Online shopping is seeing continued growth, due to growing acceptance of e-commerce by women, with female orientated categories predicted to see the most growth in online adspend.
According to
The State of Retailing Online, an annual study conducted by Forrester Research, online sales of cosmetics and fragrances are expected to grow by 33% during 2005.
Over-the-counter sales of medications and personal care items are forecast to increase by 32%, with jewellery and luxury goods sales predicted to rise by 30%. Flowers, cards and gift items are also expected to rise, climbing by 10%.
Commenting on the findings, Scott Silverman, executive director of Shop.org said: “Though initially adopted by men as a shopping tool, women are flocking to the internet in droves to comparison shop, research, and buy. We expect categories purchased by women to grow substantially.”
Forrester shows that, during 2004, online sales rose by 23.8% to $141.4 billion and that, excluding travel, the sector represents 4.6% of total retail sales.
The report predicts that online sales, including travel, will rise by 22% to $172.4 billion this year. Sales excluding travel are expected to reach $109.6 billion.
Search engine marketing is identified as the clear leader as a source of new customers, with retailers reporting that the channel delivered 43% of overall customers to their sites.
In 2004, 87% of retailers who participated in the study used pay-for performance search placement and spent more than twice as much from their marketing budgets on this category than they did in 2003.
The predictions are in line with analyst eMarketer’s latest online retail estimates, predicting US online retail sales to reach $84.5 billion this year, a 22.1% increase from last year (see US Online Shopping To Reach $84.5 Billion In 2005).
In its Women Online in the UK report, eMarketer claims that adult women are doing more and more of their shopping online. Research by Millward Brown reveals that, in 2004, a quarter of UK consumers spent more than £1000 online, leading the way in Europe in terms of online spend (see UK Leads Europe In Online Spending).
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