Ignore e-commerce at your peril, marketers warned

Nick Towers, director of digital at Sagittarius Marketing, has explained why e-commerce has proved resilient to the impact of the recession.

E-commerce is well suited to weather the storm, for a number of reasons.

The web has always been one of the best places to find a good deal - it's one of the main reasons people buy online - but during a recession, everyone's looking to make their budgets work harder.

Saving money is more important now than it was, say, 18 months ago.

Shopping online has never been easier - it saves time, allows customers to do proper research and price comparisons, and can be done day or night.

While e-commerce is not completely recession-proof, the underlying trend is still for customers to turn to the internet for the best value.

Although the growth in UK e-commerce sales slowed in 2008 as the recession tightened its grip, a number of studies predict that UK consumers will be doing more shopping on the web this year.

In fact, figures show that UK shoppers spent an estimated GBP3.8bn online in August 2009 - 16 per cent higher than the same month in 2008.

In September that figure was even higher, at an estimated GBP3.89bn.

The internet is undoubtedly big business: recent research from IMRG showed that online retail sales in the UK were worth GBP43.8bn in 2008.

With more businesses tapping into such a massive market, it's no surprise that online advertising spend now outstrips television advertising.

Figures from Pricewaterhousecoopers show that spending on internet advertising accounts for 23.5 per cent of all advertising spend, topping GBP1.75bn in the first half of 2009 compared with television spend of GBP1.64bn.

That shows just how important the internet has become to both business and consumers.

Indeed, many of Sagittarius Marketing's clients have recognised the importance of developing an effective e-commerce strategy and that has definitely given them an advantage during the economic slowdown.

Jacksons Fencing recently turned to Sagittarius Marketing to develop a digital presence that would set the standard in its industry.

Thanks to a high-quality e-commerce website, Jacksons Fencing has been able to dominate the search engines for five years and maximise its return on investment.

More aggressive digital marketing has significantly increased traffic to its website.

In fact, Jacksons Fencing has seen increased web traffic and sales month-on-month in 2009 compared with 2008.

Through a combination of strategic search engine optimisation and pay-per-click advertising, tactical e-mail marketing and well-planned customer journeys, the company has tapped into the growing trend for people to 'improve not move'.

Homemaker Bedding has also worked with Sagittarius Marketing to open up new sales channels.

The company previously only sold its products through Ebay and Amazon, but now has its own e-commerce website in order to maximise its margins.

Despite being the fourth largest Ebay store in the UK, Homemaker Bedding realised it needed to further strengthen its business and brand.

Having its own e-commerce site has enabled the company to take more control of its business and brand and has added a reliable and solid sales channel.

However, it's not just enough to have an e-commerce site.

The internet is always evolving so it is no good having a website that is dated, poorly designed and difficult to navigate.

If customers are not confident about using your site, you will lose them and it will be very difficult to get them back.

Your e-commerce site is one of your main sales tools.

It's a cost-effective way of doing business and the best and easiest place to improve sales.

In a time of economic uncertainty, competition to win new customers - and hold on to existing ones - is fiercer than ever, so if you don't keep your site up-to-date, they'll just go elsewhere.

Web users are far savvier these days and they can easily shop around without moving from their seat.

Emarketer estimates that between 2009 and 2013, the number of online buyers will rise from 26.9 million to 31.8 million - more than half the UK population.

Figures like that can't be ignored.

The online revolution is going from strength to strength as more companies use the internet to do business more effectively and efficiently.

Those who ignore the power of e-commerce do so at their peril.

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