They’re not just for toast anymore
Although Web appliances are only used by 2 percent of U.S. Internet users and 6 percent of global users, their popularity is set to skyrocket over the next five years.
In a new report, eTForecasts predicts that by 2005, more than 71 percent of all Internet users and 55 percent of U.S. users will carry out some of their online activities using a Web appliance. Increased availability of Internet-enabled mobile phones will drive growth in the appliance market.
Service with a smack
Although small businesses in the U.S. are spending more online, they are increasingly dissatisfied with customer service offerings from business-to-business vendors. The number of businesses that believe online support saves them money has dropped from 52 percent last year to 36 percent this year.
According to a recent study from Cyber Dialogue, just under half of small businesses are satisfied with the relevance of online customer service and 61 percent are satisfied with the usefulness of these services. Last year’s figures were 60 percent and 73 percent, respectively.
Despite this, the amount of spending on B2B has increased. Small businesses spent $45.2 billion in the 12 months ending in March 2000, a 138 percent increase over the previous year. About 3.4 million nonresidential small businesses now have Internet access, along with 7.4 million small business branch offices.
It’s like hiding the checkout aisles at Kmart
Online retailers should concentrate on making their sites quick and easy to use if they want to boost revenue, according to a new report from Creative Good.
The online shopping-cart abandonment rate is the same as it was two years ago, but Creative Good says that consumers are less likely to leave sites that are well designed and easy to navigate.
Business to consumer e-commerce revenue could grow by $20 billion in 2000, if retail sites improve usability. Visitor to buyer conversion rates could also be raised from the current average of 1.8 percent to a more satisfactory 2.5 percent.
The report criticizes online retailers for having poor page design, site search facilities and a lengthy and often confusing checkout process. Other faults included poor or nonexistent product labeling, too much information on individual pages and long questionnaires customers are required to fill out before allowing they are allowed to browse the site.
Forget the TV foofs
Despite current upheavals in the online media sector, the outlook is good for Internet news services, according to a study from the Pew Research Center.
One in three members of the U.S. public gets news from the Internet at least once a week, up from one in five in 1998. Furthermore, 15 percent, three times as many as in 1998, read online news daily. Online financial news services are the leading news source for active financial investors looking for share prices and investment advice. Just under 60 percent of active traders have a personalized Web page with share prices, and 15 percent say they receive financial updates on a wireless device.
Internet news sources are replacing television rather than newspapers. The study finds that newspaper readership is holding steady but viewing figures for television news are dropping.
Does my cul de sac have coverage?
U.S. households are eagerly embracing new technologies, according to a survey from Berrier Associates. Almost 50 percent of U.S. households have access to the Internet and 64 percent own PCs; 27 percent of households went online for the first time within the past 12 months.
More than four in five of those polled said new technologies have made their lives easier. Those who had not adopted new technologies cited complexity and a lack of necessity as reasons for hanging back. Cost was not seen as a significant factor.
PC penetration in the 35-44-year-old age bracket is 76 percent but only 42 percent in the over-55 age bracket.
People living in the suburbs were more likely to own computers and mobile phones than those in urban or rural areas. Rural respondents were more likely to have mobile phones but less likely to have PCs than urban respondents.
My server was down
The percentage of online consumers shopping and buying at e-commerce sites appears to be dropping, according to Greenfield Online.
Roughly 78 percent of the 3,000 survey respondents shopped online and 70 percent purchased online in April 2000. The corresponding figures for April 1999 were 86 percent and 74 percent, respectively.
As the population of Internet users comes to more closely resemble the population at large, the biggest selling product categories are changing. In particular, the growth in the number of women online is affecting e-commerce revenue.
Health and beauty products is now one of the most popular categories, displacing computer hardware from the top five. Books, CDs, computer software and clothing are the other most popular product categories.
Clicks and mortar retailers continue to prove most popular with consumers — 43 percent say they are most comfortable shopping at these retailers’ sites. Consumers also delight in browsing and buying from online auctions. Participation in auctions is up from 40 percent of all online consumers last year to 44 percent this year.
Consumers are most likely to be enticed to visit sites that offer free goods or services. Two-thirds of respondents said this would drive them to a site. Discounted prices would attract 47 percent, while 43 percent are influenced by contests and 39 percent by brand names.
And the music is free, too
New research from Forrester indicates that more than 50 percent of U.S. households will have Internet access by 2001 and more than one in three has purchased goods or services online.
Forrester predicts that growth will be driven by increasing numbers accessing the Internet from outside the home and growth in the number of those using interactive televisions or games consoles to go online.
PC ownership is widespread and PCs are seen as common appliances rather than examples of cutting edge technology. Forrester analyst Patrick Callinan says PCs are now “as common as the stereo system.” Despite this, 55 percent of households without computers say they don’t need one; almost 20 percent say they will never go online. These nonadopters tend to be lower paid and less educated.
Get a clue
Urban legends, such as Microsoft sending you a $245 check for testing its e-mail tracking system or the syringes-on-gas-pump-handles rumor, spread like wildfire over the Internet. Before you forward the warning to 100 of your best friends, check out these sites to see if there really is such a thing as a Costa Rican flesh-eating banana: www.symantec.com/avcenter lists virus hoaxes along with real virus warnings; www.urbanlegends.com lists well, urban legends.
Why do I need a Web site again?
About 70 percent of small businesses in the U.S. had access to the Internet at the end of 1999 and 38 percent had their own Web sites, according to the 19th annual Dun & Bradstreet Small Business survey.
Only 47 percent of small businesses had Internet access in 1997; that increased to 57 percent in 1998. About 28 percent of small businesses had their own Web site in 1998. Despite the increased use of the Internet by small businesses, more than half said the Internet had “no impact” on their business.
The percentage of companies that sold or marketed goods online dropped from 29 percent in 1998 to 26 percent last year. Revenue from online sales dropped from 12 percent of total sales to 8 percent. The percentage of small businesses purchasing online increased from 38 percent to 43 percent.
E-mail continued to be the most popular online activity for small businesses, with 71 percent using it regularly.
There was a drop in the number using the Internet for both business and personal research. A full 58 percent of respondents said they carried out business research online in 1999, down from 71 percent in 1998. The figure for personal research was 50 percent, down from 64 percent.
Women-owned small businesses were more likely to have Internet access, conduct business and personal research online and purchase goods and services online. Minority-owned small businesses were more likely to conduct research online and buy and sell goods and services online.
It’s the only way I ever talk to my friends
Using e-mail results in a productivity gain of $9,000 per employee, according to a new study from Ferris Research.
The study evaluated the tangible benefits of e-mail, such as time not spent addressing envelopes and operating postage and fax machines. It did not examine nonquantifiable benefits, such as improved decision-making.
Ferris found that using e-mail saved an average of 326 hours per employee annually, which translates into a 15 to 20 percent productivity improvement. This saving was valued at $13,000 per employee.
Time wasted on personal e-mail and spam was taken into account, resulting in a loss of 115 hours of productivity per employee, which was valued at $4,000. The overall productivity gain was valued at $9,000.
Ferris says that employee productivity can be increased further by managing corporate e-mail systems, discouraging personal mail, shortening distribution lists and showing employees how to identify and delete spam.
Let your mouse do the walking
Internet-influenced retail spending will top $235 billion this year and $831 billion in 2005, according to Jupiter Communications. Internet-influenced or “Web impacted” spending includes both online purchases and offline purchases that were researched or first discovered online.
The Internet will influence 75 percent of all retail spending in five years’ time, up from 43 percent in 1999. About $200 billion will be spent at retail Web sites, while consumers will research another $632 billion worth of purchases on the Internet, then buy them in a bricks and mortar store.
More than 68 percent of online shoppers say they have researched products online, then purchased at a bricks and mortar store; 47 percent say they have researched goods on the Internet, then purchased them over the telephone.
Jupiter says that these results show the importance of integrating retail business across channels and fully incorporating Web sites into their overall strategy, so that consumers’ offline product choices can be influenced online.
Spam, bacon, eggs, spam
More than four in 10 U.S. workers are worried about employer monitoring of e-mail, according to the results of a new survey from Vault, an online recruitment service.
Despite this, 70 percent say that e-mail has improved communication with their manager or employer. Almost eight in 10 have a separate account for sending and receiving personal e-mail.
Almost half of respondents say they do not forward marketing e-mails. Almost 27 percent forward e-mails regarding viruses or scams and 12.6 forward messages or petitions on social or political issues. Only 12.3 percent forward e-mails containing merchandise deals or promotions.
For 80 percent of respondents, e-mail has replaced traditional mail for the majority of their business correspondence. For faxing and phone calls, the corresponding figures are 72.5 percent and 45 percent.
As far as sexually explicit or otherwise improper e-mails are concerned, 77.5 percent would delete them immediately, just over 9 percent would forward them to friends; 4.7 percent would forward them to friends and co-workers; and 8 percent close would close them and leave them alone.
Just over half said the tone of their e-mails is sometimes misunderstood; 63 percent say they like the use of emoticons, such as the smiley face, or :-), as it is rendered in e-mails.
Surfing the skies
Boeing is planning to install in-flight Internet access into its planes. The cost will be about the same as an in-flight phone call and will allow users to surf the Internet at 20,000 feet.
