E-tailers start turning in the goods

NEWS Industry watchers have noticed two important trends that point towards a strengthening of the e-tail market. Although consumer sales might be flagging, e-tail sites are succeeding at turning more of their visitors into paying customers. Further evidence of the increased efficiency of e-tailers is the 60 per cent reduction in the cost of acquiring a customer, bringing the average cost down to $18. The report, from Boston Consulting Group, also shows that e-tailers are being more prudent when it comes to marketing budgets, applying more targeted approaches. While the conversion of surfers to buyers could have a dramatic effect on profits it will also take the strain off marketing budgets. More positive news for e-tailers, this time specifically in Europe, is that visitors are spending increasing amounts of time on travel sites, researching and booking holidays and flights. In the UK, specialist sites such as EasyJet.com, Railtrack.co.uk and thetrainline.com are particularly popular. Jupiter XXMI has just released the research, which shows the number of Europeans visiting travel websites increased by almost four million between November 2000 and April this year. However, Jupiter also points out that customers are much more comfortable making cheaper travel purchases such as air tickets. The real task now is for these etailers to persuade their customers to make bigger, more expensive purchases. For related news, see
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