True size Blog » The Netherlands

E-commerce websites grow despite of crisis

Kelvin Divendal — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 22:53:01 +0000

Dutch e-commerce websites have grown in the first six months of 2009, despite of the economic crisis. This is shown by research of Multiscope. Not only Bol.com (15%), Neckermann (6%), Otto (7%) and Wehkamp (17%) were able to realize a growth of their reach, but also KPN (10%) and Vodafone (9%) show a strong growth in comparison with 2008.

Consumers more often go online for the purchase of products and services. Motives behind the growth seem to be easy comparison, more choice and more extensive payment- and credit possibilities.

Forrester: ‘Dutch online shoppers will spend €8 billion in 2014′

Kelvin Divendal — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 19:21:04 +0000

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

Kelvin Divendal — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 18:55:46 +0000

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.”