The World’s Greatest Business-Retail Sales Online

Posted on February 11, 2023 by dayat

Retail sales online offer unparalleled opportunity for start-up businesses and for added growth for existing retail businesses.

But are online sales, the World’s Greatest?

Check out some of these trends, then you decide.

Looking Ahead

Even in the midst of one of the toughest retail environments in decades, online retail business is poised for solid growth. Forrester Research says online retail business will grow 10 percent each year for the next 5 years. And experts expect online retail sales to hit a quarter of a trillion dollars by 2014.

At the same time, the National Retail Federation is expecting about 2.5 percent growth for all retail sales in 2010. With 4 times the expected overall growth, the online retail business looks strong.

Good Times Now

Predictions of what will occur in the future aside, what is happening right now in online retail is impressive.

Estimates are that in 2009, sales from online businesses hit $155.2 billion. During the holiday season alone, retail business on the Internet topped $44 billion, a 17 percent increase over the previous year.

Watch the Hidden Trends

Whether you are considering an Internet retail business start-up or you already own a retail business and are considering expanding to the Web, it will pay to look at the hidden trends.

By 2014, Forrester predicts that over half of all retail sales will be influenced by the Internet. That means if your retail business is not online, you could be missing out on the chance to attract 1 of every 2 potential customers.

Staying the Course

Some entrepreneurs grow frustrated if their online business does not take off immediately.

But we caution against giving up too soon.

Just think of Amazon.com, the pioneer in online retail. Amazon made its first sale in 1995 and did not post a profit until 6 years later.

Your start-up Internet retail business would not take that long to pay off. But the point is an online business is like other businesses in that they all require work and commitment.

The potential for great reward is there, but you need to understand that all your work is worth the effort.

Share the Wealth

It does not really matter what segment of the retail business you are in.

Electronics? Sales grew 17 percent in 2009 to $13.6 billion. Clothing? The 2009 total of $27 billion in sales was up 17 percent as well. Computers? They also posted $27 billion in sales, up 7 percent.

Great Opportunity

The following figures might make the case as to why online retail business is the worlds greatest.

Just take a look at the room for growth. In electronics, for example, that $13.6 billion in sales only represented 14 percent of total electronic sales. For clothing, $27 billion is only 10 percent of retail sales. Think how much room there is to grow.

Stating, The World’s Greatest Business-Retail Sales Online, might s

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Price Check Shoppers – A Small Business Retailers Nightmare Indeed

Posted on January 11, 2023 by dayat

Small and large retailers are upset lately due to the fact that folks are coming into their stores not to buy anything but rather to look at the products, get a price, and then go home online and buy it from Amazon. Target stores issued a memorandum to suppliers that they wanted unique products which were only sold to Target, and not available anywhere else to prevent this tactic.

There was an interesting article recently in Terra Daily titled; “Amazon slammed for price reporting deal,” by Staff Writers – Washington (AFP) Dec 10, 2011. The article stated;

“Amazon accused of being “anti-competitive” for a promotion encouraging consumers to enter stores and leave empty-handed, after reporting back the prices they find there. “Price Check” is where customers find & share in-store prices and get a 5% discount up to $5 from Amazon purchases, but now the US Senate is investigating and the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) said the promotion is a “central to this tactic is Amazon’s continued practice of using a pre-Internet loophole to avoid state sales tax collection, and wants lawmakers to rein in what it called the company’s “exploitative” practices.”

Okay so, let’s talk about this shall we? First, it isn’t anti-competitive, “it is very competitive,” next, we see that Barnes and Noble has just announced that they will not sell any books, which are also for sale on Amazon as a way to fight this problem. Now, from my point of view, that is very anti-competitive, and it could be seen as an anti-trust issue because Barnes and Noble is telling its publishers and their authors that they plan to control the distribution supply chain, something that the FTC went after Microsoft for, remember and Jon Leibowitz is now running the FTC.

There was an interesting article on this in the New York Times on January 31, 2012 titled; “Barnes & Noble Won’t Sell Books From Amazon Publishing,” by Julie Bosman. Now then, personally, I believe it is Barnes and Noble’s right to do this, although I think it is a really bad business move, as it says to consumers; “we can’t compete with Amazon, therefore, we won’t” and it gives Jeff Bezos the third round, and I bet the fourth round will be a knock-out either in the courtroom or at the hand of the consumer and continued quarterly losses from the big box bookseller.

Indeed, for a small business retailer, there is no way they can compete with the big box stores, or the online venue, and Amazon is taking this to a higher level by leveraging their market position and competing on price, which is what the consumer wants after all. Please consider all this and think on it.

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