Subscribe to blog
Categories
Archives
Tags
Archive for June, 2009
True size: Palm Pre vs. iPhone 3GS
Palm Pre vs. iPhone 3GS: how to make the right decision? Sprint vs. AT&T, Palm vs. Apple, physical keys vs. solo touch screen.
But what’s maybe even more important: their size. How large or how small are they? Compare their sizes by viewing them in true size. First try the Palm Pre. Then try the iPhone 3GS. Do you see the difference?
Now compare them side by side:
Online shoppers are uniquely loyal
Consumers tend to stick to what they are familiar with when it comes to online shopping. According to the global online shopping report by Nielsen, 60 percent of online shoppers say they buy mostly from the same site, proving that online shoppers are uniquely loyal.
Personal recommendation
According to the report, over one third of online shoppers use a search engine to find an online shop. Also interesting is that one in four relies on word of mouth.
Open-source webshop application popularity
What are the most popular shopping cart systems used by webshops? Nowadays, a lot of open-source shopping cart applications are available. We compared the five largest open-source online shopping applications and found some surprising trends.
The graph below shows the systems and their average worldwide traffic (search volume index, scale relative to average Magento figures) according to Google Trends. It’s no hard science, but the outcomes show great shifts over time.
What strikes is the rapid growth of Magento overtaking osCommerce as the largest player. Both systems today account for 26% of the traffic in this research, followed by Interchange (18%), VirtueMart (15%) and Zen cart (15%). It can be assumed that the increase in popularity of Magento will continue, making Magento by far the most used online shopping cart system in the near future.
Size comparison using references
Viewing products in true size is a great good. This is one of the main reasons why consumers tend to go to physical shops. A common thought is that size determination is only possible by holding, viewing or touching real, existing products.
However, there are examples of size determination in architecture and product photography. As illustrated above, product photographers use other common products like coins, rulers or pencils to give the viewer an idea of the product’s size.
Architects use scaled models, maquettes or renderings to visualize and test shapes and ideas. In architecture, size comparison is often achieved by placing models of people or cars next to buildings and structures. The above image shows a rendering of The bird’s nest (Beijing, China) designed by Herzog & de Meuron with people as references.
Using references is a simple way to let viewers determine the size of products. An important thing to remember is to always use common reference objects like coins, credit cards and people.
The illustration above shows a rubber ducky without any reference in the first image. The second and third image show how a person as a reference can influence the perception of the size of a product.
Forrester: ‘Dutch online shoppers will spend €8 billion in 2014′
Only a few days after Dutch market researcher Blauw Research stated that “despite of the economic crisis and decreasing consumer trust, in 2009 we expect the Dutch online consumer spending to reach € 6 billion”, Forrester Research publishes its online shopping predictions for The Netherlands in 2014. In its report Forrester expects that, by 2014, nearly 10 million Dutch online shoppers (out of a 16 million population) will spend more than € 8 billion via the internet.
Forrester asked more than 1.000 Dutch consumers about their satisfaction with Dutch websites on thirteen large retail websites. 69 percent reported that they were satisfied or very satisfied with their experiences.
Bol.com (86 percent) has the highest satisfaction rates, followed by Wehkamp.nl (76 percent) and Neckermann.com (75 percent). Bruna.nl (58 percent) came in last.
Dutch consumers were mainly frustrated by sites that made it hard to find - or didn’t have - the products they wanted. Another pain point for Dutch consumers was lack of/not enough pictures of products. Forrester recommends retail websites to prove that fixing usability problems is good for their business.
Especially the small, simple improvements can cause a fast improvement of the ROI. A good starting point is to show the board how other companies make changes which lead to improvement of the conversion, more and larger orders, better churn and online sales.
Dutch consumers spend more online every year
Dutch consumers are buying more and more goods from their home. The spending in the Dutch homeshopping segment increased last year with 14,3% to € 5,46 billion, according to recently published numbers by market researcher Blauw Research.
Last year the total turnover for online consumer spending was € 4,85 billion, a growth of 24% in comparison with 2007. The number of online orders increased with 17% to an average of 5,3 orders per person. This influences the average amount spent per online consumer, which increased with 16% to € 618. Altough the growth is less than in previous years, the market continues to grow with 24%, mainly caused by an increase in the number of orders.
Online consumer spending
As illustrated in the graph below, the share of internet shopping in consumer spending for the total retail segment steadily increases. The share increases about 25% every year from 2,8% in 2005 to 5,7% in 2008.
When we look at the share of internet shopping in the home shopping segment (which also consists of catalog and mail orders) a steady increase can be noticed. The share increases about 10% every year from 68% in 2005 to 89% in 2008.
Frank Sibbel (Blauw Research): “For 2009 we once again expect a large spending increase, despite of the economic crisis and decreasing consumer trust. Consumers will use the web more often for their online purchases and they will spend more money and more often online. In 2009 we expect the online consumer spending to reach € 6 billion.”
