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Ecommerce continues to grow

09/02/2012 - By Alexander Galasso

Retail spending online continues to increase as the ecommerce industry reports the ninth consecutive quarter of sales growth.

Tag: E-Commerce

Ecommerce had its ninth consecutive quarter of sales growth at the end of 2011 and shows no signs of slowing. In order to keep up, retail owners might need to adopt better strategies for online sales.

Retail spending online reached $49.7 billion for the last quarter in 2011, up 14 percent from the year before in the continued growth trend. For the entire year, sales in the U.S. totaled $161.5 billion for ecommerce.

"In the face of continuing uncertainty regarding the U.S. economy, consumers increasingly went online for their shopping needs. Price and convenience continue to be the critical value drivers for e-commerce, and unless those conditions change we can expect to see more channel shifting to online in 2012," said Gian Fulgoni, the chairman of comScore.

Factoring into the growth is consumers' increased use of mobile devices for shopping. Customers are more often using smartphones and tablets to learn about products and compare prices, even while they're in a physical brick-and-mortar store.

Retailers can use this information to meet the needs of customers better. Outfitting an ecommerce store with convenient online payment processing can encourage customers to make purchases when they visit. Brick-and-mortar locations can invest in new point of sale terminals or mobile devices that allow employees to process transactions or track inventory from anywhere in the store.

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