The success of online business may actually be contributing to the sense of economic decline in 2001 in many companies in the US and abroad, according to ActivMedia VP, Harry Wolhandler. He reckons that whilst many of the pure dotcom companies have failed, those that are merging on- and offline commerce are increasingly taking their revenues from the internet.
Despite the well-publicised financial difficulties that many pure dotcom companies have experienced, the three quarters of websites that are part of so-called ‘clicks and mortar’ businesses see internet revenues taking an increasingly substantial role, the research suggests.
One third of revenues for companies that sell both on- and offline came from the internet last year and almost half of all revenues for these companies will come from online contacts in 2002 says the E-Survivors: Winning e-Commerce Strategies for 2001 report.
ActivMedia says that thanks to mainstream product lines and well-established business capabilities, these companies are surviving where the pure dotcoms are failing.
Over 500 online business executives took part in the new research, which also predicts that growth rates for internet contributions to clicks and mortar companies will soar over the next two years, until their ‘Net-centricity quotients’ rise to become a majority of all company revenues by 2003.
| What % of your total business can be attributed to having an internet presence? |
| 2000 |
34% |
| |
| 2001 |
41% |
| |
| 2002 |
48% |
| |
| 2003 |
55% |
| |
| Source: E-Survivors! Winning E-Commerce Strategies for 2001 |
|
According to Harry Wolhandler, VP at ActivMedia Research: “The success of online business may actually be contributing to the sense of economic decline in 2001 in many companies in the US and abroad. Such robust business gains among the online/offline vendors have to come from elsewhere in the economy. More specifically, companies that are not participating in the online growth spurt are losing share to those that are already online.
“Like it or not, the internet is a fact of life for competitive business in the future. Mainstream businesses that create an effective synthesis of on-and-offline strategies are going to reap the benefits. Now that the dotcoms have turned into dot-bombs, the picture of what it takes to survive online is becoming much clearer.”
