receive funds directly into their PayPal account whether the sale is online, mobile or via PayPal Here
• PayPal debit card for quick access to cash with 1 percent cash back on eligible purchases, fees effectively come down to 1.7 percent
• Security: PayPal Here uses end-to-end encryption to help protect card information as it swipes, backed by PayPal’s world-class security, risk and fraud management systems
• 24x7 customer support: live phone and online customer support – more than 6,000 customer service agents across 17 centers around the globe

Backed by PayPal:One of the world’s most trusted ways to pay and get paid with more than 100 million active accounts worldwide in 190 markets and supports payments in 25 currencies.

Availability

The PayPal Here card reader and merchant app for iPhone are both available today exclusively to select merchants in the United States, Canada, Australia and Hong Kong. It will be generally available in those countries next month. The Android version of the PayPal Here merchant app will also be available at that time. PayPal will announce the availability of PayPal Here in more countries soon. U.S. businesses can join the wait list to get a free PayPal Here card reader at www.paypal.com/here. International merchants can register their interest at their local PayPal site.

The updated PayPal app for iPhone is available in the iOS App Store globally starting today.

Small-scale farmers, who supply a large part of the world's food, often lack access to tools and technologies that could help them make decisions. That is why an organization of farmers from westernKenyahas begun to use mobile phones to access a digital market without going through intermediaries.

That way, by dealing directly with the exporters, the group is able to increase revenue drastically.

In light of that, the World Bank's Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (ARD) is now joining forces with infoDev to connect small-scale farmers with knowledge, networks and institutions.

To facilitate all of this work and to train farming personnel, the two entities, financed by Finland's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has created the ICT in Agriculture e-Sourcebook.

The goal is to enable the newly computer-savvy farmers to get involved with this new commercial project and understand the environment and the rapid evolution of ICTs as an essential factor for fundamental change for farming productivity and rural development.

Not only are there plans to reach commercial agreements through the use of ICTs, but new mobile applications are also being used to provide appropriate information on disease outbreaks to farmers in East Africa, enabling them to prepare and prevent the plagues from affecting their livestock.

Source: World Bank

On Wednesday and Thursday, 21 and 22 March 2012, the latest edition of the Online Marketing Expo (OMExpo), one of the largest online marketing events, will take place inMadrid, together with the E-commerce Expo, an electronic commerce trade show and convention.

Both events will offer interesting seminars and conferences by leading representatives from the sector, such as managers from Google, advertising agencies and online advertising systems, as well as our eMarket Services analyst Inés Ramirez Nicolas.

With a view of making electronic marketplaces more accessible to all professionals and new businessmen and women in these markets, the biggest development this year is that if you register online you will save €50 off the box office ticket price.

Source: OMExpo

According to the most recent report by British company Kelkoo, online commerce in Poland this year will increase by 24%: much more than the EU average, which is 16.1%. However, it is important to remember that the volume of business in Poland is still far behind countries such as the United Kingdom or Germany.

Meanwhile, on 7 March, Zara opened its electronic shop. Zara is one of the most popular clothing brands in Poland and the largest in the world in the area of online sales.

The Australian digital retail industry is booming with consumers spending $15.9 billion on Internet shopping in 2011, representing 64 per cent growth over 2010, with the main growth driver being demand for discounted offerings.

Retailers are now responding to the opportunity with a flurry or initiates including more online discounts and deals, mobile apps and group buying, according to local emerging technology analyst firm Telsyte.

In one of the largest local market studies of its type, Telsyte surveyed more than 1100 Australian consumers and covered more than 350 local online retailers across 18 categories of online retail.

Telsyte expects the online retail market to continue growing strongly and exceed $30 billion by 2016.

Telsyte Senior Research Manager, Sam Yip, says that technological changes and economic conditions have accelerated the concept of discount online shopping.

“Retailers have spent the past few years trying to find the best way to drive their online strategy, and it is now evident that offering discounts is the main lever to get Australians to spend”.

In less than 24 months, Australian consumers have been offered a multitude of new ways to shop online with group buying sites, daily deals sites, consignment sites, shopping comparison sites and mobile shopping applications.

“We have seen the home pages of retailers shift from focusing on product range to discount specials, either through a dedicated clearance page, daily deals section, factory seconds lists, or pre-owned goods.”

In 2011, the top digital retail categories were travel, groceries and fashion, with a combined share of 73 per cent of the total online retail industry revenue.

The study found that just under a quarter of eCommerce revenues flowed to overseas retailers varying between 8% and 40% depending on the category. This trend is expected to continue with the strong Australian dollar.

Iddiction, Inc. today debuts its app deals and discovery tool in the App Store.  App-o-Day is founded by Andrej Nabergoj, the former CEO of Outfit7 – the company behind the Talking Friends series with over 300 million downloads.  His newest venture will bring consumers the best app deals in the App Store, including selected paid apps that consumers can get for free for a limited-time, or free apps that provide a special in-app purchase offering.

"Many developers are already discounting and promoting their apps.  It's very confusing for the users.  We have created a gorgeous-looking, user-focused and unified platform to promote those deals in a transparent way, and our selection will be highly curated.  We will feature only one deal at a time, and we're interested in showcasing the hard-to-find, the up-and-comers, the unexpected," said Nabergoj, CEO and founder of Iddiction.

With over 500,000 choices in the App Store, App-o-Day cuts through the clutter and provides only the best apps directly to consumers. Here's how the app works:

1. Download App-o-Day from the iTunes App Store, or visit App-o-Day on the web (www.appoday.com), Twitter (www.twitter.com/appoday) or Facebook (fb.me/appoday).
2. Discover the best, newest, hottest daily app deals, curated and delivered to your phone, every day.
3. Get the app deal from the iTunes App Store. 

"The App Store itself is the best place to discover and download new apps.  But we take it to the next level – giving consumers a very focused and convenient way to find fresh new apps or games, and giving independent developers a new platform to promote their handiwork," added Nabergoj. 

"With so many apps in the App Store, it's a true challenge for independent developers to get noticed.  App-o-Day changes that equation, giving the best, most innovative apps rocket fuel to reach new users," said Dr. Bojan Bostjancic, CEO and co-founder of Azumio, the leader in biofeedback health apps.  Azumio has more than 15 million downloads to date and is poised to be at the forefront of the rapidly growing mobile health app movement. 

"We're thrilled to be one of the first developers partnering with App-o-Day to help spread the word about innovative apps.  A platform that features discounts and promotions from only the best apps is the perfect tool for developers and app-lovers alike," said Geoff Warren-Boulton, founder and CEO of Apptly, the company behind popular apps like Fatify and Oldify that have had 3.5 million downloads, and animated over 17 million modified faces since December. 

App-o-Day is now available in the iPhone and iPod App Store for download here:http://itunes.apple.com/en/app/appoday-free-app-deal-day/id492105097.  Later this year it will be available on the iPad platform.

Deal4it.com, an online pawn shop that combines live auction bidding with real-time dealing, launched "Pawn Shopping Adventure" where buyers and browsers have access to thousands of products listed by pawn shops located throughout the United States.

Buyers can browse a wide variety of new and used products: jewelry, watches, TVs, power tools, musical instruments, computers, and firearms.

Complete article on eCommerceBytes

According to a study undertaken by “Osservatorio Multicanalità”, managed by Nielsen in collaboration with Connexia and the School of Management at the Milan Polytechnic University, there are some 3.3 million Italian women who participate actively in blogs and forums (primarily mothers; many of the authors of well known websites) with some 8.6 million readers.

In addition, 42% of all Italian mothers with children aged 0 to 6 turn to the Internet as their main source of information for shopping and to keep up with the latest developments. The main reasons for this trend are a lack of time among the consumers, lack of nearby shops and an increasingly more technological lifestyle.

Italian companies are covering these needs through communication, interaction and the sale of clothing on the Internet, seeking to attract the attention of this large number of shoppers, whose purchasing power and influence is very high.

Despite the limited optimism with the situation in the fashion sector, online sales of clothes and footwear are growing significantly in Denmark, following the trend in the rest of Europe.

In 2011, Danes spent €6.185 billion on the Internet. That figure represents a 15% increase in e-commerce compared to last year. In light of this performance, many fashion shops are rushing to launch online sales platforms. The most significant case is the major fashion group Bestseller, which sells all of its brands through an online shopping service.

Another significant detail is related to cross-border shopping. Of all e-Commerce sales made in Denmark, 19% where on foreign pages, representing a total of €1.21 billion.

Until now, selling to the Norwegian public on the Internet from abroad was complicated and costly due to the unique trade regulations in the Nordic country. Thanks to its new subsidiary in Norway, Swiss Post International offers a simple, inexpensive, flexible and dynamic solution for selling in the top country in online shopping in northern Europe.

Swiss Post International has operated since January 2012 focused on providing service to companies in other countries that sell online. Until now, selling to the public in Norway, which is not an EU member state, was very costly due to the special taxes that they had to pay, making it very complicated for non-Norwegian companies to compete effectively.

“We give direct-sale companies the tools to sell directly to consumers in Norway without any type of unexpected taxes,” said Swiss Post International Nordic CEO Thomas Sjölin. According to Damian Ríos, CEO of Swiss Post International in Spain, “this way we provide a simple, innovative and dynamic solution both to e-commerce companies and to the consumers.”

A key part of the service is that it is very flexible for the customer, as delivery is made directly to the consumer, instead of through the corresponding post office. Norway is the leading country in online sales in the Nordic region, and that is because, among other reasons, a large part of the population lives outside of the metropolitan areas. One of the pioneering companies in the use of Swiss Post International's services in Norway is Rapunzel, a company that sells hair products.

Many other companies outside of Norway are looking forward to testing this new service, hoping to be more competitive on the Norwegian market because of it. “We expect an increase in demand of this service when more companies realize its potential,” says Thomas Sjölin.

Swiss Post International continues to consolidate its position among the leading group of postal operators in the international deliveries market. The company employs 1,250 people in 12 countries between Europe, the United States and five points in Asia. Swiss Post International is among the top three domestic postal operators in the international deliveries market.

The British department stores Marks & Spencer have opened an online outlet focused on fashion to move its stock. In a press release, the company has announced that it will be called M&S Outlet and will have over 1,300 products for women, men and children with discounts that could reach up to 40%.

Marks & Spencer began creating physical outlets in 2000, which now number 50, but until now they had not sold these products through e-commerce.

According to AuctionBytes, Forrester Research analyst Sucharita Mulpuru told Bloomberg that Facebook did not work for electronic commerce and doubted its value as a useful tool for retailers. This assertion is due to the fact that many large American companies that have opened shops on the Internet have since closed them because they were unable to obtain the expected profits. Some examples were the f-commerce storefronts that Gamestop or Gap opened and closed last year.

However, some entrepreneurs believe that those cases are due to not understanding how to operate on this platform, as they simply replicate their online storefronts on Facebook, or they have created an application on one of the tabs in their profile.

According to the CEO and co-founder of Payvment, a company dedicated to creating virtual storefronts on this social network, the correct focus is to use references from friends and take advantage of that social focus to expand. This way they say that the growth of shoppers and the volume of transactions is 10% in small sellers who work through their over 60,000 storefronts.

Another formula is the one used by Yardsellr.com and Style.ly, which enable the creation of communities built around the things people like, turning to Facebook as a way of finding buyers and sellers of those objects. With this they are achieving 35% monthly growth.

In that sense, it looks like the formulas best suited to this platform, focused on the consumer and the social aspect, are the key to obtaining results in social e-Commerce. And that is where small businesses have the advantage over large ones for now.

Source and complete article on AuctionBytes

According to a study done by the company “Tendencias Digitales”, 59% of all Internet users in Latin America purchased products online last year.

The countries leading the ranking by number of shoppers as a percentage of the total number of Internet users are: Argentina (71%), Chile (71%), Uruguay (70%), Venezuela (68%) and Mexico (61%).

The products sold most online include tickets for shows or travel, purchased by 30% of those surveyed; computer accessories, 22%; clothing, footwear or accessories, another 22% of the users; and books, purchased by 16% of them.

The growth of B2C e-commerce is expected to bring revenue to this region (excluding Brazil) valued at $15.2 billion (over €10.785 billion) in 2012.

PayPal, the company that specializes in payments on the Web, has launched a new technology that makes it possible to shop at physical stores using a mobile phone. This tool, called Fashion Window, makes it possible to access the shop catalog and buy an item from the shop window.

To do that, the stores need only install a computer and a projector to create the virtual shop and apply a label -a thin film created by 3M- that turns the glass into a holographic screen on which the customer can operate.

The consumer, with a smartphone and the screach application, in which the shop window code must be entered, will turn the holograph on and synchronize the telephone. This will enable them to view the shop catalog, select the item that most interests them and pay for it through PayPal.

Fashion Window is now available and the payment solutions through a mobile phone number an PIN will be by the end of the year in the United Kingdom, and during 2013 in other European countries.

MachinePoint Used Machinery, the largest European Used Machinery trader, continues investmenting in the Turkish market and has just launched its web site in Turkish to better attend the local players of the plastics and beverage industries.

MachinePoint started penetrating the Turkish market by having a local presence in Istanbul in 2010. The launching of the website in Turkish is another step to serve its customers in this market.

Mr. Cesar Rodriguez - CEO of MachinePoint – says: “We have been investing in the Turkish market for over 2 years now. This is one step further in our organization to better serve the Turkish customers. We do understand that getting served in their local language is a great plus for them. Also having a sales office in Istanbul is something they appreciate very much and it is much easier for face to face contact and personal meetings.

For our used machinery business, the Turkish market is important, because there is a high interest from Turkish buyers to purchase high quality machinery mainly from European countries, and there are also a few companies willing to sell their used machinery outside of their competition area. With a company like MachinePoint Used Machinery, they can benefit from our international presence to be able to offer their used equipment outside Turkey easily and in a safe way.

We find Turkish plastic and beverage industry very dynamic, and with ambitious plans for further growth both domestic and international. The product offer of the MachinePoint Group is interesting for Turkish clients as we have a great combination of high quality solutions at reasonable prices. This is key for Turkish buyers who are sensitive to price but still want to guarantee quality of their equipment”.

A good and efficient manufacturing process is part of the competitive advantage of manufacturers. High quality equipment can guarantee this. MachinePoint Group offers access to high quality used equipment through its subsidiary MachinePoint Used Machinery, and through MachinePoint Food Technologies it offers the Beverage and Food industries complete plant solutions with the capacity to integrate used machinery in its projects. These solutions make budgets attractive while maintaining top brands in their lines. Finally through MachinePoint Finance, access to financing can be possible.

The digital platform marketing options continue to grow on the Hungarian market. In 2011, e-commerce continued to be the only retail segment to increase its sales, according to a study conducted by the consulting firm GKleNet.

Sales on the electronic market increased by nearly €40 million, up to a sales volume of €516 million.

It is increasingly more common for millions of users to conduct transactions on the Internet. According to the same study, 1.4 million people shopped electronically in Hungary last September.

VIADEO, the professional social network with over 40 million users around the world, announced today the opening of a new office in Casablanca. This makes Morocco the first country in North Africa and, in general, the Arab world, in which Viadeo has established a presence. It is the second office present on the continent, following the one opened in Senegal in March 2011.

Focused on networking and creating professional contracts, Viadeo will enable the 500,000 Moroccan members who currently connect to the platform to increase their job and business opportunities, in addition to developing their network of professional contacts. Proof of the great potential in the country is that the number of users has doubled in less than a year, representing now the second-largest French-speaking community on the platform after France.

“Africa is a very important continent for Viadeo, where we currently have 2 million members, half of which are located in North Africa. That is why we are proud to be the first international social network to establish a presence on this market”, says Viadeo Africa General Manager Chams Diagne. “Meanwhile, Viadeo is already working with other well known companies and institutions present in Morocco -BMCE, RMA, AXA, Peugeot, BMW or AMDI (Invest in Morocco)-, which have entrusted us with their personnel recruitment strategies or for their communication campaigns. That is why Morocco, with over 13 million Internet users and a growing interest in social networks, represents a real opportunity for growth for Viadeo”.

To answer the needs of its members in Morocco, Viadeo will offer a local payment solution through Moroccan credit cards, which will enable them to subscribe online to the Premium service and, as a result, access the best benefits and possibilities of the platform.

The latest “India B2C E-Commerce Report 2011” by Hamburg-based market research firm yStats.com presents the most important B2C E-Commerce facts on the Indian market. The report features the biggest B2C E-Commerce players, revenue figures and market shares, along with consumers, product categories and trends. 

The number of Internet users in India is expected to reach more than 230 million by 2015, which corresponds to almost 20 % of the population. Despite these numbers, online shops are still confronted with various challenges.

Indian online shops need to take into account that the average Indian consumer still shows little interest in online shopping. One of the main challenges that online shops have been confronted with for a long time is the desire of Indian consumers to see and touch products before buying them. As a result, many retailers offer cash-on-delivery payment and convenient return and refund options. Nonetheless, B2C E-Commerce experienced a more than 30% growth from 2010 to 2011 in India.

As shown in the yStats.com “India B2C E-Commerce Report 2011”, the leading product categories include Mobile Phones and Accessories, followed by Computer Hardware and Consumer Electronics.

In October 2011, the leading B2C E-Commerce player in terms of unique visitor numbers was Homeshop18.com, followed by Letsbuy.com, Indiatimes Shopping and Rediff Shopping.

Excerpt from "India B2C E-Commerce Report 2011"

In its "Latin America B2C E-Commerce Report 2011", Hamburg-based market research firm yStats.com analyzes B2C E-Commerce in large parts of Latin America. The report features the biggest B2C E-Commerce players, revenue figures and Internet users, along with online shoppers and recent trends. In addition to Brazil, which is the most important market, developments in nine other Latin American countries are highlighted as well.

In 2011, Brazil was the country with the highest number of Internet users in Latin America, followed by Mexico, Argentina, Columbia, Venezuela, Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Uruguay and Paraguay.

Over the next few years, the number of online shoppers in Latin America is expected to grow annually by 20 %. In line with this trend, B2C E-Commerce revenue is expected to increase to 30 billion US dollar by 2013. Group shopping also continues to soar in popularity – in April 2011, Groupon was the leading competitor in this segment, followed by Groupalia, Peixeurbano and Clickon.

Brazil dominates online retail in Latin America

The number of online shoppers in Brazil has shown double digit growth, with more than 20 million people making online purchases in 2010. With 80 %, "shopping" is one of the most popular activities of Brazilian Internet users. The yStats.com "Brazil B2C E-Commerce Report 2011" shows that some Brazilians shop frequently – almost one quarter of all online customers had already made more than ten online purchases in the first half of 2011. In line with this trend, B2C E-Commerce revenue has rapidly increased. In the first half of 2011 alone, more revenue was generated than in all of 2008.

"Household appliances", "Computers" and "Health, beauty and drugs" were the leading product categories in the first half of 2011. In September 2011, the most successful E-Commerce retailers were BuscaPe, Mercado Livre and B2W. Group shopping is an important trend in Brazil – in September 2011, the leading portals in this segment were SaveMe, ApontaOfertas and Groupon.

Argentina and Mexico further important B2C E-Commerce markets

In Argentina, the number of Internet users reached more than 26 million in 2010. "Travel and tourism", "Consumer electronics" and "Food, drinks and cleaning products" ranked as the most popular product categories; Falabella and Mercado Libre are the most successful players in this market.

Internet users in Mexico are very young, with almost 40 % of them being younger than 18. B2C E-Commerce continues its rapid growth, with "Plane and bus tickets", "Entertainment tickets" and "Hotel reservations" being the most popular product categories in 2010.

Young Internet users in Latin America

In Chile, B2C E-Commerce revenue increased from 2009 to 2010 by more than 30 %. In Columbia, travel websites were visited by more than 3 million people in June 2011. However, there is still much room for growth in B2C E-Commerce, given that only 5 % of internet users shopped online in 2010.

In Ecuador, there were almost four million Internet users in 2010, with Almacenes de Prati being one of the most successful B2C E-Commerce players.

As clearly shown in the yStats.com "Latin America B2C E-Commerce Report 2011", Paraguay remains one of the least established B2C E-Commerce markets – in 2010, only 20 % of the population used the Internet. "Education and learning", "Searching for information" and "Communication" were the most frequent activities cited by online users.

In Peru, only 13 % of all households had Internet access in 2010. In line with this trend, B2C E-Commerce is still underdeveloped, with Supermercados Wong being the biggest player in this segment.

In Uruguay, half of all Internet users were using the Internet on a daily basis and in 2010, there were almost 400,000 online shoppers. "Computer accessories" and "Consumer electronics" were the leading product categories.

In Venezuela the number of Internet users totaled nearly 20 million in 2010. However, according to the "Latin America B2C E-Commerce Report 2011" by yStats.com, B2C E-Commerce is still not widely established due to the fact that the population has limited access to information and communication technologies.

Wine.com, the most important online shop in the United States recently published its list with the worlds 100 top sellers in 2011. Viña Ardanza, a wine produced by La Rioja Alta, S.A. (Haro), was the top selling Rioja QDO wine last year.

As indicated on the portal, the list, which is "based exclusively on the sales preferences of American consumers and not the opinion of wine experts", places this wine, produced with Tempranillo and Grenache grapes among the 50 chosen ones on this global Top 100.

This great news endorses the magnificent level of recognition received by the wines produced by Grupo La Rioja Alta, S.A. in recent years on the American market. 

The business of online pages with daily discounts and sales promotions has multiplied in Slovakia in the past year.

The business concept is simple. Companies present promotions and discounts on goods and services from other businesses on their website, bringing together a large number of buyers of a single type of article to negotiate with the suppliers for special prices for wholesale purchases.

This new trend is coming on strong in Slovakia, where it is gaining in popularity among local consumers, whose reputation for being sensitive to prices is very much in line with this new type of business.

One quarter (25%) of European retailers believe that they could increase revenues by 25% if they could sell more effectively online and cross-border in Europe, according to a new study conducted by Accenture (NYSE: ACN) for the European Retail Round Table (ERRT).  However, retailers are struggling to navigate the diverse laws, regulations and practices in Europe.

Launching the study in Brussels, Dick Boer, President of the ERRT and CEO of Ahold said “To take full advantage of the opportunities of the European Digital Single Market will require a careful look at existing legislation that impacts online business. The faster any obstacles can be removed, the sooner retailers will be able to boost the Digital Single Market and bring added benefits to European consumers. We suggest an ‘e-commerce test’ for a targeted set of European legislation and for all new relevant proposals. This could help speed up the completion of the Digital Single Market and significantly help to double the share of e-commerce in retail sales by 2015.”

Mr. Boer cited specific policies that can be changed for the better, such as the treatment of electronic waste (e.g. WEEE), contract law, consumer rights, labeling legislation, that are implemented differently in Member States and provide uncertainty on how to develop business:  “Many of the regulatory obstacles cited in the study do not specifically relate to the digital nature of e-commerce. They are rather national regulations that affect all retailers, both traditional shops and online shops. The differences in these national regulations become a real handicap and create uncertainty when a retailer sets up a cross-border e-commerce operation”.

According to the study, two thirds (68 percent) of the retailers consider expanded European cross-border e-commerce to be a medium or high priority for growth. And the sector attracts high spending customers - more than three quarters (76 percent) of the retailers surveyed report that “multi-channel” customers - those who shop both off line and online - spend more than single-channel customers.

The study also highlighted other non-regulatory challenges to growing cross border e-commerce such as the higher risk of fraud, infrastructure problems and IT system limitations.

The Middle East has grown spectacularly in e-commerce during 2011. Many new launches have come out of Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon and the Gulf nations, in an attempt to sell all types of local and imported products.

With the progressive increase in Internet penetration in the Arab world, online sales are no longer an option for the companies, or a luxury: they are now a necessity. A recent study estimates that in 2010, regional sales through electronic commerce reached $3.5 billion (over €2.483 billion). While flight reservations and ticket sales make up the largest portion of the pie, retail sales have increased more than ever. There is an increasing number of people who are getting into the habit of shopping for all sorts of products online.

In 2010, online purchases increased by 10%, while regular purchases grew by just 4%. This is a start of what promises to be a very sustainable industry. It is important to remember that it is a 24-hour business; the Internet does not shut the shop doors, as happens with regular shopping. That represents an opportunity with great potential.

Browsing on the Internet is easier than ever. Technology has become an asset that is much more accessible to the general public. However, positioning and marketing strategies are much more important that away from the Internet. The main question posed is what type of segment to aim for with this new way of shopping: who is the target audience. This is a question that is even more difficult to answer on an emerging market like the online market in the Middle East, where the customers are not yet defined.

Online advertising tends to be located primary in two locations these days: Google and Facebook, the best platforms for presenting a product. This is where the optimization and search engines come into play. Facebook, today, is the most effective and accessible way to segment the public and to reach exactly the segment that you want to target.

The e-commerce platform is no longer a means of selling; it has become a way to expand markets, interact and communicate with customers, as well as an easy way to measure the return on your advertising and to compete with other companies. Letting this opportunity pass you by could cost you very dearly.

The European Commission wants to double the European GDP revenue derived from e-commerce by 2015, as a formula for encouraging growth and employment, according to Neelie Kroes, Commission Vice President and head of the European Digital Agenda in information reported by V3.co.uk.

In the European Community, nearly 200 million people -40% of the population- already shop online, representing 3.4% of all European retail sales. However, there is still a long way to go, as it is necessary to improve cross-border purchases, online payments and provide greater security and transparency in e-commerce, taking it from 3.4% to 7% of the European GDP.

That is why the Commission has drawn up this action plan with 16 key points, including the creation of a single strategy for cloud services and Internet security, to protect that European citizens and businesses against cyber attacks, collaboration with retailers to make them aware of their obligations in the online world and the creation of a common intellectual property system for the European Union.

Source: V3.co.uk

When it comes to social commerce, bad product reviews are good for business according to data from social commerce company Reevoo. Sixty-eight per cent of consumers trust reviews more when they see both good and bad scores, while 30% suspect censorship or faked reviews when they don’t see bad scores. Shoppers who go out of their way to read bad reviews convert 67% more highly than the average consumer.

Three times as many consumers actively seek out and read negative user generated content as look for positive content: negative reviews are even more popular than “most recent reviews”, or “reviews from people like me”. Shoppers who seek out bad reviews are highly engaged with their pre-purchase research, viewing almost four times as many products as the average visitor to a site, and staying considerably longer.

Richard Anson, founder and CEO of Reevoo, said: “Consumers who seek out negative reviews outperform the average visitor to a website: we see a 67% bump in conversion rates for these shoppers. Counter-intuitive as it may seem, negative user-generated content is actually one of the most effective conversion tools,” he added.

The balance between positive and negative comments that a brand or retailer attracts varies according to whether a proactive or passive reviews strategy is employed. Download Reevoo’s ebook for more information on proactive/passive strategies and why bad reviews are good for business.

Home food delivery website Sindelantal.com has acquired the Mexican company Miorden.com, which has over 200 associated restaurants and agreements with the leading restaurant chains in the Latin American country, according to Spanish business newspaper Cinco Días. This type of business already moves between €500 million and €600 million in Spain.

The Spanish company, which manages over 10,000 orders a month, says that Mexico is a strategic country for its business because over half of the restaurants have a home delivery service, and it is also a good time for the e-commerce expansion that is underway.

In just one year, the company has grown in both staff -from 5 to 25 people- and in the number of orders, and it has secured in two rounds of financing over €1,300,000 from shareholders such as Komm Investment, Vitamina K and Kibo Ventures.

Brazil, Argentina, Colombia and Peru are some of the options under consideration as new markets to be conquered, due to the current expansion in e-commerce that they are experiencing.

Source: Cinco Días

Bulbs.com, one of the United State's largest Philips Lighting distributors and one of Internet Retailers Top 500, announces record sales and earnings for 2011.

"We've had an incredible year and are very optimistic entering 2012!" says Bulbs.com CEO Mike Connors.  "There are many reasons for our impressive growth, but most of the success can be attributed to our strategy of keeping the focus on our customers' website experience.  Using website analytics and Foresee customer satisfaction data, we have made dozens of changes to our site design and marketing programs that increased our site traffic, conversion rate and dramatically raised both our repeat B2B and B2C business," says Connors. "Our free shipping offer, recent LED product additions, video and redesigned product detail pages are giving our customers exactly what they asked for – a simple shopping experience and the best products at the right price."

Several developments in the lighting category are causing consumers and business alike to seek out more information about light bulbs – and they're coming to Bulbs.com for the information and products they need. First, the incandescent "phase-out" that was signed into law as part of the 2007 Energy and Information Security Act went into effect on January 1, 2012 and is motivating many consumers to stock up on their supply of incandescent bulbs or look for a comparable replacement. Additionally, LED technology is evolving and prices are coming down causing shoppers to consider this as a viable option for their home or business.

"Our employees have also contributed enormously to our success," says VP of Operations, Wendy Rose. "Not only do we work with the best partners on the web, we have a smart, entrepreneurial group of professionals here in central Massachusetts. By hiring and retaining the best talent in the region, we can offer great benefits, keep the ideas flowing and hold turnover rates to a minimum," says Rose.  "It's likely that our team will grow by as much as 10% during 2012."

"2011/2012 is all about growth and continued customer focus," says Connors. "We have made the investments in technology and marketing to create a solid foundation from which to grow - allowing us to leverage the creativity and determination of our team and accelerate our growth!  We have some exciting initiatives in store for 2012 that will keep us growing and position us well for the future."

Product buying and selling website MercadoLibre.com has launched a seller certification program to improve the quality and transparency of the product sale process, as well as to certify the security of the transaction through e-commerce tools.

This certification is based on compliance with a series of requirements organized into nine areas and over 40 points measured by compliance percentages. To become certified, a seller must comply with an 85% positive result in the evaluation. At the same time, through an agreement with the auditing company T&A Consultores, the seller will be monitored by anonymous buyers who will control compliance with the responses to the certification evaluation.

According to Mercado Libre Commercial Manager for Latin America Marcelino Herrera Vegas, over 2,000 sellers are already certified in Argentina and a total of 4,000 in the entire region. He also clarified that those who have not achieved certification may try again, as “the certification will be a new requirement for maintaining the Market Leader status (classification assigned to the most outstanding and professional sellers)”, Herrera Vegas added.

In addition to passing 85% of the required points in the certification, sellers must renew this requirement annually, which, together with constant auditing by the consulting firm, make this program the most innovative in the region, as well as one of the first in the world with characteristics of this type for a shopping Internet portal that has over 60 million registered users and an operational volume of 2 purchases per second.

In 2011, US mobile commerce sales (including travel) surged 91.4%, to reach $6.7 billion. Continued strong growth will boost sales to $31 billion in 2015. More smartphone users, greater consumer comfort with mobile shopping and an increasing number of retailers launching mobile sites and apps will all play a part in propelling m-commerce sales.

“To keep up with consumer expectations, retailers are bolstering their mobile offerings,” said Jeffrey Grau, eMarketer principal analyst and author of the new report, “US Mobile Commerce Forecast: Capitalizing on Consumers’ Urgent Needs.” “Retailers were slow to react to consumer interest in mobile shopping. But now they are making great strides in launching mobile websites and apps.”

This will help US m-commerce sales grow at a compound annual rate of 55% from 2010 to 2015, including 73.1% growth expected this year.

In 2011 mobile shopping became synonymous with smartphone shopping. The percentage of mobile shoppers who were smartphone users jumped to 93%, from 75% in 2010. As people trade in their feature phones for smartphones they will naturally take advantage of their devices’ powerful capabilities for doing a range of mobile activities, including shopping and buying.

Completing a purchase via mobile is less popular, with only 26.8 million mobile users estimated to have done so in 2011, but that number too will rise quickly, to 61.8 million in 2015.

“Purchases from mobile phones still account for a tiny share of total ecommerce sales,” said Grau. “However, in some retail categories like flash sales and tickets, retailers report a much higher share of sales coming from mobile users.”

Article published by eMarketer

According to online Colombian newspaper elcolombiano.com, Colombia scored 4.48, below Chile, Argentina, Peru and Mexico, but it was the second best in terms of growth (4.2%), surpassed only by Argentina.

The report highlights that online retail sales reached $23 (over €16) annually per capita. Although that figure is far from that of Chile's numbers (the region leader with $169; nearly €120),it does represent the most significant year-on-year growth in Latin America at 71.3%. That means that e-commerce is becoming stronger, while imports of ICT goods per person represented between $79 and $105 (€56 to €74.50) per annum and person, between the third quarter of 2010 and the same period in 2011.

The balance by Everis and the Cela-Iese Business School indicates that the country is the undisputed leader in the number of Internet users per 1,000 residents with 483: above the region's average of 375 and that of countries such as Brazil (420) and Chile (467), as well as the percentage of growth of Internet domain name registrations, which increased from 1 per 1,000 residents in the third quarter of 2009 to50 in the same period last year.

On the social networks, it is the country with the third highest number of users (295 per 1,000 residents), trailing Chile (480) and Argentina (357). Meanwhile, fixed broadband subscribers increased from 37 per 1,000 residents in 2009 to 61 in 2011, representing the greatest year-on-year variation among the countries in the region (24.0%).

In 2012, efforts need to focus on the growth of mobile computing through  mobile operators and wireless Internet, and on continuing price competition among telecommunication companies, as that helps the sector. The penetration of computers needs to be reinforced.

Finally, in the total ISI score, Colombia was one of the three countries with the greatest growth -4.2%-, surpassed by Argentina with a positive variation of 5.8% and tied with Chile, which also increased by 4.2% compared to 2010.

Article published by elcolombiano.com

According to T-Index, a statistical index that shows the percentage of online markets in the world and combines Internet users by country with the GDP per capita of each region, Brazil will be the world's 4th largest market with 4.3% in 2015, up from its current position in 7th place.

Ahead of Brazil are China, which by 2015 will represent 18.8% of the global market, followed by 16.8% in the United States and, further behind, 4.9% in Japan.

Other markets that will be relevant are Germany (4.1%), Russia (3.7%), France (3.3%), the United Kingdom (2.7%), South Korea (2.2%) and Mexico (2%). The rest of the world shares the remainder of the market, although no single country exceeds 2%.

As regards the languages spoken most on the Internet, English will continue to dominate, with 25.4% of the total, followed by simplified Chinese (18.9%), Spanish (8.5%), Japanese (4.9%), German (4.8%) and Portuguese (4.5%).

The T-Index is drawn up by Translated.net, a translation service provider with over 10 years of experience that helps businesses identify their target markets and select the right languages for translating their websites to ensure success, while increasing the benefits derived from localization.

Walmart Stores, the American retail giant, has decided to reinforce its electronic commerce offer, since, despite being number one in physical stores, it is in sixth place in Online sales, according to Internet Retailer. To that end, it has created a special unit called @WalmartLabs, comprised of a group of technology-related businessmen.

This unit is gathering massive amounts of data from social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, in an attempt to keep ahead of possible purchases by users and to study their interests and hobbies. That would be valuable information when organizing campaigns, offering products in line with preferences, etc.

The unit is also studying ways of adapting to smartphones, since many of the chain's customers cannot access the Internet from home, It is even looking into in-store actions, like indicating the location of the desired products in the establishment, a price comparison by brand and paying through the terminal in order to avoid lines.

These measures seek to improve Walmart's strategy on the Internet, while at the same time changing the initial view of taking e-Commerce as a separate department from the rest, enabling online actions to reach all areas of the retailer.

Source: Aetecno

The official event to launch the Mercosur virtual school took place on 6 December. Argentina's Minister of State for Science, Technology and Innovation, Aloizio Mercadante, and the Ambassador of the European Union Delegation in Brazil, Ana Paula Zacarias, also took part, along with various authorities, experts and professionals from institutions in Brazil and from the Mercosur countries.

The MERCOSUR Virtual School is an initiative of the Mercosur Digital project to develop an online program to provide training on issues related to the Information Society and Electronic Commerce in particular.

The main objectives of the Mercosur virtual school are to build up new skills, abilities and knowledge in the Mercosur countries, to help reduce the imbalances between these countries, to collaborate on devising shared strategies in the area of electronic commerce and Internet business, and to help encourage the development and use of infrastructure and services to support the use of eCommerce and eBusiness by relevant companies, professionals and entrepreneurs, among others.

The activities that the Virtual School plans to carry out are open to anyone interested and include, firstly, information services such as electronic newsletters, events, a media resource center, a library, self-diagnosis tools and consultative forums. It also provides training products such as practical online courses with specialist tutors, self-training courses, workshops, seminars, forums and other activities.

The Latin American Institute of Electronic Commerce (ILCE) is part of the consortium responsible for running and developing the MERCOSUR Virtual School project, along with the CEDDET Foundation, the Distance Education Center for Economic and Technological Development, FUNIBER Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ); and the Recife Center for Studies and Advanced Systems (CESAR).

For more details about the virtual school, please visit the following link: http://www.einstituto.org/comienza-las-actividades-la-escuela-virtual-mercosur-y-dentro-de-sus-objetivos-estan-el-promover-el-comercio-electronico-y-negocios-por-internet-transfronterizos/

According to IBM, online shopping jumped 16.4 percent on Christmas Day over last year in the US, and the dollar amount of those purchases that were made using mobile devices soared 172.9 percent.

IBM tracks shopping at more than 500 websites other than Amazon.com, which is the largest. It found a huge increase in the number of shoppers making their purchases with iPhones, iPads and Android-powered mobile devices.

In fact, nearly 7 percent of all online purchases were made using iPads, just 18 months after the tablet computers were released by Apple Inc., said John Squire, chief strategy officer for IBM's Smarter Commerce unit.

The online uptick was continuing on Monday. As of 3 p.m. Eastern time, shopping was up 10 percent over Dec. 26, 2010. And the expectation was that the pace of buying would increase as the day wore on and consumers clicked on sales at various retailers.

Read more on: http://www.businessinsider.com/online-shopping-jumps-164-pct-on-christmas-day-2011-12#ixzz1hp7h9onz

China's largest retail e-commerce platform by volume of transactions, Tmall.com, has signed on hundreds of volunteer shoppers to help in a campaign against counterfeit products.

The volunteers will buy products that have received complaints and frequent returns and will deliver them to Tmall.com or to a third party, where they will be subjected to an inspection, the document says, according to a press release from the company published by El Pueblo en Línea.

The shoppers participating in this campaign have been selected from among regular customers with sufficient credibility. “The volunteers will be trained by the company for this mission and will be compensated for the acquisition of suspect products”.

After receiving the products, Tmall.com will unpackage them and determine whether the brands and packaging meet national and industrial standards. They will then be delivered to a third party where they will be examined subsequently.

“Retailers who sell counterfeit or sub-standard quality products on Tmall.com will be punished by being expelled from the platform, losing their deposits and lowering their credit rating”, the publication reports.

Article published by Noticiero Textil 

According to Forrester report "Trends 2012: Online Retail In Australia Will Finally Hit Its Stride", by analyst Steven Noble, online retail is booming in Australia — and with 93% of households set to gain access to gigabit broadband in the years ahead, today's growth is just the beginning.

Noble says that in 2012 five trends will shape this growth. First that mobile commerce will become an important part of Australia's online retail mix.

The second trend is that marginal daily deal sites will fold, merge, or sell.

Moreover, local lean startups will bring mass customization to more customers, placing pressure on the retail giants that lag in this area. A plucky few companies will find a way to combine the speed of online startups with the scale of the retail giants.

And couriers, software developers, and other partners of online retail will step up their efforts to provide the services that eBusiness professionals actually require.

To be successful in this environment, the Forrester's analyst recommends starting with customers, business objectives, and strategy and then taking calculated risks while demanding business value from all partners.

The evolution of electronic commerce has borne good fruits for the world of wine in Brazil. Companies from the sector estimate that Internet sales of the beverage will grow by 30% annually, while some managed to triple their sales this year compared to 2010.

The retailer Wine, which was established directly as a website, expects to grow by 100% this year. It will sell a million bottles in 2011 at an average price of 250 reals (€130).

Mistral, the largest Brazilian wine importer, will grow by 35% this year, with 10% of its total sales coming from its virtual shop.

Taking advantage of the positive situation, Pão de Açúcar Delivery, which delivers products in 30 cities around the country, is designing a strategy to reinforce the wine segment in its virtual shop, selling nearly 30 brands of sparkling and still wines and distilled beverages in boxes. This reduces prices for the consumer by 20% on average compared to unit sales. The objective is to expand beverage sales by 20% above the seasonal increase typical of Christmas time.

Electronic commerce in Chile is at its peak at of Christmas, and Buscapé, a Latin American product, shop and price search and comparison portal, calculates that there will be a 54% increase in Internet compared to last year.

“Chileans have increasingly adopted this alternative, as the Santiago Chamber of Commerce made public this year when it announced that the percentage of people who conduct searches on the web increased from 29% to 60% between 2003 and 2010. According to Carlos Körner, Buscapé General Manager for the Western Region, this figure is supported by the possibility of shopping online, conveniently saving time and money, without the stress of visiting the shopping centers, especially at this time of year”, says .

Through the e-Commerce platforms, users can make purchases and compare prices at different shops, saving them the headache of Christmas shopping. And at this time of year, sales skyrocket, which is reflected in the increase in searches and queries on the Internet.

According to estimates from Buscapé.com, the 10 most searched categories in order of preference among Chileans include computers, vehicles, electronics, household goods and decoration, and perfumes, proving that technology-related gifts are at the forefront when choosing or asking for a gift.

Article published by AETecno

According to Eurostat "Internet access and use in 2011" data, almost half of Internet users (having used the internet in the last 12 months) aged 16-74 in the EU27 used the internet within the last 12 months to obtain information from websites of public authorities, and 28% to submit completed forms to public authorities, for example tax declarations (e-government).

 In 2011, the largest proportions of Internet users who obtained information from websites of public authorities were observed in Denmark (86% of Internet users), Sweden (74%), Finland (65%), Estonia and the Netherlands (both 62%). The highest shares of those having used the Internet for submitting completed forms to public authorities were recorded in Denmark (70% of Internet users), the Netherlands (52%), Portugal (48%) and Estonia (46%).

In 2011, 58% of Internet users in the EU27 had ordered goods or services over the Internet (e-commerce) within the last 12 months. The highest shares were observed in the United Kingdom (82%), Denmark and Germany (both 77%) and Sweden (75%).

Use of e-government and e-commerce by Internet users in the last 12 months, 2011

:  Data not available

u Data not reliable due to item non response

The Epson Business Council has conducted a survey through Coleman Parkes among 1,250 owners of businesses with between 1 and 10 employees in five European countries. While 78% of all British SMEs have already adopted electronic commerce, they still trail other European countries, the report reveals. In addition, one in every three still see e-commerce as a threat, suggesting that it could cause them to lose part of the £13.4 billion (over €15.26 billion) spent by people in the UK at Christmastime.

While 94% of all Italian micro-businesses interviewed are present in e-commerce, just 58% of the British companies see this channel as a business opportunity, and the European average is 72%.

As regards the use of social networks, 60% of all British companies surveyed have a corporate profile on Twitter, and one in three (31%) have a page on Facebook, although 42% do not know where to begin when it comes to using them for online marketing. Just 25% of these companies feel that social media have leveled the playing field when competing under equal conditions with the large companies.

The executive director at Epson UK, Chris Price, was surprised by the results: "It is surprising that 22% of all small businesses do not sell their products through electronic commerce channels. Together with a good social media strategy, the e-commerce channels provide significant opportunities to increase the reach of micro-businesses and start-ups. The growth of small businesses is vital for the economy in the United Kingdom, so it is important to encourage more SMEs to embrace the potential of online sale opportunities.

Search engine giant Google is not settling nowadays for dominating its original sector, and now it has set out to create a product delivery service. And it is aiming directly at the market dominated by Amazon to take over a slice of the e-commerce pie.

The company will not sell goods, rather it will act as an intermediary between the end user and the vendor. Internet users will be able to use the Google search engine to find what they want to buy and then choose the option of having the Google service deliver it to their homes within 24 hours, minimum, or up to two days, maximum.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Google has already contacted some of the large-volume sellers, such as Macy’s, GAP and OfficeMax as part of this plan. The article also indicates that Google's project will be different, as it will be integrated with the Google Product Search, making it possible to find certain products online and compare them on different e-commerce sites to find the best offer. That is when the customer will be given the option of receiving the purchase at home in just one day.

It is not yet known whether Google will make the delivery (although everything seems to indicate that it will be outsourced to a courier service) or how much this fast delivery service will cost, but talk clearly points to a low-cost rate.

Until only a short time ago, the competition between shopping centers and eCommerce was head-on. The former felt that the stellar rise of online retailing, in particular among virtual stores, was damaging to them and could even cause them to lose business.

However, shopping mall developers have recently undergone a radical change of focus. Instead of continuing to view eCommerce as the ‘enemy’, they have looked for a way of making the most of its existence, with some sector leaders even setting up associations to create virtual malls.

This has been the case with Altarea Cogedim, the French shopping mall giant, which has acquired Rue Du Commerce, one of the most important eCommerce operators in the country. This has given rise to the first ever French multichannel shopping center.

comScore (NASDAQ : SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today reported holiday season U.S. retail e-commerce spending for the first 28 days of the November – December 2011 holiday season. For the holiday season-to-date, $15 billion has been spent online, marking a 15-percent increase versus the corresponding days last year. Cyber Monday reached $1.25 billion in online spending, up 22 percent versus year ago, representing the heaviest online spending day in history and the second day on record to surpass the billion-dollar threshold.

*Corresponding days based on corresponding shopping days (November 2 thru November 29, 2010)

“Cyber Monday was yet another historic day for e-commerce, with online spending reaching a record $1.25 billion,” said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni. “It was just the second billion dollar spending day on record, following on the heels of Cyber Monday 2010. While last year saw Cyber Monday rank as the heaviest online spending day of the year for the first time ever, it will be interesting to watch the next couple of weeks to see if any future individual days in 2011 manage to leapfrog this year’s highest day-to-date.”

Cyber Monday Sales Growth Driven by both Buyers and Spending per Buyer

Cyber Monday’s 22-percent growth in sales versus year ago was driven by an increase in both the number of buyers (up 11 percent) and the average spending per buyer (up 9 percent). Overall, 10 million people bought online on Cyber Monday, representing the first time on record that threshold has been reached in a single day. The average online buyer conducted 1.9 online transactions on Cyber Monday for a total of nearly $125 in spending.

Shopping at Work Accounts for 50 Percent of Cyber Monday Spending

Half of dollars spent online at U.S. Web sites originated from work computers, up slightly from last year. Buying from home comprised the majority of the remaining share (43.2 percent) while buying at U.S. Web sites from international locations accounted for 6.6 percent of sales.

“The Cyber Monday phenomenon originated from the significant spike in e-commerce activity that traditionally occurred following the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, with many consumers turning to their work computers to continue their holiday gift buying – and that pattern still exists today,” added Mr. Fulgoni. “Looking forward to the balance of the season, it will be very important to continue to monitor the trend in consumer spending to determine the degree to which retailers’ heavy promotional activity at the beginning of the shopping season, and consumers’ encouraging response, has pulled forward consumers’ future buying. When all is said and done, it will also be vital to see whether retailers’ deals and price discounting, which consumers are now able to discover via so many different digital media channels, will have a negative impact on retailers’ margins this holiday season.”

China will overtake the USA as the largest electronic commerce market in 2015, according to a report published this week by Boston Consulting Group (BCG), which surveyed more than 4,000 online consumers across China. According to estimates, the e-Commerce market in the Asian country could grow at an annual rate of 33%, exceeding $314 billion in 2015. The study estimates that the number of e-Commerce users could rise to 329 million during the same period.

According to figures from China’s Internet Information Center, at the end of June 2011 China had a total of 485 million internet users, of which 142 million had made online purchases.

“The widespread availability and affordable prices of the internet throughout the country, as well as the rapid growth in the number of Chinese consumers and the relatively low logistics costs are the forces driving the growth of the electronic commerce industry in China”, according to Waldemar Jap, a BCG partner in Hong Kong and one of the principal authors of the report.

In 2006, less than 10% of the urban population in China had made a purchase via the internet. This figure rose to 23% in 2010 and will nearly double to 44% by 2015 based on BCG’s estimates. According to Jap, “A staggering 30 million new online consumers will join the ranks of e-Commerce consumers every year in China until2015”.

Furthermore, electronic commerce will account for 7.4% of the total value of retail sales in the country in the same year, compared to 3.3% now. Jap goes on to explain that, “The USA took 10 years to achieve the same growth”.

comScore (NASDAQ : SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today reported U.S. retail eCommerce spending for the first 25 days of the November – December 2011 holiday season. For the holiday season-to-date, $12.7 billion has been spent online, marking a 15-percent increase versus the corresponding days last year. Black Friday (November 25) saw $816 million in online sales, making it the heaviest online spending day to date in 2011 and representing a 26-percent increase versus Black Friday 2010. Thanksgiving Day (November 24), while traditionally a lighter day for online holiday spending, achieved a strong 18-percent increase to $479 million.

*Corresponding days based on corresponding shopping days (November 2 thru November 26, 2010)

“Despite some analysts’ predictions that the flurry of brick-and-mortar retailers opening their doors early for Black Friday would pull dollars from online retail, we still saw a banner day for e-commerce with more than $800 million in spending,” said comScore chairman, Gian Fulgoni. “With brick-and-mortar retail also reporting strong gains on Black Friday, it’s clear that the heavy promotional activity had a positive impact on both channels. We now turn our attention to Cyber Monday, a day that Shop.org says will see eight-in-ten retailers running special online promotions. Last year, Cyber Monday was the heaviest day of online spending ever, with sales exceeding $1 Billion, and we fully expect to see another record set this year.”

Black Friday Bargains Boost Web Browsing Behavior

As the online channel increasingly influences offline shopping behavior, consumers turned to Black Friday sites on the web to conduct research in advance of the day’s events. comScore analyzed several Black Friday deal sites for the five days ending Black Friday (Nov. 21-25, 2011) compared to the corresponding days last year, finding that bfads.net led the pack with 3.9 million unique visitors, up 51 percent versus last year. TheBlackFriday.com followed with 3.2 million visitors while also posting the strongest year-over-year growth at 137 percent.

*Site was known as BlackFriday2010.com in 2010

Amazon Ranks #1 Among Online Retailers on Black Friday

Fifty million Americans visited online retail sites on Black Friday, representing an increase of 35 percent versus year ago. Each of the top five retail sites achieved double-digit gains in visitors vs. last year, led by Amazon. Walmart ranked second, followed by Best Buy, Target and Apple.

“Each of the top online retailers generated significantly greater Black Friday activity compared to last year,” added Mr. Fulgoni. “Amazon.com once again led the pack, with 50 percent more visitors than any other retailer, while also showing the highest growth rate versus last year. However, it is telling that the top multi-channel retailers also showed strong growth in visitors, demonstrating the importance of the online channel to the retail industry as a whole.”

Electronic products are the goods of choice for Hungarians when it comes to shopping online, with mobile telephone devices and PDAs being the items most in demand, followed by personal computers and multimedia players.

The predictions for 2012 point to a growing trend in the purchasing of these products; more than 50% of those surveyed by the consultancy KutatóCentrum said they planned to acquire an electronic device online over the coming year.

This marks a changing trend in online purchases in the Hungarian market, where the most popular products online until last year were books and clothing, which have now slipped to second and third position, respectively, in the preferences of people buying online.

The new IMRWorld European e-Christmas Sales Forecast reveals for the first time how the internet is helping hard-pressed shoppers throughout Europe to cope with the tough economic conditions. IMRWorld, the international arm of IMRG, estimates that €52bn will be spent online during the 8-week shopping run-up to Christmas (starting w/c 30^th October - ending 24^th December).

The UK, which has the largest market in Europe and the highest levels of cross-border sales, will account for 30% of that total.

We estimate that €17.5bn of this (almost 30%) will be spent in the first two weeks of December alone, which over the past two years have been identified by IMRG as the peak activity weeks. These peaks will follow a steady increase in activity throughout November.

Aad Weening, Head of International at IMRG comments:  “Online shopping comes into its own at Christmas as the primary trade route for millions of consumers across Europe who have so much to buy and organise in short inclement days and, now, on extremely tight budgets.  We have introduced the IMRWorld European e-Christmas Sales Forecast to track and trace this important trade, which is rapidly becoming a key indicator of consumer confidence.  Looking at Europe as a whole, there are marked differences in online shopping between the North and South, as well as between the East and West:  this is because internet penetration and online shopping are more mature in the North, so the sales volumes tend to be higher while the annual growth rate is lower; meanwhile, basket sizes tend to be larger and more valuable in Eastern European countries, especially in Russia, reflecting the greater affluence of their consumers.”

The number of people shopping online varies from country to country. For example, only 23% of Polish consumers currently shop online, whereas 50% of Germans and Spanish, 60% of French and Italians and over 70% of British, Dutch and Scandinavians are expected to purchase goods via the internet this Christmas. In coming years the rapid and almost universal adoption of mobile internet will lead to many millions more shopping online.

James Roper, Chairman of IMRWorld and CEO of the UK e-commerce association, IMRG, comments:  “The UK accounts for almost a third of all European e-commerce, and a growing number of European and international customers are buying from UK sites, encouraged by the huge choice of goods available and beneficial currency exchange rates.  We expect the internet to account for around 20% of all UK Christmas shopping this year, with 93% of UK online consumers planning to shop online this Christmas, and 58% expecting to do half or more online. UK online sales during the Christmas run-up are on average 38% per week higher than the rest of the year, making this a key time for both consumers and retailers alike."

The strength of the European online market
Based upon our most recent research, IMRG and IMRWorld are now estimating that the global e-commerce market will be worth around €675bn by the end of 2011. This is less than the forecast earlier in 2011 as growth rate expectations have slowed in some regions, notably North America. However, the outlook for European growth on the whole remains strong.

The European online retail market was estimated to have been worth €213bn in 2010. This total equalled North America. For 2011 the European B2C online market is forecasted to grow to €254bn, far ahead of North America on €225bn. 2011 will  be the first year Europe is the number one online shopping region. This dominance is forecast to continue in later years when the online markets in Eastern and Southern Europe will continue to grow faster than the mature markets.

At present, the UK represents over 30% of European online sales. The UK market is arguably the most sophisticated and competitive in the world, recording 18% growth in 2010. European and international customers are more and more purchasing from UK online retailers. However, the growth rates in countries with less developed markets are impressive: Greece and Ireland, who have suffered among the worst during the recession, recorded growth rates of 75% and 39% respectively in 2010. As the above table shows, more developed markets such as France, Spain and Italy are also currently growing at very strong rates.

According to Google, the number of global internet users will increase from 2 billion in 2010 to 5 billion by 2020 and, as a consequence, the international e-retail market will also witness huge growth. While many of these new users will be from outside Europe, we anticipate that European retailers will greatly benefit from this increased trade due to the growing strength of the online businesses in the international marketplace and competitiveness of their domestic markets.

According to Xinhua, the leading retailer for consumer electronics in China, Suning Appliance Co., will build the world's largest e-commerce platform in partnership with IBM, based on an agreement signed on Thursday by the two companies in Nanjing, capital of China's eastern Jiangsu province.

The platform will be a business worth "billions of dollars", supported by advanced information technology and efficient administration of logistics and the supply chain, which will benefit both consumers and suppliers, says Suning Chairman of the Board Zhang Jindong.

The two companies plan to lead the global retail industry by establishing an association and putting Suning's experience in the industry to full use, as well as the technology of IBM, says IBM Global Business Vice President Frank Kern.

The companies have been working together since2005. Ayear later, they launched a business resource planning system for Suning.

Article published by Pueblo en linea

comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, released its Q3 2011 U.S. retail e-commerce sales estimates, which showed that online retail spending reached $36.3 billion for the quarter, up 13 percent versus year ago. This growth rate represented the eighth consecutive quarter of positive year-over-year growth and fourth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth rates.

“The third quarter of 2011 saw a continuation of the year’s strength in U.S. retail e-commerce spending, even in the face of renewed economic headwinds and uncertainty facing the U.S. consumer,” said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni. “As we approach the critical holiday shopping season, we are optimistic about the continued health of the e-commerce sector despite other factors – including stubbornly high unemployment and volatile financial markets – currently weighing on the economy. More consumers than ever before are relying on the online channel for product and pricing information, which along with the Internet’s fundamental appeal of convenience and attractive pricing, are contributing to the sustained upward momentum in e-commerce spending.”

Other highlights from Q3 2011 include:

• The top-performing online product categories were: Digital Content & Subscriptions, Event Tickets, Jewelry & Watches, Consumer Electronics (excl. computer peripherals) and Computer Software. Each category grew at least 15 percent vs. year ago.
• The 13-percent growth in the quarter was primarily a function of an increase in the number of buyers (up 22 percent), with 74 percent of all Internet users making at least one online purchase in the quarter.
• 40 percent of e-commerce transactions included free shipping, down from a peak of 49 percent in Q4 2010. Free shipping rates tend to peak during the holiday season.

The pre-Christmas season gets underway officially on 4 November. Consumers take advantage of this period to do their Christmas shopping on the Internet, with enough time to receive their purchases at home before Christmas Eve. This year, Internet giants eBay and Amazon expect it to be the period with the greatest volume of sales in the history of e-Commerce in the United Kingdom.

eBay believes that the busiest working day will be Sunday, 4 December, which they have called "Super Sunday", while Amazon believes that their most hectic day of the pre-Christmas season will be Monday, 5 December.

Amazon's Executive Manager in the United Kingdom, Christopher North, commented on The Last Web that the same Monday in 2010 saw 2.3 million sale transactions. North says that the increase in the use of mobile devices is the key reason why it is a Monday, rather than a weekend, that is the day with the greatest volume of sales, although he is not sure exactly why a Monday, "but that week will have a high volume of sales, since an increasing number of people have immediate access to online shopping".

In the United States they are also optimistic about the sales figures form electronic commerce. Especially, they especially expect significant increases in sales figures on the days known as Black Friday (the Friday after Thanksgiving, which falls on 25 November this year) and Cyber Monday (the Monday following Black Friday), which are the days that traditionally have the greatest discounts for online purchases. There are even guides published for finding the best offers.

In 2010, sales on Cyber Monday reached a record of over $1 billion, according to the research company comScore. Buyers spent $1.028 billion online on Monday: 16% more than on the same day in 2009, and the average expenditure per transaction increased by 10% to $60.05, while the total number of transactions grew by 6% to $17.1 million. For2011, a new sales record is expected.

Sources: The Last Web and Expo E-commerce España

Internet sales are enjoying unstoppable growth in Japan, dodging the difficulties that conventional supermarkets are experiencing due to the current economic stagnation.

The top customers of this channel are housewives between 30 and 50 years old, just like conventional supermarkets. However, the online establishments are attracting more and more converts, due in large part to the difficulties encountered by older people in getting to the points of sale. This, in turn, is the result of mobility problems or their location in isolated mountainous regions or enormous housing complexes. There are an estimated 6 million elderly people in Japan who have a hard time purchasing daily consumer goods, according to a report last May from the Japanese Ministry of Commerce. That is why the forecast indicates that this type of business will continue to grow.

Internet shopping is being implemented by all of the major supermarket chains in the country. Ito-Yokado, Aeon Seiyu and Daiei all have their own websites for placing orders for food, while other firms, such as Maruetsu, Tokyu and Kinokuniya maintain online shops on Rakuten, the leading Internet sales operator.

Consumers can also place virtual orders with food companies offering home delivery. Although they are not supermarkets, they manage to attract shoppers thanks to their strict standards of food safety.

Marketing  and consulting firm Fuji Keizai expects the size of the online sales market to reach 90 billion yens (€840 million) in 2012, based on the estimate of 78.1 billion in 2011 and 56.9 billion in 2010. According to a survey conducted by the company, supermarket business on the Web increased by over 35% in 2010.

eCommerce sales in Turkey rose by 52% over the first nine months of 2011 compared with the same period the year before, to stand at 16.9 billion Turkish lira (more than €8.5 billion).

“Almost one person in five in Turkey buys products online”, explained Soner Canko, Director General of the Interbank Card Center (BKM), during the Cardist 2011 International Card and Smart Technologies Exhibition. He also pointed out that Turkey is one of the most important markets in Europe in terms of eCommerce, with the number of transactions rising to around 91.4 million over the first three quarters of the year, a 37% increase over the same period the year before.

Many financial institutions are watching Turkey with great interest as the country’s online shopping market becomes increasingly promising, offering ever greater returns, Canko added during his conference presentation.

The sector that has shown the greatest online growth has been in the services sector, which recorded a 69% increase compared with the year before.

Comeos, the Belgian federation of commerce and services, has published a study carried out by Insites Consulting based on a survey of more than 1,000 Belgian citizens.

The results show that electronic commerce in Belgium increased by 26.5% in 2010.

Some 45% of those interviewed made some kind of purchase via the Internet in 2010, with an average expenditure of 1,560 Euros.

The results are similar to the Belgian e-Commerce study carried out by Google in 2009, which found that e-Commerce accounted for 2.5% of the country’s GDP.

Chinese cyberspace continues to generate genuine fascination, especially in relation to electronic commerce. The volume of e-Commerce transactions in China reached 1.8 billion Yuan ($283 million) during the first three months of this year, a rise of 47.6% year on year.

In the field of business-to-business online transactions, the website Alibaba.com dominates the market with a 53.8% share, while in the business-to-consumer market, the platform Taobao.com is the indisputable leader, representing an astonishing 90.5% of the market. e-Commerce has experienced a spectacular boom in recent years in China, supported by its fertile market with the largest number of internet users in the world (more than 470 million users). Within the sector, group purchase websites are also going through a particularly buoyant time thanks to the advantages of this format.

The underlying factors include the fact that Chinese Internet users spend more time connected to the Internet and consumers in this country are known for their desire to try out anything new. Initially, consumers’ lack of confidence in online transactions was a problem, but this has been resolved through online secure payment systems such as Alipay.

The Chinese online market is highly attractive and numerous foreign companies are trying to access this potential. Recent government statistics show that this sector will continue to grow by an average 42% per annum until 2014.

The boom in e-Commerce in China was highlighted recently when a change in the operating rules of Taobao.com (specifically, an increase in the “service” fee paid by sellers on this platform when selling their products to consumers) generated intense discussions. The result has been more comprehensive legislation proposed by the government for an industry that is gradually becoming a key sector. 

According to a study by the Swedish online payments company DIBS E-Commerce, Norway continues to lead the ranking of European countries that spend the most online, per capita. The study, which analyzed a total of nine countries, including Spain, France and the United Kingdom, was carried out during the first half of 2011.

The results show that Norwegians spend 7,425 krone per person, equivalent to 963 Euros. In total, Norwegians would have spent 47 billion Krone (more than €6.0 billion) during the first six months of the year, followed by the British with an average of 6,341 Krone per person (€822) and the Finnish with 5,865 Krone (€760). To date in 2011, only the Nordic region (Norway, Finland, Sweden and Denmark) has spent more than €25 billion on internet purchases.

Spain was also included in the study and came near the bottom of the ranking, above only Poland. Each Spaniard spent only 434 Euros in 2011, meaning that e-Commerce was worth €18.8 billion.

The study concludes that the use of the Internet as a purchasing method has a great future, not only via computers, but also using mobile telephones as a device to connect to the internet and it encourages companies to adapt to what is already being called “m-commerce”.

The French group Pixmania is celebrating its 11th anniversary in the European market having achieved sales of nearly €900 million, nine million clients, six million orders, more than 1.4 million products, with distribution in more than 26 countries and 18 stores in the leading European cities, as well as via its online websites in 2011.

In Spain, where the company began operating in 2002, it already has more than 845,000 clients with an online presence as well as three physical stores in Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia. Pixmania opened its stores to adapt to the characteristics and habits of Spanish users, who still value physical proximity.

However, since Amazon’s arrival in Spain in September, the French group has tried to consolidate its leadership position by reaching an agreement to manage the sales of the supermarket chain Carrefour. It has now launched several new product categories (toys, baby products, luggage, sports and DIY) and has strengthened the marketing of its third-party ‘e-Commerce’ service in Spain.

The arrival of the US giant Amazon has put strong pressure on competitors, especially in relation to delivery times, as it is always the fastest.

The French company has decided to counter this by directly promoting its arsenal of new projects and ventures via the media. Ulric Jerome, general manager of Pixmania, says that in Spain the company’s website operates with Seur and UPS, with delivery times of 48 and 24 hours respectively.

Source: Expansión.com

By 2015, companies will generate 50% of Web sales via their social presence and mobile applications, according to Gartner, Inc. Vendors in the e-commerce market will begin to offer new context-aware, mobile-based application capabilities that can be accessed via a browser or installed as an application on a phone.

Gartner analysts discussed the future of e-commerce at Gartner Symposium/ITxpo. As the number of mobile phones overtakes PCs, customers will use mobile browsers and applications as the main points of interaction. Additional analysis will be provided at the Gartner Portals, Content & Collaboration Summit in March 2012 in Orlando.

"E-commerce organizations will need to scale up their operations to handle the increased visitation loads resulting from customers not having to wait until they are in front of a PC to obtain answers to questions or place orders," said Gene Alvarez, research vice president at Gartner. "In time, e-commerce vendors will begin to offer context-aware mobile-shopping solutions as part of their overall Web sales offerings."

"Customers are clamoring for new and easy ways to interact with the organizations they deal with, and no company should think itself immune to this new business dynamic," Mr. Alvarez said. "As more people use smartphones, they will expect an extension of their customer experience to be supported by this kind of device while demanding that social aspects of the Web be intertwined with this experience. At the same time, organizations are looking toward new countries and regions for growth. As a result, it is time to take a fresh look at your organization's Web sales capabilities to ensure that social software, mobile technology and globalization are part of your organization's online future."

Industries such as entertainment, software development/publishing and media are being driven by fast-moving changes in their businesses, such as mobility, and the increasing number of mobile devices available to their buyers. Others are finding that sales of additional services and products can be added to their customer-service-focused websites. Due to consumerization, sites in all industries are being impacted by customer experience delivered in the retail space, as customers continue to use their online experiences as the benchmark by which to evaluate all others.

Gartner predicts that by 2013, 80 percent of North American and European online sellers will expand into Brazil, Russia, India, Africa, Japan or China. Organizations based in North America and Western Europe are already launching website-based sales operations in new countries, in the hope of expanding to new markets. These organizations believe that untapped countries can spur growth by enabling the enticing of potential customers who have never purchased from the organization, but who have a desire for its products.

"The increasing availability of access to the Internet via PCs, laptops and mobile devices is creating new sales channels in countries, because entry barriers are lowering, thereby increasing the number of online shoppers," said Mr. Alvarez. "By entering these countries via an Internet sales model, organizations can establish a presence in locations without having to create a physical sales location."

E-commerce managers in Type A (leading) organizations and industries, such as travel, hospitality, retail, consumer electronics, media and entertainment, will begin to take advantage of GPS location services enabled by phones to push personalized, location-based content to mobile devices for users who have subscribed to these services. This content will be created via the use of customer patterns and their link to driving sales. These organizations will also have connected (via Web browsers and mobile applications) to many social communities, enabling the organizations to tap into the social networks of customers and leverage the wisdom of the crowd.

Additional commentary from Mr. Alvarez is available on the Gartner YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjF3hqKm93Q.

The Android platform could dominate the smartphone market in Asia, according to the latest analysis by ABI Research (company specializing in global connectivity and developing technology), which indicates that this year the Google operating system could double the sales figures it obtained in 2010, representing 24% of all smartphones distributed in Asia. The most spectacular detail is that by 2012 over 50% of the smartphones on the Asian market will be Android.

The smartphone market in Asia will continue to grow as customers demand better, more sophisticated devices with more options. Total delivery of this type of telephone, according to ABI, will increase by 40% and will cover 24% of the entire mobile telephone market in the region.

The study says that the main beneficiaries of Android's predominance will be Samsung and HTC, although other smaller manufacturers in the low-cost market that use the Google system will also benefit. 

Source: www.abiresearch.com

The results of a new tracking initiative launched by IMRG have revealed some fascinating insights into the way that consumer behaviour on retailer websites is developing. The Quarterly Benchmarking Index is an additional reporting tool that is open to all participants in the IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index. The Quarterly Index tracks over 40 key performance indicators across 7 categories, leading to unique insights into the performance of the UK e-retail sector.

The Quarterly Index has been launched based upon six quarters of data and throughout that period, the average sales via mobile leapt up from 0.4% at the beginning of 2010 to 3.3% in Q2 2011/2012 (see note on quarters below), as confidence in the channel grows and mobile sites become more sophisticated. The highest percentage of sales through mobile for participating retailers was just under 7%.

The percentage of visits via mobile is also increasing, from an average of 1.4% in Q1 2010/11 to 7% in the latest quarter. The rate of mobile visits is as high as 12% for some retailers.

In a sign that retailer sites are becoming more engaging for consumers, both checkout and basket abandonment rates have dropped over the last six quarters, from 37% to 32% and 63% to 59% respectively.

David J Smith, Chief Marketing & Communications Officer at IMRG, commented: “Mobile has been discussed for a while now as an important channel for retailers to engage through, and with some retailers having up to 12% of their traffic coming through that channel, its popularity among consumers is clear. The Quarterly Index provides invaluable data for retailers that can greatly assist with spend decisions, for example revealing the best periods in the year for ROI and how your bounce rates compare with your competitors. This Index is open to retailers of all sizes and sectors and can perform an important role in helping to shape marketing strategies.”

Chris Webster, head of retail consulting and technology at Capgemini, says: ““This Quarterly Index provides us with a unique set of data from online retailers. It allows us to monitor specific aspects of a business and discover emerging trends in consumer interaction, which ultimately provides retailers with the right intelligence to evolve their business accordingly. 

“The report has revealed that the average basket abandonment rate for UK e-retailers is currently 59%. If we consider this in a physical sense, we can see how alarmingly high this figure is – if three fifths of shoppers, having chosen and queued, walked away from the till, shop keepers would clearly act. Likewise online businesses need to be similarly concerned and follow the example of the major eRetailers, such as Amazon. Clarity of pricing and delivery charges is essential, so there are no surprises at the checkout, and one click ordering is a very effective way to streamline the process through the checkout.”

Arab Advisors new surveys reveal that Smartphones constitute 43.7% of total cellular handsets in the UAE, 54.6% of total handsets in Saudi and 41.6% in Jordan. A new Arab Advisors Group’s survey of cellular users in the UAE reveals insightful details on the smartphones adoption and usage patterns in the UAE. The survey also probed general cellular usage habits, smartphones awareness in addition to tablets availability among cellular users in the UAE. This survey comes on the heals of a similar survey in Jordan.

The Arab Advisors Group concluded a ground breaking survey of cellular users in the UAE probing smartphones adoption and usage. The survey revealed that Blackberry leads with 51% share of smartphones operating systems (calculated based on handsets’ brands). iOS (iPhone) ranked second while Symbian came in third. Smartphone users prefer the English language for their applications. Over 300 delegates will discuss and deliberate the ongoing trends in the regional smartphone ecosystem at Arab Advisors’ Smart Handheld Summit which will be held on December 5 & 6, 2011 in Dubai. Saudi Telecom Company (STC) is the Strategic Summit Partner. Qualcomm is sponsoring the summit which is also supported by AppsArabia, Microsoft, nPario, Teletimes, DVV, ITP CommsMea, MediaME and Telecom Watch.

A new major cellular phone survey of cellular users in the UAE was concluded by the Arab Advisors Group in October 2011. The survey report, “UAE Smartphone Survey 2011” was released on October 12, 2011 and provides the results of a major comprehensive survey of cellular users in the UAE. The survey covered general cellular usage habits; smartphone adoption and usage habits; smartphone awareness, cellular handsets’ brands and models in addition to tablets availability among respondents. 

“The survey revealed that 60% and 50% of iPhone and Blackberry users, respectively, use applications through their smartphones, while only 37% of Symbian smartphone users use applications. 90% of those who use applications prefer the applications in the English language, where only 8.2% of the respondents prefer the Arabic language.” Mrs. Faten Bader, Arab Advisors Senior Research Analyst, commented.

"The survey also probed the tablets available among the cellular users and amongst houses that have tablets, Apple’s iPad leads by a wide margin.” Mrs. Bader, added.

This survey report can be purchased from the Arab Advisors Group

The most important event in Latin America for e-Commerce, m-Commerce, online and mobile banking and entrepreneurship and business on the Internet will take place at the Hotel Camino Real Polanco in Mexico City on 4 November as part of the Elab Tour 2011, which is taking place in 7 countries in the region.

The event will include the presentation of the AWARD Mexico 2011 e-Commerce Awards, the Talking with Business Leaders on the Internet Series with local and regional businessmen, 6 plenary sessions and 12 simultaneous thematic workshops that will cover current topics and trends on e-commerce and business on the Internet in Mexico and the region.

One of the objectives of eCommerce DAY Mexico City 2011 is to accelerate the incorporation of the online channel by obtaining first-hand knowledge of the players, who make this growth possible and are responsible for the state of the art in the sector based on the top performers in the Digital Economy locally, regionally and globally.

The event will include the special participation of keynote speakers Marcelo Cabane, Director for Latin America at IBM (USA), Ricardo Alonso, Corporate Manager for Electronic Business at Falabella (Chile) and Roni Cunha Bueno, Marketing Director for NetShoes (Brazil).

At eCommerce DAY Mexico, leading online businesses and experts in e-business will discuss new trends, strategies and actions that companies are carrying out to take advantage of these new ways of working and doing business.

The Latin American Institute for Electronic Commerce (ILCE) and eMarket Services want to offer you the opportunity to attend this trade fair free and participate in the VIP activities, with the opportunity of establishing new commercial relations and gaining information on the latest developments in the sector. All you need to do is go to http://www.ecommerceday.mx/inscripcion/ and pre-register for the fair with the edayilce code. This offer is limited to the first 20 registrations.

Online business is growing. In Switzerland, revenue generated by these transactions reached 8.7 million Swiss francs (€6.5 million) in 2010, representing a 48% increase compared to 2008, according to data from the study done recently by the University of St. Gallen.

Women and people over the age of 55 are responsible for making this figure grow so quickly. The number of people over the age of 55 who shop each month on the Internet remains low. However, the expenditure by the "Silver Surfers" is the highest, with an average of 1,862 francs a year. This figure exceeds that of consumers between the ages of 35 and 55, whose annual expenditure is 1,153 francs.

Currently, Internet sales represent between 5% and 8% of all retail sales in Switzerland. That figure could increase to 20%, although it is not yet possible to determine how quickly that change could occur.

The e-commerce business in Spain reached €9.114 billion in 2010, a 17.4% increase compared to 2009, and the largest annual increase recorded in recent years, according to the latest “2011 Study on B2C Electronic Commerce in Spain", published today by the Spanish Telecommunications and Information Society Monitoring Center (ONTSI). This clearly shows that the performance of the online market is maturing by leaps and bounds.

All of this translates into more experience, a higher percentage of regular buyers, consolidation of the exclusively online sales channels, growth in new shopping channels and direct access to the shopping channel.

The ONTSI attributes the growth to an increase in the average per shopper expenditure, up from €749 in 2009 to €831 in 2010, or a 10.9% increase. And in 2009, 11 million Spaniards used the Internet to make purchases, which is 600,000 more than in 2009 and means that 43% of all Internet users took advantage of e-commerce.

The products that sold most on the Internet were transportation tickets, lodging reservations and entertaining tickets. However, this same study also reflects major growth in sectors that were minority until now, such as clothes and accessories or food and bazaar items, with a percentage of shoppers reaching 27.7% and 16.3%, respectively.

Despite the growth of e-commerce in Spain, users demand improvements before they shop more frequently on the Internet.

Spanish online supermarket Ulabox, open to the public since 7 June, has developed a new application for iPhone users that enables them to shop conveniently on their terminals.

This new development is part of the Spanish company's global strategy to develop a pleasant, intuitive and functional online shopping experience for consumers, both on their website and, now, on the iPhone.

Since the launch of Ulabox, 8% of all sales from its catalog of products are made on mobile terminals. That encouraged them to develop this application, which is currently available free of charge at the AppStore.

According to Ulabox CEO Jaume Gomà, this application “aims to prove that the experience is completely different when shopping on a mobile device with our browser-based website than when it is done with this application, since it offers much quicker and more intuitive browsing”.

“This system also makes it possible to generate alerts for customers with offers and new products. To do that, we are already preparing a version of the application for Android cell phones”, said Gomà.

Source: cincodias.com

SubastaloTodo is the first Internet sale and purchase platform to link the whole of Central America and Panama. Users can buy and sell new and used products online, either directly or by bidding for them. It targets both individuals looking to sell just one product and companies seeking a safe means of exporting all over Central America.

One of the main points that sets SubastaloTodo aside from its competition is the logistics service offered via its strategic partner, DHL Express, which makes all the handling and shipping procedures easier.

Transactions are insured by Pagadito, with users registering their credit or debit cards so that they can buy and sell safely, quickly and conveniently. Pagadito is backed up by sophisticated security systems, and meets all the most demanding requirements with regard to the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) issued by Trustwave, and extended validation SSL certification from VeriSign.

eStores: bringing companies into the eCommerce era:

The eTiendas (‘eStores’) section of SubastaloTodo is where small, medium and large businesses can market their products on the Internet, and this is the ideal launching pad for new projects, since businesses can grow here without the need for any major initial investment, avoiding high fixed costs for rents and utilities, etc.

"eTiendas will be a great way of bringing eCommerce to Central American businesses and helping them to expand their target markets, with their own online payment module", says Paola Salgado, head of affiliate business.

SubastaloTodo is setting a precedent in the region as a pioneer in developing web platforms for world-class eCommerce. "We have short-term growth plans. We currently accept VISA cards and we will soon extend this to MasterCard. Users will soon also be able to buy and sell from and to the United States, which will give an enormous boost to regional trade," adds Paola Salgado.

Facebook executive and eBay board member Katie Mitic announced on 12 October that the two companies have embarked upon a partnership designed to create a range of new eCommerce applications with social networking features.

The aim is to integrate Facebook’s Open Graph (the map of connections that users create with friends and online content) with applications created for certain eBay services and technologies. The aim is to encourage external developers to create eCommerce apps for its platforms, in particular for mobile devices.

eBay hopes this initiative will make online shopping into a more individually-tailored experience, displaying other users’ opinions about products for sale in virtual stores.

Source: CNNExpansión

Online shopping has become a daily activity, but now it is also finding its way into mobile telephony. Now the MercadoLibre website, from a Latin American technology company specializing in eCommerce, has announced that it is launching the first official mobile eCommerce app.

This application can be downloaded and operated on devices such as the iPhone, Blackberry and also devices with the Android operating system. The AppStore registered more than 30,000 downloads in only a few days.

This application also allows users to browse, search for products, rate sellers, ask questions, mark favorites, bid and buy directly, all from their cell phones.

According to Daniel Rabinovich, Chief Technology Officer of MercadoLibre, the goal is for this application to be available to all cell phone users this Christmas: “By providing MercadoLibre users with a customized platform on various channels, we will offer them a substantial improvement in transaction speed and efficiency on mobile devices”.

How to shop?

For anyone wanting to buy a product, the process is very simple. After selecting a product and clicking on buy, the user is sent an email link to the product, enabling them to confirm the purchase and pay using the MercadoPago system.

Source: 123.cl

The Internet has become consolidated among Venezuelans as a channel for commercial transactions, according to the study “Internet use in Latin America 2011”, produced by Tendencias Digitales.

The study confirms Venezuela’s position as one of the most active countries online, with a penetration level of 37%, which is expected to increase to between 40% and 45% by the end of 2011. This positions it in third place in Latin America in terms of ‘usage rates’, only behind Chile and Argentina.

This report describes Internet use in Venezuela as being primarily “transactional”, with the main online activities carried out by people looking for employment information, seeking for discounts, carrying out banking transactions, buying and selling, researching product information, searching for political information and classified ads – making it seem as though people are losing their fear of making purchases over the Internet.

The social profile of Venezuela

Venezuela also has a high level of social network use, with at least 32% of the population having a Facebook account. This figure is above the Latin American average of 22.6%, while the world average is 10%.

This phenomenon is mirrored on Twitter, with 8% of Venezuelans using this social network, greatly exceeding the Latin American average of 2.4% and the global average of 3%.

Source: elimpulso.com

On 28 September, the 2011 e-Commerce AWARDS Argentina were given out as part of e-Commerce DAY Buenos Aires 2011, attended by over 1,000 high-level businessmen from a variety of industries, with 7 plenary sessions, 16 exhibitions and 12 professional thematic workshops with 36 presentations in which 61 renowned national and international experts illustrated the pulse of e-commerce and online business in Argentina.

The Latin American Institute for Electronic Commerce - ILCE (http://www.einstituto.org), together with its local chapters in Latin America, established these awards to recognize people and businesses who, through their constant work, have made and continue to make the Digital Economy possible in Chile and the region.

For the 2011 e-Commerce AWARDS Argentina, a Committee of Local Experts comprised of 18 opinion shapers and business association representatives, together with a select International Panel made up of authorities from the Santiago Chamber of Commerce and chairmen and executives from the Chambers of Electric Commerce of Brazil, Colombia and Argentina, chose the business that through their develop and contribution are the leaders in their categories in Argentina.

The winners of the 2011 e-Commerce AWARDS Argentina will compete at the end of the year for the 2011 Latam e-Commerce AWARDS in their respective categories, recognizing the leaders at the regional level. The winners from the national editions in Chile, Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, Argentina, Mexico and Brazil will compete at the end of the year to be the best in their categories in Latin America.

The awards were presented by Marcos Pueyrredon - Chairman of the Latin American Institute for Electronic Commerce - ILCE, Patricia Jebsen – Chairwoman of the Chamber of Electronic Commerce of Argentina, Karina Klimkiewicz, from Banco Hipotecario's Electronic Channels Division, Gastón Funes – BuscaPé Sales Director for Latin America.

The winners of the 2011 e-Commerce AWARDS Argentina in the different categories are:

1) Leaders in retail e-Commerce: Falabella

2) Leaders in tourism e-Commerce: Despegar.com

3) Leaders in e-Commerce and Online Business for services in Argentina: Cines Hoyts

4) The new players in e-Commerce and Online Business in Argentina: Vitamina

5) Business of the year in e-Commerce and Online Business in Argentina: Mercado Libre

6) Leaders opening new markets for Electronic Commerce in Argentina: OCA

Sales through e-commerce in Argentina will increase by 48% this year compared to 2010, when the figure reached 7.755 billion pesos (over €1.382 billion). The details were provided by Argentina Chamber of Electronic Commerce (CACE) Chairwoman Patricia Jebsen during a press conference for e-Commerce Day Buenos Aires, a day dedicated to the sector that gathers a thousand businessmen and executives and professionals from Web-based businesses. Of the 25 million Argentineans who use the Internet, 8.5 million shop online, said Jebsen.

The conference, attended by nearly a thousand people, focused on 3 key pillars that will take e-commerce in Argentina to the next level: encouraging sales through social networks, the arrival of the e-wallet and cross-border businesses.

Marcos Pueyrredón, chairman of the Latin American Institute for Electronic Commerce (ILCE), explained the purpose of this series of activities that are organized in different capital cities around Latin America: “we need to generate a greater offer, because the demand is there”. This businessman views this as the sector's Achilles' heel.

Some of the obstacles in the way of a greater offer include a lack of decision in investing in systems and resources by retailers, the CACE chairwoman said, and in the case of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), a lack of training.

Complete article on iProfesional.com

A survey conducted in Germany by BVH and CEG among 1,103 consumers between the ages of 18 and 69 has revealed that entertainment and technology products are preferred by Internet users for purchases through electronic commerce.

The study shows that 68% of all consumers surveyed prefer to purchase entertainment-related products on the Net instead of at traditional points of sale, while 58% turn to the Internet to buy telecommunications products. In the case of computers and other computer accessories, 57% of the Internet users also choose to use e-Commerce.

Men are more predisposed than women to purchasing technology-related products, while women prefer clothes, toys and medicine.

“Over half of all consumers now buy entertainment and technology products on the Internet and have stopped shopping at traditional establishments to purchase these types of products. This shows that consumers trust the quality, service and security of online commerce”, says BVH Director Christoph Wenk-Fischer.

Article publsihed by marketingdirecto.com

Iban Unzueta is Managing Partner at Elkano Consulting, the company that developed Globalink and that is part of InTheLine Marketing Group, specialized in global trade and international marketing services, and present in 50 countries.

We interviewed Iban about the problems that SME's face in the process of internationalization and how Globalink platform can help them solve some of them, in order to find new companies in the same situation and with similar goals to share the work and risks.

Over the next months, SafetyPay, a global company with an e-payment system that allows online banking customers to shop online worldwide, will publish a series of articles on payment methods in Latin America.  Our intention is to describe the traditional and alternative online payment methods employed by those countries.

As an introduction, this first article by Javier Suarez, European Marketing Director at SafetyPay, will give a global view of the situation in Latin America. Future articles will present a more concrete picture of the situation as it exists in some of Latin America´s leading countries (Brazil,Mexico,Peru, etc.).

Thanks to reverse auctions, companies can acquire the products and services they need quickly and easily and at competitive prices.  And, it can be done fairly:  the best bid wins.

But what happens if there are several interesting bids that are similar? Do we go with the cheapest even though we may not trust that supplier as much as we do another? Jose Manuel Iáñez, Operations and Projects Director at ITBid, with ten years experience in the industry, demonstrates how, in four easy steps, we can determine the best and most acceptable bid, by maximizing the differences between participants.

Virtual changing rooms, shops that display their products via mobile cameras, 3D animation to demonstrate a product… Augmented reality is a great ally for electronic commerce, which could use the advances being made in this technology to increase sales or for brand building.

But do you know what augmented reality actually is and what types of augmented reality exist? What are the benefits of using it? Is it affordable for everyone? How is it used for e-Commerce?

This article sets out to resolve these and other questions with the help of professionals and companies from the augmented reality sector, and to discover what the future might look like thanks to this revolutionary technology.

Alejandro Estévez took over management of the Verticalia.com group in2005. In this interview he tells how they work and what are the benefits of the use of his B2B commerce platforms dedicated to food, fishing, insurances, stone, automotive and catering industries.

Discover how can vertical eMarketplaces help your company with this interesting interview of Alejandro Estévez: "Our platforms include hundreds of suppliers and offer the best prices."

We have interviewed Julián Sáez, manager of the vertical eMarketplace for companies and professionals in the green industry, GuiaVerde, a meeting place for buyers and sellers.

Julián explains how he came up with the idea of creating GuiaVerde, the advantages of using it, how can companies can contact one another and future planning for the company, including its internationalization process.

Electronic marketplaces offer companies a world of possibilities; a showcase in which to present themselves to the public and to acquire new suppliers, new buyers and more sales.

However, it is not about establishing a presence on the marketplace just for the sake of being there, as that would not add much value to the company. It is necessary to take full advantage of them to ensure they are an effective tool for increasing the company's sales.

In this article we have spoken with the eMarketplace managers themselves, and they have given us a series of tips that will help companies get the most out of these platforms. Learn with them how to sell more through eMarketplaces.

This article describes possible product areas to negotiate via eAuctions and what to watch out for if you want to conduct successful eAuctions.

It is written by June Sejrup, eSourcing Consultant at Scanmarket, leading provider of eSourcing services. Scanmarket supports professional buyers in mid-sized and large organizations by hosting a user friendly and cloud-based eSourcing platform where you, i.a., can run eAuctions and negotiate with preapproved suppliers, prequalify potential suppliers, renew existing contracts or make individual purchases. 

Josep Alberti is the creator of grera.net, what is being called the Facebook for businesses, a platform that brings together offer and demand and aims to become a basic, daily use tool for any company that wants to do business online, as it has been programmed to offer business opportunities to registered companies only.

The functionalities for buyers and sellers of this social network, advantages of use, how it has been positioning itself in other countries or changes in the world of business because of the social phenomena are some of the issues explained on this interesting interview.

In  the blink of an eye. Since the iPad -Apple's tablet- hit the market in April 2010, these devices have enjoyed unstoppable growth as new models are coming out at more affordable prices, such as one of the latest to arrive: Amazon's Kindle Fire.

This hybrid between a smartphone and a laptop computer has also meant a revolution in electronic commerce, so much so that there is talk of an tablet e-Commerce, or t-commerce, because figures show that users of these devices are very active online shoppers.

Where the tablets come from, their benefits compared to other devices, the reasons why their users shop with them and the outlook for future growth are just some of the areas covered in this report on the tablet e-Commerce revolution.

César Rodríguez is the founder and CEO of MachinePoint, an electronic market for used machinery from the plastics, packaging, food and beverages industries.

César is a multilingual entrepreneur with a strong financial background and an expert commercial engineer, who specializes in the sectors in which his company operates.

He also has extensive experience in negotiating, and corporate rescue and restructuring, as well as opening new business units, implementing new capabilities in companies as a leader and initiator.

MachinePoint’s annual sales are between 10-12€ millions and  they generate about  10,000 leads per year. The site has 30,000 specialized visits annually, with a 45% bounce rate, and an average of 4,5 page views per visit with an average time on site of 2 minutes.

We interviewed Héctor Torrente Pastor, Director of IBIAE, the Ibi Business Association created in 1993 to represent businesses of this town in the province of Alicante. Recently, the association decided to create a virtual B2B platform called Ibilonjavirtual.com to help local companies to expand nationally and internationally.

This analysis of data from 2010 and early 2011 shows that consumers have embraced electronic commerce, which continues to show record growth in each new quarter analyzed. However, there are still challenges to overcome to catch up with our European neighbors, such as stronger e-Commerce between Spain’s companies.

This report aims to briefly review the global state of e-Commerce as well as the figures for Europe, in order to contextualize the situation in Spain, analyzing data on the use of Internet and e-mail by the general public and by companies, and to highlight the challenges and trends in the sector this year.

Much has been said about cloud computing, about SaaS or Software as a Service, about the advantages or disadvantages but can it also be applied to electronic commerce?

This article aims to review the concepts and the types of clouds that exist, and take a close and objective look at the pros and cons of cloud computing for the eCommerce sector.

On 23 June 2011, the European Parliament passed the new Directive on digital consumer rights, a controversial measure that has aroused protests from both associations and businesses that believe it will hinder the development of e-commerce in Europe. However, not all of the initial proposals were included; some of the points were modified, while others have be kept the same.

In this article we will analyze the changes that were made to the new Directive in the e-commerce sector and how they will affect businesses, obtaining feedback from those affected, the associations and experts in Internet law.

In this article we look at how this has occurred, what these markets offer to companies and the advantages of joining them.

Unity is strength. And so it is in this case since the underlying premise of the online daily coupons business model is that it rely on the power of group purchasing. This formula, which was created barely three years ago, has achieved record-breaking growth on the Internet. Spreading like wildfire, Unity is strength. And so it is in this case since the underlying premise of the online daily coupons business model is that it rely on the power of group purchasing. This formula, which was created barely three years ago, has achieved record-breaking growth on the Internet. Spreading like wildfire, it has been received enthusiastically wherever implemented.

What makes this formula so special that it has managed to achieve such unprecedented success? What is the process behind each discount on offer? Why are the major Internet companies signing up for this phenomenon? Find out all the answers in our article "Online daily coupons, a record-breaking business".

What caused this explosive growth? What supports this business model? Could it be exported to B2B? We talk with the players in this sector and ask them for all the answers.

In the first part of this report we looked at the pros and cons of mobile-enabled websites versus custom-built apps for accepting mobile payments. But there's no point developing a mobile site or an app unless it's secure and safe to use.

SMEs should invest as much time and energy in ensuring the security of their mobile sites and apps as they do on protecting their website assets, says Jonathan Forde of Dublin-based online payment provider Realex Payments.

"Just because you're not on a website any more doesn't mean you can ignore having that [same] level of security because, obviously, if your site is unsecured, there's a risk of people stealing data from it, including credit card details," he says. "It's very important that the page you use to capture the credit card details on has security in place on it - whether that page is for your specific mobile web page or if it's just a version of your website that renders on a mobile phone or smartphone."

Some years ago, buying something through your mobile was almost a science fiction scene, but today it is a reality with a very good performance. In spite it is not a global trend yet, almost every mobile sold nowadays has the capability to doing so. That is the main reason why it is expected a huge increase, but the websites, the payment methods, etc. have to be adapted to this new sales channel to let it grow.

In the first of a two-part feature about mobile payments made by Entreprise Ireland, they get some expert insight into the world of m-commerce and look at the pros and cons of mobile-enabled websites versus custom-built apps.

Associate Professor in Commercial Law at the Carlos III University of Madrid, Spain, Teresa Rodríguez de las Heras Ballell, has created a three-part series of articles to bring increased clarity to such issues. This is the third one, in which she explains the main strategies related to the choice of law applicable to contract and jurisdiction.

Associate Professor in Commercial Law at the Carlos III University of Madrid, Spain, Teresa Rodríguez de las Heras Ballell, has created a three-part series of articles to bring increased clarity to such issues. This is the second one, in which she explains the choice of law applicable to contract, and some special cases such as in absence of agreement, law applicable to non contractual obligations and to performance of information society services.

Associate Professor in Commercial Law at the Carlos III University of Madrid, Spain, Teresa Rodríguez de las Heras Ballell, has made a three-part series articles to solve these doubts. This is the first one, in which she explains the applicable jurisdiction to electronic contracts, general rules to apply, importance of defendant domicile and the concept of establishment in eCommerce.

This article written by Teresa Rodríguez de las Heras Ballell, Associate Professor in Commercial Law at the Carlos III University of Madrid, Spain and the author of the book on legal aspects of E-Markeplaces El régimen jurídico de los Mercados Electrónicos Cerrados (e-Marketplace), clarifies the electronic commerce dispute resolution strategies, as well as the current trends, arbitration procedure, mediation and conciliation and how to prevent disputes.

This interesting article explains Ubis experience as an exporter company in the adhesive tape subsector and its efforts to grow to become the largest Spanish company in its sector and a leader in Europe. One of its allies has been Alibaba eMarketplace, that has opened new markets and new possibilities of business.

The deep economic crisis we are now immersed in is affecting nearly all countries and sectors. Electronic commerce, however, has avoided the tempest and become a stronghold of continued growth. The figures around the world and for Europe bear out this channel's excellent momentum, and Spain has seen record numbers. What are those figures? What is driving this strong performance? Will it continue into the future? These and other questions are answered in the following sections of this report

The absence of uniform international or EU legislation makes it harder to know in which situations the rules of contractual and non-contractual liability are fully applicable. The report, written by Teresa de las Heras Ballell's,  is designed to simplify the situation by identifying general rules, liability issues associated with  third party contents, possible risk scenarios to be aware of, and some strategies to avoid or mitigate disputes.

This is the last article, in a four-part series. Its aim is to explain disclosure obligations after conclusion of an on line contract.

Teresa Rodríguez de las Heras Ballell clarifies the service provider obligations after the contracting procedure has been completed and suggests some practices to optimum fulfillment of the need to confirm receipt of the order. The implications of breach are also explained in this valuable text.

Teresa is an Associate Professor in Commercial Law at the Carlos III University of Madrid, Spain and the author of the book on legal aspects of E-Markeplaces El régimen jurídico de los Mercados Electrónicos Cerrados (e-Marketplace).

This is the third article, in a four-part series. Its aim is to explain the disclosure requirements of the provider prior to the conclusion of an online contract.

On this occasion, Teresa Rodríguez de las Heras Ballell, Associate Professor in Commercial Law at the Carlos III University of Madrid, Spain, and the author of the book on legal aspects of E-Markeplaces El régimen jurídico de los Mercados Electrónicos Cerrados (e-Marketplace), focuses her attention on pre-contract information. There are some disclosure obligations, and the text explains the points that have to be clearly, comprehensibly and unambiguously addressed before the contracting procedure begins.

This is the second article, in a four-part series. Its aim is to explain all the mandatory information that should be displayed by any website. In this text Teresa Rodríguez de las Heras Ballell answers the question of how the mandatory information should be presented, the requirements of this information, as well as what is the specific data that has to be made available.

Useful and well explained, this article was prepared by Teresa who is an Associate Professor in Commercial Law at the Carlos III University of Madrid, Spain, a recognized expert in this field and the author of the book on legal aspects of E-Markeplaces "El régimen jurídico de los Mercados Electrónicos Cerrados (e-Marketplace)".

This is the first article, in a four-part series. Its aim is to explain all the mandatory information that should be displayed on any website. In this report Teresa Rodríguez de las Heras Ballell, Associate Professor in Commercial Law at the Carlos III University of Madrid, Spain, explains as a starting point, the definition of a provider of “information society services” and the basic requirements to qualify within this concept.

Teresa is also author of the book on legal aspects of E-Markeplaces “El régimen jurídico de los Mercados Electrónicos Cerrados (e-Marketplace)” and her experience and knowledge make this series an essential reading both for new e market places, and for existing e marketplaces as a validation of their current practices.

Generally, reports on international trade and payment methods tend to highlight one important aspect in relation to payments: both the buyer and seller are subjected to a certain degree of financial risk - particularly when engaging in a first-time international transaction via an emarketplace. The degree of risk that your company is willing to be responsible for is determined when you negotiate your preferred payment method with a prospective trading partner.

This report will focus firstly by analyzing some of the more traditional payment methods available to small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) exporters and importers before looking at some of the contemporary e-payment methods as used by emarketplaces such as credit cards and online escrow services.

The paper will also look at the risk involved within these various payment methods as each method carries a varying degree of risk for both the buyer and seller.

In my previous two reports the issues analyzed in the context of an emarketplace (B2B) were: basic verification techniques when contemplating whether or not to enter into negotiations with a prospective business partner; and highlighting the issue of fraud within emarketplaces, how to educate and make yourself more aware of the techniques adopted by fraudsters - therefore, alleviating the possibility of fraud being perpetrated against your company.

In this final report in the series, I am going to look at some of the online testimonials and experiences as reported by global small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in relation to their verification techniques and methods adopted against potential fraudsters. As well as reinforce a case in point from my personal experience to reinforce why, equally, emarketplaces should be pro-active with their customers in relation to these issues.

Read also the two first reports in the series: Company authentication within e-marketplaces and Emarketplaces and the issue of fraud

This is the second report, in a three-part series, aimed primarily at SMEs who would like to increase their awareness, and educate themselves in relation to eMarketplaces.

As eMarketplaces (B2Bs) continue to grow and bring continued economic benefit to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) via their online strategies for international growth, it is imperative that the SME comprehends the issue of online fraud.

As a previous B2B website owner, from experience I understand the necessity of SMEs educating themselves on the issue. It is only through education, and awareness, that an SME will be able to recognize the techniques employed by individuals attempting online fraud, therefore, empowering the SME to only transact in genuine and profitable business transactions.

Read also the first report in the series: Company authentication within e-marketplaces

• Establish a short list of eligible e-marketplaces to consider by reviewing the list of e-marketplaces identified in the eMS directory.
• A self analysis of the trust/ risk/return threshold by the buyer itself regarding online transaction activity.
• An evaluation of the presence or lack of transparent tools/activity associated with the e marketplace in question.
• Actual experience/exposure to transactions at a very marginal/minimal level

 Keywords: Trust, Trustworthiness, Trust seal, Third Party Verification Certificates.

The combination of personal, business, and government adoption of these technologies has helped maintain Canada's global position as a top performer in the online world. Canadian enterprises show a continued recognition of the value in having a web-presence and based on historical data Canada will continue to expand its online economy.

The challenge is to encourage the application of e business into new applications over and above current applications.

"An electronic market means reduced costs in seeking out new market niches." Enrique Fuentes, international sales representative for the citrus company García Ballester, which had €35 million in revenues in 2006 and has 500 employees, is clear on the issue. At this company, they work with one goal: to improve the quality of the raw material to offer a product that always satisfies clients’ demands.
 
Its 100 years of experience, guaranteeing excellence in its dealings and service, have led the Spanish company to make enormous efforts in exploring new markets that enable it to grow in the fruit sector, which is ever more aggressive due to the high level of competition. That is why García Ballester got into the business of distributing its product all across the globe. Today, over 95% of its production is exported to countries as varied as the United States, Canada, Germany, the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovenia, Croatia or Russia. Its drive to expand has encouraged it to experiment and discover new ways of dealing in foreign trade, including the electronic market.

"In five years of experience, we have found new clients and suppliers in countries that are hard to access; especially in distant markets," remarks Fuentes, who admits that it is not as efficient in closer markets. "Certainly, some products require direct contact; not so much so with others," says the Spanish company’s representative.

B2B participation is opening new market possibilities, but will also reduce the tender pricing.

In 2006 the sale over internet grew 32.9% for Spanish companies in 2006. Still, only 7.8% of the Spanish companies used this market opportunity.

To keep for being left behind in this market, Francesc Vila, from the electronic portal Mercatrans, believes that SMEs could benefit from expanding their suppliers by attempting to negotiate with them personally.

The article was first published in the Spanish magazine La Clave (11. January 2008)

The e-mail campaigns are too successful to be left unused, but the fact that it is easy to send out thousands of e-mail does not mean that it can be used without a proper strategy.

E-mails are one of the easiest ways of doing online e-business marketing. Even though e-mails are competing for attention from the incredible number of Spam mails that overflow the internet, the return of investment for e-mail marketing will be 45.65$ per dollar spent in 2008.

Even with such a high ROI, e-mail marketing is low compared to other online marketing activities. One reason may be the technical, design and engagement issues that go into creating a successful campaign.

With off-line media, the appearance is easily controlled, but online a large number of variables make it difficult to determine if the potential customer sees the message as it was intended. On the traditional webpage the designer must take into account the most used browsers like Internet Explorer and Firefox and the availability of plugins for Flash and Active-X. For the e-mails these variables are complex and are made even more difficult by the number of obstacles like spam-filters that must be overcome.

Some of the factors that must be taken into account to create good e-mail campaigns are:

• The Subject and Content of the e-mail must pass through the automatic spam filters
• The address list must be updated. Too many bounced messages can cause your mail server to be blacklisted as creator of spasm.
• The use of HTML and rich text in the e-mail message must fit the individual users mail reader.
• Use of pictures should not be embedded in the e-mail since some ISPs will filter such messages

Having found a way to grow the subscriber list with correct opt-in/opt-out and following the best practices for the technical creation and distribution of e-mails, the real work is still ahead.

A recent paper from Responsys on how to make e-mail marketing engaging  focus on the customer experiences when receiving and interacting with the e-mails. The task of the e-mail is to increase the value by engaging the customer into action and dialogue. This is best done by taking into account the stage the customer is at (New, Active, Loyal or Returning). 

The e-mail must therefore be an integrated part of other data and channels to create more relevant and engaging interactions.

The e-mail campaigns are too successful to be left unused, but the fact that it is easy to send out thousands of e-mail does not mean that it can be used without a proper strategy.

"It is necessary to re-think how your company can expand its business. And that can best be done by not focusing on what your are doing, but on your capabilities," says Dr. Jay Bal, Senior Fellow at Warwick Manufacturing Group and Project Leader at West Midlands Collaborative Commerce Marketplace.

"The role of government has traditionally been to build the infrastructure, like ports, roads and harbors, and this task must be expanded to new areas that can link regions and business," says Jay Bal.

It is not enough to have a "road", it must have a junction that makes it possible to connect direcly to the flow. Jay Bal is not just talking about the flow of product, but also to the flow of information.

The report focussed on how ICT and eBusiness was being used in Ireland at Home and by Enterprise today and highlighted its importance within the Irish economy.

Ireland possesses one of Europe’s strongest and wealthiest economies. The Irish economy’s period of growth and prosperity began during the early 90’s and has continued to grow steadily ever since. In December 2005 the Irish Central Statistics Office (CSO) published a report on "Information society and telecommunications".

The report focussed on how ICT and eBusiness was being used in Ireland at Home and by Enterprise today and highlighted its importance within the Irish economy.

The internet is changing from an information society to a participating society – a boost for doing business electronically!

The ICT Agenda of the Netherlands was published in September 2004. Now the Dutch ICT infrastructure stands right at the top of the international stage. Partly due to the quality of its infrastructure, the Netherlands is ranked sixth after Denmark, Sweden, Singapore, Finland and Switzerland on the Networked Readiness Index 2006-2007, as recently announced by the World Economic Forum. Governmental policy is geared toward intelligent use of ICT. This not only contributes to solid, sustainable economic growth, but also leads to higher-quality products, services and service provision.

An additional positive development is that the Dutch business community is using the Internet both as a rapid means of communication with a wealth of available information, and as a participatory medium. This development affords a future outlook for electronic marketplaces. But there is still work to be accomplished in the “electronic storefront”. Notwithstanding suppliers or clients already familiar with concepts such as e-business, e-commerce, B2Cs, B2Bs, C2Cs, or e-marketplaces, the Netherlands is considered average in international commerce through electronic trade, in comparison with other Western European countries.

Electronic commerce and services are widespread in the Netherlands. Currently there are significant transactions occurring on the e-marketplaces of B2B's (business-to-business) and B2C's (business-to-consumer). The number of B2C shops is increasing. Within the e-commerce sector, one cannot underestimate the economic impact of C2C's (consumer-to-consumer). The on-line auction site www.marktplaats.nl is one example of this. Many freshly-minted businesses have begun with a C2C marketplace, doing business electronically, and now have their own webshops.

The government is similarly offering more and more online services. In 2006 a wide range of government organisations showed improved quality in their online services (e-Government - G2C and G2B). 75% of Internet users accessed an electronic governmental service. The total level of online government services to citizens amounted to 61% in 2006, and the service targeted at businesses stood at 62%.

The Forrester research institute forecasts a bright future for the Dutch e-commerce sector. According to their market studies, e-commerce in Europe will grow 21% annually until 2011. For Europe, this will mean a jump of 102 billion euro in 2006 to 263 billion euro in 2011. The Netherlands will grow by 28% to 11.8 billion euro in 2011. In this respect, the Netherlands represents one of the fastest growing countries for e-commerce.

Lessons learned: "We began to use electronic markets because they are much faster than traditional markets. Furthermore, it is easier to make contact with companies that also use this medium. It is a showcase for companies that do not appear on lists and e-Marketplaces have provided us with access to them."

Cold Group (www.coldgroup.com) was created from five Spanish companies in the industrial refrigeration sector that joined forces to enter the international markets, allowing them to offer a complementary range. It started as an export consortium in 2004 and since then it has specialized in foreign trade. They export products from the industrial refrigeration industry to Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania, Tunisia, Senegal, Nigeria, Portugal, Switzerland, Poland and Belgium and total sales in 2006 were €1,205,904.

What were your first steps when using the e-Marketplace? Did you have any initial concerns or worries about using e-Marketplaces?
We began using electronic markets in 2004. We were investigating the opportunities that they could provide us with from the outset. We began to use electronic markets because they are much faster than traditional markets. It is also much easier to make contact with companies that also use this medium.

We chose the electronic marketplace Mercatrans (www.mercatrans.com) because it appeared to be simple to use and it gave us good results from the outset. It is the only electronic marketplace that we use. We started to use it because when we need to find a company that specializes in a particular type of transport, it is always urgent, and we can locate that company much faster through Mercatrans. We came across Mercatrans by searching the internet and we registered last year for full access. The market allows us to publish our requests for transport offers.

We had no initial reservations about using it and we now use it significantly. When we started they supported us over the telephone because we encountered various technical-IT problems, which they rapidly solved for us.
 
How does Mercatrans work and what sort of commercial functionalities do you use?
In our case, we request various transport offers for a specific destination. Various companies that specialize in this type of service then send us their offers. We can then choose the one that we consider to be most appropriate and we can even contact the company directly to ask for more information.

Which parts of your business are improved by using Mercatrans?
The ability to offer transport services to our clients at the most competitive price. We can also offer them a quick quote for a specific transport service if it is a normal destination for other users like us. A history of requested offers allows us to quickly obtain an approximate price for a service.

What practical aspects do you believe are the most important when using an electronic marketplace?
Using electronic marketplaces is not difficult. In terms of costs, they are not expensive, taking into account the service they provide you with, especially if you know that you are going to use it frequently as in our case. The actual cost of this service is €120 per year.
As well as using electronic marketplaces we also directly contact companies that our partners or clients recommend to us, or those that we find in listings. There is no conflict from using both markets.

In terms of security, we do not make payments online and we contact the chosen company directly. No electronic payments are made via the internet through mercatrans.com. Once the shipper notifies its interest through one of the offers received via the internet, it is contacted by the transport company and they engage in a direct commercial relationship. At the same time, payment for the transport service to be used takes place directly between the shipper and the transport company using traditional methods.

What advantages does the platform provide?
We have made significant savings in time using this transport search platform. We can quickly obtain information that would require much more time and effort without this online service. Furthermore, it is a showcase for companies that do not appear on lists and we can get access to them through the use of e-Marketplaces. The procedure is highly efficient.

Has e-Commerce and electronic marketplaces in particular changed your view about the world of business?
I believe that they can provide access to the world of business for people that otherwise may not have set up a business.

Following on from this experience, will you continue to use electronic marketplaces as a work tool and would you recommend using e-Marketplaces to other companies?
Yes, of course we will continue to use them. We recommend their use, especially for their speed. They provide services that fully adapt to what we are looking for and they can also provide significant amounts of information about services or products.

E-mail marketing is easy and much used. A recent study by Datran Media shows that 83% of the companies considers e-mail marketing their most important strategy for 2007.

The advantage of e-mail marketing is the low cost and direct contact with the potential buyers. Anyone can get hold e-mails and add them to a subscription list, but this ease of use increases the spam.

Most countries have strict Spam Laws that makes it illegal to send unsolicited e-mails to anyone that the company do not already have a business relation with. According to MessageLabs, 76% of all e-mail were spam.

In order to protect the user from spam, the mail servers and the mail readers are configured to filter out spam, some are never passed on to the user, and other e-mails end up in the junk-folder.

As an active e-mail marketer, you must first overcome the spam filter hurdle, and even then you are not sure if your e-mail reached its target.

Effectiveness of e-mail marketing is measured by e-mail marketing programs as feedback from the mail server and programs that the e-mail was received and read. E-mails that were not received are rejected by the mail server and in most cases an automatic response is triggered and which can be measured and the recipient can be removed from the subscriber list after a pre-set number of attempts.

To see if the e-mail reached the inbox and was opened, the e-mail usually contains links to pictures that are found on the internet. If these pictures are viewed, a request to open the picture is submitted and this request is monitored.

In the battle against spam, e-mail readers have the possibility to block such links to graphics, and the user can determine if the sender is trusted and/or if pictures should be shown.

A study on picture blocking in e-mail programs from Promio.net (April 2007), show that more than 30% or the users have selected to block pictures, and the conclusion is that Live-reporting of successful delivery of HTML mails is higher than can be measured.

To increase the measuring of e-mail marketing, the subscriber database should be based on voluntary (Opt-in) subscription and the subscribers should be asked to add the sender e-mail to their "Safe Senders List"

1. Shopping Cart/Online order form
2. Payment Gateway
3. Merchant Account

The key components of receiving online payments
When thinking about receiving online payments (e-commerce) it is useful to understand the three key components.

1. Shopping Cart/Online order form
2. Payment Gateway
3. Merchant Account

Shopping Cart/Online Order Form
A Shopping cart is a tool that facilitates the item selection or ‘picking’ activity. Used in conjunction with an online catalogue tool, where the items for sale are listed, a user selects items from the catalogue and places them in the ‘cart’.  Most Australian companies will utilise a hosted shopping cart (ASP model) where they pay a monthly hosting fee. With the hosted approach the digital certificate (SSL) is provided by the host and is covered in the hosting fee. Companies who host the shopping cart themselves are responsible for the digital certificate which carries an annual ongoing cost.

In addition to better usability for the user, a well designed shopping cart helps the company to manage online risk and combat against fraud through the information collected and the usage of email auto-responders. Also, a user will judge the website by its shopping cart. So be careful, as a poorly designed shopping cart with a ‘clunky’ check out process can put the user off-side and the sale opportunity lost.

An online order form is a basic alternative to a shopping cart.

Payment Gateway
A payment gateway is required for real-time e-commerce on your website where the user’s credit card is authorised in real time, allowing the user to complete the transaction, and triggering a payment into the merchant’s bank account. Usually there is a set-up fee, annual fee, and per transaction charge.

The usage of a payment gateway is preferable with regards to managing online risk.
Internet Merchant Account facility

An internet merchant account facility is a dedicated account facility to receive online credit card payments the user establishes with a bank. For real time e-commerce it works in conjunction with a payment gateway.

Approaches to E-commerce
The following three approaches to e-commerce are common among Australian online merchants. 

1. For real time e-commerce the merchant establishes the internet merchant facility with their bank, integrates the payment gateway, and uses either a shopping cart or order form for information capture. In most circumstances it will be easier and more cost effective for the merchant to charge in Australian dollars only.
   
   From a security point of view the advantage of using a payment gateway means that the customer’s details (name, address, credit card number) are not captured (or seen) by the merchant but rather are captured by the payment gateway provider only. Also the transfer of the customer’s details from the merchant’s website to the payment gateway is secure (encrypted) and cannot be intercepted.
   
2. Another approach is where the merchant uses a third party hosted solution such as Paypal, Worldpay or Paymate who look after some or all of the key components of e-commerce. The advantage is the ease in which the Australian company can charge the customer in different currencies without having to establish dedicated currency bank accounts.
   
3. The last approach and the least preferred from a security perspective is where the merchant uses either a shopping cart or order form for information capture and then manually re-keys the credit card number into an EFTPOS facility they have leased from a bank. Essentially the website captures the order information and the transaction is processed manually off-line. With this approach the company does not require a payment gateway service because the transaction is not in real time.

This approach is not preferred for a number reasons relating to security. The problem is that once the customer details (name, address, credit card number) are entered into the online order form in order for the merchant to access them, they are either emailed or stored in a back-end database for retrieval. If emailed they are generally unsecured (not encrypted). If they are stored in the database, behind password access, they are still potentially vulnerable to a hacker who knows a thing or two about data bases.

These factors increase the use of commercial and communication platforms in the sector.  Finally, the global nature of the pharmaceutical sector means that companies have to sell or manufacture in diverse international markets. 

The pharmaceutical sector appears to have the ideal characteristics for using electronic business tools that support B2B relations (business to business) for buyers as well as sellers. Firstly, many of the products that it sells lend themselves to a simple description and exhibit a high degree of standardization. Furthermore, the specific challenges faced by the pharmaceutical sector, such as managing product recalls, is encouraging collaboration along the whole value chain. These factors increase the use of commercial and communication platforms in the sector.  Finally, the global nature of the pharmaceutical sector means that companies have to sell or manufacture in diverse international markets. 

Commercial B2B platforms support the buying and selling activities of pharmaceutical companies in different ways. Pharmaceutical companies appear to be the typical online purchaser. Nearly 40% of companies in the pharmaceutical sector state that they use the internet or other IT networks for purchasing goods or services, a figure slightly lower than the weighted average for all sectors. It should also be noted that the difference between small and large companies is relatively insignificant, with more than 30% of micro-companies (1-9 employees) in the sector claiming to carry out online purchases. A more detailed analysis reveals that the strategic importance of online purchases is significantly limited. Only 7% of all pharmaceutical companies in the EU-7 purchase more than 25% of their supplies online, a figure that is similar to the weighted average of the ten sectors in the survey.

The pharmaceutical sector are more internationalized than the average and 18% of companies deal primarily with international suppliers compared to an average of only 13%. Overall, the bulk of online purchases in this sector come from regional or national suppliers.

In general SMEs have little interest in more sophisticated electronic business tools. Due to the small size of these companies, improving their purchasing (or selling) procedures does not offer them the same advantages as their larger rivals. Furthermore, many electronic business tools are simply not suitable for use by SMEs (the number of purchases made by these companies in general is not sufficient to warrant the use of an online auction). The percentage of large pharmaceutical companies that use specific IT applications to support their buying procedures (36%) is far higher than for smaller companies.

Although a high percentage of pharmaceutical companies purchase online, internet purchases represent on a small proportion of total purchases. Furthermore, the specific IT applications that support purchasing activities are primarily used by large companies.

When your boss gives you the task to create your company’s new “face” to the world, it is extremely important that you seriously consider all aspects when you are about to get your new web page done. Be systematic, take your time, ask as much as you can from the potential suppliers and think again!

The Swedish IT-magazine Internetworld elaborated on the subject of the importance of allocating enough resources when you create your e-business activity. Remember to request the right things from your suppliers if you want to be successful on the web.

When your boss gives you the task to create your company’s new “face” to the world, it is extremely important that you seriously consider all aspects when you are about to get your new web page done. Be systematic, take your time, ask as much as you can from the potential suppliers and think again!

The target group
The first thing to do is to define the target group, who they are, what you know about their web activities etc. Make the best possible description of the category you want to visit your page and pursue what you want them to do. Discuss with your suppliers and take advantage of their experience. Let your suppliers help you to avoid the common mistakes and guide you along possible alternatives that are proven efficient in other applications.

Be specific
Create your goal and describe what you want to obtain with your new application. Be as specific as you can. Review what you come up with and try again. Discuss it with your colleagues and suppliers to find out if they understand what you are trying to communicate. Formulate in full sentences what you want to describe.

The system
You also have to consider how the system is going to be maintained and kept. The cost to maintain a system and keep it updated may be as high as, or even higher than to create the new system. Do not forget to analyze your exciting system and study in what way that one is going to be integrated with your new web page.

Time
Give the work the time that is needed. Do not rush and try to set target dates for planned activities so these activities will fall in line in an organized and expected way.  At the same time put up scheduled check points to be sure that all activities, your own as well as delivered by your suppliers are in line with the time table you have set up.

Functionality
Focus on the functionality of what you want to create. This is important and will help all involved to understand what you are aiming at. If you put too much emphasis on technical solutions instead of the functionality, one tends to be restricted by the technicalities and therefore miss many options.

Who is doing what
Elaborate on who is doing what and when. If possible make a detailed flow-chart describing who is producing what and when it should be delivered to the project. It is very easy that something is overseen and therefore not supplied. Unclear responsibilities may cause expensive delays in the production and friction in the production team.

Your new “face” to the world will be a success when you plan your project well and care about the details!

“The usage of the e-marketplace by the Production Dept., where all procurement needs usually begin, is today a commonly accepted fact by all, says Mr. António Lopes, Procurement Director at Edifer Construções. “When we joined econstroi there was at first some resistance, because all of a sudden there seemed to be further tasks to perform and a new information system to use. But, after the initial clash, we’ve managed to stabilize and today procurement procedures are running smoothly.

Edifer Construções, S.A., a construction company operating since the 1950’s and with a longstanding background both on quality and market trust. In 1986, and in order to be able to incorporate an entrepreneurial management, Edifer established the Gestifer holding as well as the spin off of its activities.

In 2004, the company went through a major strategic evaluation process which led, among other decisions related to the need to incorporate and a new and more efficient procurement model, to the decision of joining the econstroi e-marketplace.

Econstroi is a fast growing Portuguese e-marketplace covering the full spectrum of the building and construction industry. Online since December 2000, there are currently over 3,200 companies doing business and a gross total of nearly 2,000 million Euro in contracts awarded between 2003 and March 2007.

Anticipating the future
“Thanks to new procurement methods and especially to the e-marketplace tools, we were able, so to say, to anticipate the future. In the building and construction industry, time and technology are key factors”.

“The usage of the e-marketplace by the Production Dept., where all procurement needs usually begin, is today a commonly accepted fact by all, says Mr. António Lopes, Procurement Director. “When we joined econstroi there was at first some resistance, because all of a sudden there seemed to be further tasks to perform and a new information system to use. But, after the initial clash, we’ve managed to stabilize and today procurement procedures are running smoothly.

Although my staff hasn’t downsized due to daily business requirements, it is now definitely better qualified – their quality and efficiency have improved significantly.”

Improved information for all involved
For the company, joining econstroi brought about a better systematization and procedure efficiency, namely thanks to:

• Standardization of requests sent to Procurement Dept.
• Reduction of errors connected to a deficient specification
• Significant reduction of low value administrative procedures
• Full online access to procurement processes for the Production Dept.
• Support to all approvals workflow
• Better information sharing within the company

This also caused a major impact in the Budgeting Dept. Procurement and Budgeting are currently using a common database. Suppliers submitting budgets for RFQ/RFP (Request for Quotation/Proposal) and bids will always be contacted later during the purchasing stage. Moreover, their budgets are instantly available when the company compares the different proposals submitted.

Financial advantages was achieved
For Edifer, it is evident that this has brought both benefits and savings, namely financial advantages, because it receives an estimate of about 39% more and better proposals, especially from non-traditional suppliers; administrative procedures, a time consuming task, have also been significantly reduced (37%); and finally, the company has been able to improve the whole organizing and following up of the procurement process.

Two years after joining the e-marketplace, it is quite clear for Edifer that they made the right decision – there is currently a wider range of potential suppliers to select from, and the company  is saving time and money.
 

Online collaboration is increasing in the building and construction industry
The use of online collaboration technology tools on building construction sites is on the increase across the globe.  This case study looks at an Australian solution that is making inroads and providing real benefits to the building and construction industry. The solution allows all parties from the architect to the building regulation body to the builder to share information in a timely, efficient and secure manner.

Managing vast volume of information
Aconex is an Australian web-based information management and collaboration system. To manage the vast volume of information generated on construction and engineering projects, the Australian company, Aconex, helps replace the use of paper documents by allowing users to store project information including drawings, documents, and correspondence online in one central site.

For the individual company using the system, the results are saving time through quick and easy information access, reduced costs for couriers, printing and stationery, and reduced exposure to risks such as information loss, disputes and litigation.

Aconex’s uptake has doubled every year for the past five years, though as with e-commerce and online banking, it hasn’t changed standard industry processes. Rather it has used the power of the internet to make these processes electronic rather than manual.

Exchanging information shortens project lifetime and increases productivity
Users of the system include builders, contractors, architects, project managers, engineers, subcontractors, quantity surveyors and consultants. The tool facilitates the exchange of information between these users.

For example, instead of an engineer making a change to a building plan then mailing the paper document by courier to the architect who then makes his revisions and sends it to the builder, the tool enables all three parties to meet together online and simultaneously make revisions to documents in real-time. This shortens project timelines and increases productivity.

Usage of collaboration technologies is increasing
Aconex has achieved rapid uptake in markets such as the US, the UK and Australia. As for future growth opportunities, the main potential resides in emerging markets such as China, India and the Gulf region.

In general, collaboration technology solutions are being used by approximately 20% of the Australian market and 50% of the UK and US markets. In the thriving construction markets across the Middle East and Asia, collaboration technology is being used by less than 10% of the industry. This represents growth opportunities for all providers of collaboration technology solutions.

Assisting Exporters
Aconex links organisations using the web, making it easier for companies to communicate with one another as they don’t have to be on the same physical project site. For example, an architect in Melbourne can quickly and easily transfer drawings and files to an engineer in Dubai without having to fly to the project site. By creating this possibility, and making the international collaboration process easier, companies may be more likely to work on projects in different countries, which is a good result for export.

For more information visit Aconex 

Search engine optimisation (SEO) holds the key to this conundrum, and the advice from marketing experts, web developers and the search engines themselves is to put a little time and effort into making sure that the investment made in launching a bells-and-whistles website is not wasted because no one can readily find it.

"Companies don't understand the huge number of people who are searching online and they won't be told. Yes, people still want to go to, say, the forecourt to talk to a salesman in person to buy a car, but they will have done their research online first. Businesses need to know that consumers are using their website for research, and they need to know who is visiting it, where they came from and which pages they are likely to look at on it," claims Anthony Quigley, managing director of Online-Marketing.ie.

It is now common knowledge that people don't really surf the internet any more; they search it. At the same time, businesses are realising that publishing and keeping an up-to-date website is no good if people can't actually find it.

Search engine optimisation (SEO) holds the key to this conundrum, and the advice from marketing experts, web developers and the search engines themselves is to put a little time and effort into making sure that the investment made in launching a bells-and-whistles website is not wasted because no one can readily find it.

"Companies don't understand the huge number of people who are searching online and they won't be told. Yes, people still want to go to, say, the forecourt to talk to a salesman in person to buy a car, but they will have done their research online first. Businesses need to know that consumers are using their website for research, and they need to know who is visiting it, where they came from and which pages they are likely to look at on it," claims Anthony Quigley, managing director of Online-Marketing.ie.

Falling behind
Richard Hearne, search analyst at Red Cardinal, a firm that specialises in SEO and internet marketing believes that the rise of "social media" such as blogging is one major development that is not being taken advantage of. Bloggers insert links to other relevant blogs within their online journals, and this has had a profound effect on leading search engine Google, which tends to rank webpages in terms of how many legitimate inward and outward links they have.

Hearne says many Irish firms are still investing heavily - spending tens of thousands of euro every month - in paid-for search engine adverts rather than trying to develop "organic rankings" based on the authority and relevance of a well-linked page. "There are no hard and fast figures available but it seems as though 80 or 90 percent of people are clicking on organic search results rather than the paid-for search ads," he says.

The hard figures we do have, courtesy of Captivate Digital, point to the fact that more than three-quarters of internet users rely on search engines to find all their online information, and that around 60 percent of all websites receive more than half their traffic from search engines. With this in mind, Irish companies could be losing out to overseas rivals - particularly if they fail to register high up the page with leading search engine Google.

Looking abroad
Google is the dominant search engine in Europe, and in dozens of other territories. Although exact statistics are a matter of debate amongst researchers, the Californian search giant is generally acknowledged as the leading search portal in the US and across Europe. "Google is, by far, king in this space," says Quigley. "Yahoo, Microsoft Live, Ask, AOL and Netscape are all looking for a slice of the action, but they have a long way to go. If you optimise for Google, the others should follow suit."

To optimise for British search sites, it's important to be listed on all of the dot-co-dot-uk (.co.uk) versions of the following search engines: Yahoo, Google, MSN, Go.com and AOL. Meanwhile, the general advice for being found in Europe is, again, to go for Yahoo, Google and MSN, but Searcheurope.com shouldn't be overlooked either.

SMEs looking to sell their wares online to developing markets in Asia are advised to research the local situation first. Quigley recommends Asiabiz.com and Asiaguide.com as two search engines to target. "Also, ask your Asian partners where they search and start to get listed there too; use local expertise," he advises.

In the huge Chinese market, Baidu.com claims to be the most popular search engine, and the site's managers have cleverly introduced a phonetic search called "pin-yin" that allows users to type in Chinese keywords using English characters. Meanwhile, in Korea and Japan - both Southeast Asian markets increasingly targeted by Irish businesses - Yahoo is the leading search engine among internet users.

"Most of the main search engines have country-specific search sub-sites that let you target customers in specific geo-targeted locations. Then there are engines like MIVA that have a great reputation for delivering traffic from a UK-based audience," continues Feargal O'Byrne, CEO of the Irish Internet Association.

To target certain geographic areas, therefore, it's worthwhile developing links with locally focused authoritative and appropriate websites related to your business area or product. Linking to locally respected and relevant trade bodies, agencies and professional associations is a prime example. This should drive your website's title text up the rankings on the country- or region-specific version of a search engine, e.g. Google.co.jp for Japan, or Yahoo's dedicated Asian portal, asia.yahoo.com.

Linking up
Although there is a vast quantity of search engines available on the net, all functioning along different lines, current thinking among web professionals is that the best way to approach optimising your website is to include as many outward and inward links as possible to established and well-trafficked sites.

Seeing as the world's leading search engine, Google, operates by organically ranking websites by the number of links they have, a good place to start is to work out exactly how many valid links your website actually has.

Using Google, this can be done by typing "link:www.yourwebsite'sname" (e.g. link:www.enterprise-ireland.com) into the Google search bar (without any spaces). You can also do this for deeper pages of your website, e.g. "link:www.yourwebsite'sname/aboutus". Yahoo's Site Explorer offers a similar service.

O'Byrne says this first step in search engine optimisation can be a real eye opener. "Most businesses think they have thousands of links, only to find two! Linking is very important but often overlooked. Remember, links send traffic to your site even if Google never existed, but they also comprise part of the Google algorithm."

"Link building is probably the most difficult part of search engine optimisation," says search engine analyst Richard Hearne of Red Cardinal. "And not every link has the same value." For example, links embedded within text tend to carry more weight with search engine spiders - the automated programs that crawl and categorise the web for search engines - than links contained in a list.

This is where emarketplaces and online directories can serve another useful purpose. By publishing your website address on these websites (but taking into the advice above), thereby increasing the number of links to your website, you may be able to improve your search engine ranking.
 
Tracking and taggingAccording to Anthony Quigley, managing director of Online-Marketing.ie, one easy step for online SMEs to consider is to set up their website to track usage by visitors before engaging an expert to implement wholesale search engine optimisation.

"For example, it's no good just recording that someone downloaded your brochure; it's useful to know which link that potential customer used to get to your website, and on what pages did they linger and for how long before making the decision to seek further info," he says. "It's like a big department store knowing which entrance door is most used by shoppers: it affects a lot of other decisions to be made later on."

Quigley says the three most important aspects an optimiser should look at are title tags, content, and inbound links. Title tags are the (usually blue-coloured) text a surfer clicks on a search results page to get to your website, while getting the content right means choosing the right keywords or 'metatags'. Metatags are HTML tags written into the website and indexed by some search engines but not actually displayed on the site.

"It took the airline industry years to get this right," says Quigley. "People don't search for [the term] 'low cost flights', which the airlines had entered as one of their main keyword combinations. Instead, people type 'cheap flights'."

Google Analytics, a free service, can monitor a site, and statistics can show the number of visitors every day. This Google tool has a range of other useful applications such as revealing with what keywords visitors find a particular website so that the website owners can see whether the traffic is targeted or not.

The Verpakkingen.com e-marketplace (www.verpakkingen.com) offers specific opportunities to many packaging companies.

A Dutch packager distinguishes itself on the e-marketplace by offering all the available packaging solutions. The client chooses a packaging, measurement and quality. If the required product is not available, the company develops a packaging solution in consultation with the client.

The marketplace has kept the company on the ball when it comes to recognising new markets and opportunities. The internet is a very practical tool to communicate quickly with the customer and the packager advises to make sure that personal contact is made with the customer.

Verpakkingen.com is an e-marketplace for packing, packaging materials and packaging machines in the Benelux. Participants receive direct access to a network of affiliated marketplaces.

The e-marketplace offers translation services, electronic newsletters to potential customers or press releases to editorial teams, e-mail response campaigns, a tendering system, and overview lists of decision-makers who have an interest in participants’ products and services. Participants can also open an online store.

The airline/aviation industry is a very competitive industry characterised by a small number of firms who control the majority share of the market. Half of the world’s fleet is operated by 17 large airlines.

It is estimated that the airline/aviation industry generates 29 million jobs worldwide and its global economic impact is estimated at USD 2,960 billion, which is equivalent to 8% of world GDP.

Recent times have been difficult for the industry. Of note have been the loss of consumer confidence due to terrorism threats and SARS and the increasing cost of fuels reducing yield per customer. It seems though that the industry has weathered this well and is coming out the other side. Growth in seat demand is forecast across all regions, with the most significant growth expected to come from Asia.

A 2005 study conducted by the National Institute for Transport and Logistics in Dublin, Ireland, of Senior Procurement personnel from airlines around the globe focussing on B2B e-markets in the airline industry, delivered some interesting findings.

• 25% of study respondents are involved financially in an e-market (full service airlines making up the majority of this group at 68% and low cost at 23%)
• 65% report using e-markets for procurement (full service at 82%, low-cost at 79%, regional at 50%, and charter at 27%)

E-markets reduce search costs of airlines mostly in the areas of spares and repairs, tools, and office supplies.

Like its European partners Portugal has in recent decades, developed an increasingly services based economy. The services sector currently provides jobs to 57,5% of the working population and generates 71,1% of gross value added (GVA). The primary sector provides jobs for 11,9% of the population and contributes just 3,5% to GVA, compared to 24% in 1960. Industry, construction, energy and water represent 30,6% of jobs and 25,4% of GVA.

Despite a poor economic growth in 2005, a meager 0,3%, the third quarter of 2006 showed an encouraging 1,5% growth. This recovery has received a big boost from the performance of Portuguese exports – a significant 8,8% growth, the largest since 2000. Portuguese Government expects an economic growth of 1,8% for 2007. 

Manufacturing has sharply changed its traditional profile, moving from high dependence on textiles, footwear, ceramics, cork, food and drinks industries to a position where new sectors are now offering a dynamic growth. These include motor vehicle and motor vehicle components, electronics and pharmaceuticals. Services have become increasingly important in the last two decades with significant diversification into various areas such as transport, communications, commerce, tourism and financial services.

In 2004 there were slightly over 628,000 companies in Portugal, 92,5% of which were micro-sized companies (up to 9 employees), accounting for 26,4% of total turnover. The remaining 7,5% provided jobs for 59,5% of the total workforce and produced 73,6% of the turnover. Concerning information and communication technology (ICT), this sector represented 1,5% of total companies, accounted for 7,3% of total turnover and employed 3,2% of the total workforce.

Similar to other European countries, progress in transport and communications in Portugal, especially telecommunications, has been advancing at a fast pace. Currently, sector infrastructure compares well with those of European neighbours. In 2000, sector liberalisation, and particularly long-distance landline communications and mobile phones services, brought increased competition, greatly boosting market quality and driving down tariffs. The country now has more mobile phones than land lines and mobile telephone penetration is one of the highest in the world. According to the EIU 2005 e-readiness ranking, Portugal ranks 25^th (on an overall list of 65 countries) and 15^th among Western Europe countries.

The use of ICT among Portuguese companies is quite high when considering the use of computers (91%, but almost 100% in companies employing over 50 staff), e-mail and Internet access (82%, but  100% among large companies). On the other hand, on average only 37,1% of companies have their own website, although when considering large companies alone, this figure reaches 76,4%. The percentage of Portuguese companies having received online orders rose from 3% in 2003 to 9% in 2005.

Recently, e-business in Portugal has been performing rather well. According to the data supplied by the e-business Association (ACEP), in the first half of 2006, 80% of Portuguese e-business websites reported that their turnover grew, and for some 20% of those the growth was over 50%.

This recent study from eMarketServices shows that e-marketplaces is an interesting sales- and marketing channel towards new markets and customers and that companies that are using e-marketplaces see an increased turnover combined with a better result and therefore want to continue using them.

This study from eMarketServices on behalf of NorStella and Innovation Norway shows that e-marketplaces is an interesting sales- and marketing channel towards new markets and customers and that companies that are using e-marketplaces see an increased turnover combined with a better result and therefore want to continue using them.

An unexpected result of the study is that companies that have been requested to start using e-marketplaces by existing customers and sell to these, do not see that the e-marketplace makes the salesprocess more efficient. This contradicts other case studies and could be an interesting topic for a new study.

A challenge for the e-marketplaces is to address the problems that companies have in presenting themselves well enough for potential customers, and that this problem also causes some of the companies to find the e-marketplaces difficult to use.

The combination of beeing little used (2-3% of the European SME), but at the same time giving positive results (84% of the respondents in this study) and desire for continued use (86% of the respondents) tells us that SME need more information about available e-marketplaces and how these can be used.

La Pinza is a wholesaler of fashion accessories which specialises in importing and distributing bags, watches, hair accessories, fashion jewelry, etc. The three main reasons behind our decision to begin using electronic markets were to increase our client portfolio, to expand into EU markets and to reduce the cost of catalogues and point of purchase material.

They chose the e-Market CanalTextil for two main reasons. Firstly due to its position on the internet and secondly because it is an electronic market that reaches the target market they are looking for. ]]> <p> <img style='cursor:pointer;cursor:hand' src='http://www.emarketservices.com/clubs/ems/prod/More competitive, more efficient.jpg' border=0 alt='More competitive, more efficient'> 2007-01-01 10:00:00 http://www.emarketservices.com/?cl=ems&mi=6&mi2=1&mi3=1&so=1&ca=prod&ni=1&ci=289 Retailers and other producers in the Fine Food industry shouldn’t be shy of investing small dollars on the Internet, the return on investment is rapid and measurable. The investment is small and the returns great.

Retailers and other producers in the Fine Food industry shouldn’t be shy of investing small dollars on the Internet, the return on investment is rapid and measurable. The investment is small and the returns great.

Look for other electronic marketplaces in the Foods industry in the online directory.

The fantastic evolution of internet and the new means for international trade brings companies closer together and creates new and vast business opportunities.  At the same time it may give ground for new illegal cross border activities that the organized crime syndicates may take advantage of. Trafficking is one of the fastest growing crimes of this time. This report is written by the Swedish Trade Council and reflect the experience from a considerable number of Swedish SME:s.

Following Sweden’s entry into the Schengen scheme, small and medium-sized businesses in Sweden have become a target for international bogus companies on the hunt for much sought-after visas to the Schengen countries.

Foreign entities calling themselves companies search the internet and eMarket directories to retrieve names of SME:s that could be contacted for pretended offers for future trade. These bogus companies could be on the other side of the world and yet be felt like they are very much present and real due to internet efficiency. The beauty of the internet, cutting the distances has at the same time opened a new lucrative way to illegally cross borders for the purpose of getting into the black labour-market in developed countries.

With these false promises of business, the bogus company is given assistance in obtaining a visa for, in this case Schengen, but no business comes out of it – instead the Swedish company becomes an involuntary accomplice to the growing trade in human trafficking, in which visas are worth their weight in gold.

Killarney-based building firm Aspenhill Construction is increasingly looking to the internet to source new business, and the government's eTenders website is often its first port of call.

"Before we got online I'd only search for work the tried and tested ways of reading through the local newspapers for tenders and, of course, through word of mouth. With the eTenders site though, I know I won't miss an ad buried at the bottom of a page, or hear about a job after it's been awarded already," says procurement manager Sheehan.

According to a research carried out by e-business w@tch, the level of e-business activity in the European textile industry is below average compared to other manufacturing industries and is also a late adopter of ICT (Information and Communication Technologies). However there is some evidence that the situation, though slowly, is about to improve.

"The two most important reasons for using e-marketplaces are information and contacts, that is, information and contacts well segmented according to what we are searching for, at the customer level and other manufacturers (for studying the competition).

It’s like visiting a fair but without leaving your office; you find manufacturers and customers from all over the world, see trends. It is a point of reference for finding other e-marketplaces; they do the searching for us," says Eva Reñé, Director of Exports at LEBO S.A. a Spanish manufacturer of chemical products for automobiles (cleaners, polish, lubricants), air fresheners and insecticides.

Austrade’s E-business Advisor Edwin Kuller and Internet Consultant Derek Jardine have developed a full day E-business workshops for Australian small and medium sized companies (SMEs).

In 2005 the workshop was delivered throughout Australia to 1,100 SMEs in WA, SA, QLD, Vic, NSW, and Tasmania in a variety of city, metropolitan and rural areas.
The major topics covered in the e-business workshop are;

• Strategic e-business planning and action
• E-business language and concepts
• Good exporter websites – what to do, what not to do
• Online marketing tactics – how to drive traffic to your website, including search engine optimisation, email marketing and linking
• Online trading issues such as online payment, security, privacy and spam
• Managing your domain name
• Attendee website reviews and discussion

Here are some noteworthy observations that Edwin and Derek have gleamed from the 1,100 Australian SMEs that have attended the workshop.

"The only way we can compete, is by being better, and Transportnett places us on equal terms with our big competitors," says Morten Nore, the managing director of Moss Transportforum.

Transportnett is a Norwegian e-marketplace for transport service providers, shippers, trading companies, freight forwarders, airline, ocean shipping lines, storage companies & courier companies.

The Spanish company Intex, S.A imports, exports and trades electronic, mechanical and electromechanical components.

They are using several e-marketplaces, such as: Solostocks.com; eBay.com; The Broker Forum; FastParts; Partminer; Netcomponents.

"Using the eMarket, we get requests for quote from companies we have not been in touch with before. Since we have a wide range of services and competitive prices, we have won new customers in Norway, Finland and Denmark, where we had no business before," says Christer Persson, Sales representative of Carlshamn Tryck & Media AB.

Carlshamn is a privately owned printing office, established over 100 years ago. The company was reconstructed a couple of years ago. It offers a wide range of printing services, mainly to customers in Sweden

"Using an e-marketplace is an easy and inexpensive tool for exporting your products," says Gerrit Schrotenboer, Commercial Manager at DESMI K&R Pompen B.V.

DESMI K&R Pompen B.V. (formerly Kuyl & Rottinghuis B.V. / K&R pompen BV) is a technical wholesaler specialising in the development of pumps and in the purchase and sale of pumps and motors. They are using SeaQuipment.com, an internet catalogue for maritime products and services.

Modern commercial transport is defined as including all those means and infrastructures involved in the movement of people or goods, as well as the reception, delivery and handling services of those goods. Commercial transport of people is therefore known as "passenger transport" and the transport of goods is called "freight transport".

The European Union transport sector has grown significantly in line with GDP and is currently worth €1 trillion (approximately 10% of GDP) employing 10 million people.

North American firms are conducting more business over the Internet, but are missing important markets overseas. A North America-oriented Web site will reach only 5% of the world’s population and 25% of global purchasing power, but few consumer websites generate any international revenue at all. While globalization is increasingly on the minds of progressive business executives, the nuances of global e-business are less obvious.

We use the term “e-business” to broadly describe the publishing of information and the performing of various transactions over the Internet, Extranets, or Intranets. E-business includes the various terms used to express specific functions, including e-commerce, e-government, and others. The barriers to effective e-business are varied enough in the industrial world, but especially problematic in the developing world. Some obstacles are likely to be removed in the relatively near future, but others will remain over a much longer period. To help readers understand the nature of barriers to e-business, we first review the extent of e-business and expectations for the near future. We then examine a number of well-recognized barriers to e-business.

What is the status of e-business in Norway?

This reports looks at the use of advanced e-business tools like e-marketplaces and the work done by the government and through legislation.

Norway is a large country with a small population. 4.6 million people inhabits an area of about 387 000 square kilometres with only 11.7 inhabitants per square kilometre. There are large regions that are very scarcely populated, contributing to a setting where electronic communication is very attractive.

In addition, Norway has the advantage of rich resources, mainly of oil and gas, producing a gross national product of about 30 800 Euro per person.
Since telecommunication expanded and the use of the internet and mobile phones became popular, Norway has considered itself to be among the world leaders in use of ICT (Information and Communication Technology), mainly within the personal and home use, but also for companies. The 2005 e-readiness ranking from the Economist Intelligence Unit  also confirms that Western Europe is the 2nd highest ranking region with Norway ranked in 9th place. The report confirms that Norway is a global leader in ICT infrastructure, but ranks lower than the other Nordic countries because it has not been able to transform this as well into intellectual property rights – measured by the number of patents registered per resident.

There are 452 000 companies in Norway, and like most other countries, micro-sized companies (10 or less employees) account for 89% of them. The remaining 11% of the companies produce 83% of turnover and employs 74% of the workforce.
The use of Internet and e-business is widespread among Norwegian companies. Measuring from 1998, the number of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SME) with more than 10 employees (10+) that had Internet access grew from 40% to 87%. This increase has now levelled out and reached its peak. Within the same period, the number of 10+ companies with homepages grew from 20% to 61%. About 2% of all companies sell digital products and services via their homepages, and 10% of the companies have received orders via their homepage. The turnover via homepages was about 5 billion Euros in 2003.
More advanced use of e-business is low in Norway, as in most other countries. The Welsh eCommerce Innovation Centre defines a 7-step ladder of e-commerce . In 2004 less than 5% of the Welsh companies had reached the level where they have an online store, have integrated IT-systems with their business partners or use advanced e-commerce, like electronic marketplaces.

Lacking similar studies, but being able to compare Norway to Denmark we can use the results from the “Participation in an Internet-Based Trading Community 2002” as a basis. This study shows that about 95% of the companies had heard about the concept of an Internet marketplace, but only 2.8% participate as a buyer, 7.9% as seller, and only 5.6% as both buyer and seller.

These numbers are also consistent with other studies and reports, some of which have been published on the eMarketServices portal.

E-business and the use of more advanced tools like electronic marketplaces is still giving the companies a competitive advantage if they are able to implement it successfully within their organisations and are able to attract the buyers. As the recent case study about Wittusen & Jensen shows (“The customers are driving the e-business now”, December 2005), e-business has moved from being primarily a marketing tool, to being a required service that the buyers have come to expect.

"Always be careful and discuss with the people online. In discussing and corresponding with the people, you get a better understanding of the companies they represent," says Bert Mastenbroek, Wilbert Trading.

Wilbert Trading is a Dutsch company that specializes in the leasing and sales of new- and second and intermodal equipment and on activities related to intermodal equipment in the Benelux countries.

"Detailed specifications and the time suppliers spend on answering requirement details make it possible to select the best few suppliers in the procurement process."

"Using an electronic marketplace makes the process effective and in many cases the Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SME) are able to compete both on price and quality," says Mr. Bård Vassbotn, Purchase Manager at Uniteam Group.

UniTeam delivers high mobility shelter systems and container solutions to Defence Forces in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, The United Kingdom, The United States and The Netherlands, and several other countries as well as NATO and The United Nations.

The liberalisation promoted by the European Union has had a strong impact on the sector, although the structure of the industry is still characterized by a few large competitors, who are facing the challenges of a dynamic sector.

The Telecommunication industry is one of the leading sectors in the adoption of e-business applications.

The liberalisation promoted by the European Union has had a strong impact on the sector, although the structure of the industry is still characterized by a few large competitors, who are facing the challenges of a dynamic sector.

"Bridge building is an important part of the portal and I find a B2B portal is as much about the people that drive it as the technology that drives it.

The portal is only as good as the people that make it work. My interaction with the people behind the portal is crucial, and because I have a great relationship with the people that drive it I have benefited a lot from the portal," says Mike Ross, New Zealand Country Manager of Objective Corporation Solutions NZ Limited.

Twilight House, a not-for-profit provision of aged-services to the elderly learns that the use of e-marketplaces and electronic purchasing tools such as smartbuy® is not the domain of the commercial for profit organisation.

In fact, the efficiencies and cost savings that these tools provides also apply to not-for-profit organisations who, with operating budgets tied to fixed (or shrinking) funding, are prime candidates for exploring ways to cut costs while maintaining product and service level standards.

Click here if you are looking for e-marketplaces for Public Procurement to do business with the Government of Public sector?

The global trade in wine is slowly increasing as new customers are found in both developed markets and newly emerging markets. After a slow start the international wine industry has started to embrace trading online through electronic databases. E-markets are generally well suited to this global trade that is spread over many times zones, currencies and languages.

This report introduces some significant e-marketplaces that are dedicated to wine

The world of VoIP is a place where speed in closing deals, trust in who you work with and the quality of the service offered are key.

An e-market like Doppiotransito allows even the smaller carriers to be competitive within this market and to be found by potential customers that would otherwise not be aware of them.

B2B e-marketplaces provide buying and selling companies significant and proven benefits. The report presents the reader with an overview of such benefits and put them in counter with barriers on joining an e-marketplace.

The major benefits of B2B e-marketplaces are within procurement and collaborations activities. An e-marketplace often has a particular business purpose and focuses on one of those two activities. Thus some benefits within these activities are more accurate than others and depend on what type of e-marketplace is in question.

Barriers for using e-marketplaces are tangible issues and require awareness in the matter in order to break through them. This report brings forward essential barriers when joining an e-marketplace or implementing an e-commerce solution in the firm.

The main reason companies use Blogs is to establish themselves as authorities in their fields.

This report gives some information about Blogs and how to get started if you want to publish your own.

At a strategic level, the electronics industry has evolved dramatically during the last years. Vertically integrated companies have restructured themselves, focusing on core competencies, slashing costs and building networks of suppliers and partners that are also specialized and cost competitive. Cutting-edge products now come together not solely from individual companies but from networks of companies, each contributing a specialized, high-value aspect of the total solution.

At the structural level, several features of the electronics industry make the sector particularly suitable for e-business:

• Electronics is a truly global business. Product design, production and related marketing activities are frequently carried out in different parts of the world, exploiting comparative advantages of regions.
• Components and products are highly standardised, easy to describe and traded in considerable quantities.
• Value chains are complex and deep. Outsourcing is very common and requires intense cooperation between enterprises, often across cultural and geographical borders.
  Product life cycles are short. Time to market is one of the most important strategic variables in the industry. In addition, technological progress means rapid depreciation of products and components.
• Manufacturers of electronics equipment are naturally IT-savvy and open to experiment with IT driven management solutions.

Click on this link to see the updated list of all e-marketplaces for the electronics industry now.

The purpose of this report is to provide an outline of the sport shoes market in the 8 Eastern European Countries that last entered the EU. That is to say Poland, Hungary, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and the Baltic states, Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania as well.

Our intention is to pinpoint what is the status quo and what are the current tendencies within such a market, in order to inform the reader about possible opportunities existing.

The positive development of the countries’ economies as well as an increase in purchasing power results in people leaning toward more high-quality products. Also branding is playing  a more vital role. Young people, especially teenagers, are one of the most interesting segments to target.

"A developing country such as Serbia can benefit from a privately managed business portal: An e-market can help a local organisation to render services aimed at market development and internationalisation," says Mr. Darko Mamula, Senior Advisor, Serbian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The e-marketplace VIBILIA  is the first business portal in Serbia, Montenegro, and the West Balkans (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia). Established in 2001 and operated by INKO Ltd in 3 official languages, Serbian, English and German. Currently there are over 8500 registered users.

"In addition to the traditional trade-shows and other promotional activities, e-markets can increase the visibility of your company and help you expand your business. When using a digital platform, be it for free or through paid membership, your opportunities for doing business are enhanced," says ariagrazia Giaiotti,Manager at Giaiotti.

Giaiotti is an Italian furniture producer that produces modern office furniture and partition/storage walls.

Yes, these changes probably would have been made regardless, but the use of electronic-marketplaces certainly sped them up. The major changes made were in our product range with a shift of emphasis on quality and choice of products (for example they now offer more colours, smaller quantities and faster delivery)," says Ieva Ungulaityte, Development Manager, UAB Avelanza.

The paradox of marketing in an e-business environment is that it’s more complex than marketing directly to consumers, and yet fundamentally the same. The basic equation hasn’t changed: you have a product or service to sell and you need to convince someone to buy it. In a retail environment, that’s where the story often ends: getting to a sale is the focus and point of marketing. That’s not true in an e-business environment.
 
In e-business, you’re far more concerned about long-term customer relationships and customer loyalty. And unlike the typical retail sale, for example, marketing can play a continuous, vital role in e-business, supporting customer interactions through the entire life of the relationship.
 
This guide is intended to help companies better understand the process of continuous marketing in an e-business environment. It highlights the principles of e-business marketing: such as conversational marketing, personalization, and making the most of your investment.

Through businesslithuania.com, JSC Megalogika acquired the first contract to develop J2ME mobile telephone games for a UK based company Wireless Wizards. It has evolved into a continuing partnership.

Megalogika has programmed software for main the J2ME-capable phone series (Nokia, Motorola, Siemens, and Sony Ericsson), ported mobile software between various J2ME platforms and localised mobile software for different markets.

However, savings and business efficiencies are achievable only when companies can completely rely on the credibility of the contact details given by possible trade partners. If a company trusts the information the e-market provides, then it will continue to use the e-market. If not, it will give it up.

Trust with regards to information provided can be the key that motivates companies to use e-markets. Time and cost savings  are also of interest for companies.

However, savings and business efficiencies are achievable only when companies can completely rely on the credibility of the contact details given by possible trade partners. If a company trusts the information the e-market provides, then it will continue to use the e-market. If not, it will give it up.

This Case study speaks with  Mr. Yousaf Haroon Puri, Director, Haroon Fabrics (Pvt) Limited a Pakistani company trading in the textile sector

Your Internet homepage is a major part of your e-business strategy. It has been developed to support your sales and support and to attract new customers. A study done by the German researcher GfK has shown that 76% of purchasing decision makers in Germany rely primarily on Internet as a research tool in their purchasing process, 29% do research exclusively online.

With your homepage in place you would like to be found – and turn to the world of search engines, soon you find that it is a profession of its own to optimize and market your homepage on the Internet.

This e-business issue will give you an overview of what is required and some of the tasks needed to perform better in the searches.

Information and communication technologies (ICT) wield considerable power for promoting economic development and growth. They are capable of driving innovation and improving productivity, reducing transaction costs and providing instant access to the world’s knowledge base.

In recent years these advantages have resulted in a considerable increase in the take-up of ICTs by companies as well as increasingly larger numbers of firms that are using these technologies to automate their administrative and internal production processes, their client relationships and to manage their supply, logistics and distribution chains.

It is therefore hardly surprising that growth in international trade of ICT related goods and services have outperformed trade in general.Under these circumstances, the labour employed by manufacturers of corporate IT solutions and applications is fundamental, especially in companies that specialise in designing and implementing e-procurement tools.

To build confidence, the site-owners should provide details about the company that operates the site and the guidelines that it is operated by. Several organisations define certifications and codes of conduct that enhances trust.

This paper takes a quick look at the ‘state of play’ regarding e-procurement for one of the most important industry sectors today, the Health and Social Services sector, or generally the Health sector.  This is a sector that delivers services that are so important yet it hasn’t fully adopted online processes and tools that will enable to perform at its optimum.

We look at what is happening in the European and US H&SS sectors and also feature a significant e-market within this sector, The Global Health Exchange.

“E-business is about changing the way things are done with the business, and between business and customers and suppliers.”
Companies must decide how and when to implement e-business. The choice should be based on an overall assessment that includes an evaluation of costs and benefits and well-defined goals that are dependent on whether the decision was based on business or strategic criteria.
This report will present the strategic issue of using e-business in the following chapters:

• Are you doing e-business already?
• The strategic planning process
• Value drivers
• Strategic or business decision
• Industry readiness
• Company readiness

The Sensis 2005 E-business report examines the online experiences of Australian small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and their attitudes to and utilization of e-business tools. For 7 years the report has been produced annually since 1998. For the 2005 report, 1,800 SMEs1 were surveyed across a range of online technologies and applications, including websites, email, and e-commerce.

The 2005 report shows that small businesses are increasingly connecting to the internet, establishing websites, and undertaking online processes. The ability to communicate with clients, customers and suppliers using email remains the primary driver for small businesses connecting to the internet.

The 2005 report again shows an increase in Australian small businesses taking orders and receiving payments online. This indicates that small businesses are embracing e-commerce and better managing their concerns and perceived risks relating to online payment security, online fraud and online privacy, while enjoying the efficiencies and cost savings that ecommerce can bring.

A study conducted by the Enterprise DG Expert Group in 2002 concluded that lack of trust is one of the main barriers for B2B e-marketplaces.

To increase trust for the users of e-marketplaces, organisations and the marketplaces themselves are implementing Codes of Conduct and Trust Marks that are acting as guidelines and certifications and with the main purpose of increasing confidence both in the operation of the e-marketplace itself, but also towards the trading partners.

The DG Enterprise Expert group suggested a best practice checklist to be used as a guideline for Codes of Conduct and Trust Marks.
This report is an introduction into the topic of Codes of Conduct/Trust Marks and an evaluation on how some of these compare to the best practice checklist. ]]> <p> <img style='cursor:pointer;cursor:hand' src='http://www.emarketservices.com/clubs/ems/prod/Trustmarks(1).jpg' border=0 alt='Codes of Conduct'> 2005-08-15 10:00:00