|
BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE: DAILY BRIEFING | |||||||||||
| |||||||||||
|
BW ONLINE DAILY BRIEFING |
 | |
 | |
 |
||||||
Getting E-Browsers to E-Buy: Who Has the Edge? Strictly online retailers may hold fewer aces than many thought Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos should watch his back. Traditional retailers convert just as many shoppers into buyers on the Net as E-commerce sites with an online-only presence, according to a study released July 12 by Nielsen/NetRatings. The study, which tracked the ratio of site visitors vs. buyers for selected online retailers during the month of May, challenges the commonly held belief that pure Internet businesses have an advantage over traditional marketers when it comes to online sales. "[Buying] ratios for Internet marketers reveal that the Web is a level playing field," says Allen Weiner, vice-president for analytical services at NetRatings. "E-commerce is in its infancy, and site sales-conversion ratios will vary based on the nature of the site and where people are in the buying cycle when they come to the site. We believe that conversion-rate parity between pure players like Amazon and multichannel marketers such as Southwest Airlines or Hallmark proves that brands and good business practices matter on the Web." At Amazon, for example, 8.6% of visitors made a purchase, compared with 7.5% of those who visited greeting-card retailer Hallmark, the study says. Of the total number of visitors to software retailer Beyond.com, 6.6% bought, while 6.4% of visitors to Fidelity's Web site conducted financial transactions, and 9.1% of Southwest Airlines' visitors bought tickets. While the study highlighted these sites, it didn't specify why they were chosen for comparison. Weiner recognizes the ability of traditional retailers to leverage the strength of their offline brand and business models to better compete with online-only companies (see BW Online, 7/13/99, "Babbage's Game Plan for Selling Games Online"). "The ability of a Web site to attract traffic and convert traffic to sales is an important test of its E-commerce strategy, but they're not the only measures," he says. "Multichannel retailers, such as J. Crew or Victoria's Secret, for instance, are using the Web differently than pure E-commerce companies. The multichannel retailers can use the Web for sales and to augment in-store and catalog channels." In the future, says Weiner, no matter what kind of retailer you are, "smart strategies and well-executed tactics will separate E-commerce winners and losers." By Stefani Eads in New York _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ |
| |
 | |
 Assistive Technology barker.online Byte of the Apple Eye on Japan Hers.online Inside Wall Street Not-So-Neutral Corner Online Asia Power Lunch Privacy Matters Sector Scope Sound Money Street Wise Washington Watch News Flash Archive | ||||||
