The State of the Internet -- Retail Edition
- by David Dorf
Over at Business Insider, there's a great presentation on the State of the Internet done in the Mary Meeker style. Its 138 slides so I took the liberty of condensing it down to the 15 slides that directly apply to the retail industry. However, I strongly recommend looking at the entire deck when you have time. And while you're at it, Business Insider just launched a retail portal that's dedicated to retail industry content. Please check it out as well. My take-aways are below after the slide show.
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[Source: Business Insider]
Here are a few things I took away from the statistics:
Facebook and Twitter are in their infancy. While all retailers should have social programs, search is still the driver and therefore should receive the lions share of investment. Facebook referrals are up 92% year-over-year, but Google still does 80% of the referrals.
E-commerce continues to grow at breakneck speed, but in-store commerce is still king. Stores are not showrooms yet. And social commerce pure-plays like Gilt and Groupon are tiny but worthy of some attention.
There are more smartphones than PCs on the internet, and the disparity will continue to grow. PC growth will be flat and Tablet use will continue to grow. Mobile accounts for 12% of all internet traffic.
A quarter of smartphone sales come from China, so anyone with a presence there better have a strong mobile strategy.
38% of people have used their smartphone to make a purchase, and many use their smartphones inside stores. Smartphones are a critical consumer tool for shopping.
Mobile is starting to drive significant traffic to e-commerce sites, especially tablets. Tablet strategies are crucial for retailers.
Mobile payments from the likes of Paypal and Square are growing quickly. It will be interesting to see how NFC plays in this area.
Mobile operating systems are losing market share to iOS and Android. I wonder in Microsoft can finally make a dent?
The internet is being dominated by mobile devices, and retailers had better have a strong mobile strategy to meet consumer demand.
