Internet has induced evolution in global economy. It has fundamentally changed rules and practice of business. Whether your business is brick-and-mortar or Web-based, and whether it is a small company operated by a solo entrepreneur or a multinational corporation dominating the market in certain industry, the Internet can always bring you online business opportunities that enable your business to do better in an unconventional way.
Until the age of Internet, never before in history have we been able to reach so many people so widely, so easily, so quickly and so cost-effectively. You don’t need to worry about limitation of time, territory, communication capability, budget, and business scale, because Internet has removed those barriers to create vast opportunities making business success achievable to everyone.
Online business opportunities spelled by data
According to European retail research center and Forrester online retail research, e-commerce generates $ 268 billion in sales for US in 2013, about 16% growth comparing with $231 billion online sales in 2012 US. e-commerce accounts for 8% of all US retail sales. It has been projected that US online spending will reach $306 billion, increasing about 14.5% in 2014.
In Europe, online retailing increased by average 21.1% to $150.12 billion in 2013, comparing to $124.06 in 2012, and it is predicted to reach $176.85 billion with average 18.1% growth in 2014. e-commerce accounts above 10% market share of overall retail sales in countries like UK and German, and an average 5% of European retail sales.
Up to now, 54.5% of the US public were E-shoppers, compared to 45.6% in Europe. In 2014, every online shopper in US is expected to spend about $1787.28 compared to $1210.63 in Europe.
Figure 1: Forecast-US and EU online retail sales, 2012 to 2017
Even though the US and Europe are still the leaders in global online retailing market, research data shows the fast growing pace of e-commerce in other parts of the world. According to online research firm comScore Inc., Canadian consumers view the most web pages in developed countries and purchased online more frequently on the Internet. Canadian online spending is $22.3 billion in 2012, 17% increase compared to $19.06 billion in 2011. Emarketer forecasts that online sales in Canada will outpace that of the US now through at least 2016. With about 50% of Canadians shopping online, Canada will generate $37.78 billion e-commerce sales in 2016, approximately 6.3% of total North American online sales of $548.62 billion.
The trend of online business in global economy
According to the new projection from Forrester Research, online sales currently account for 2% of annual revenue for each country, and are projected to increase their shares by 1% and 2%, respectively, in the next five years.
In 2017, online purchasing will hit $370 in the US, e-commerce will account for 10% of all US retail sales.
In Europe, online business will represent a key growth area for many European companies and manufacturers struggling to get their way out of recession. e-commerce is expected to grow even faster than the US. in next five years, hitting $258 billion by 2017. In the UK, online sales already account for 13% of the total economy, and are expected to increase to 15% in 2017. Some countries like Italy and Spain, the compound annual growth rate through 2017 will stand at 18% (versus 9% in the US, 11% in the UK).
In Asia-Pacific and Latin America, e-commerce is growing by over 20 percent annually, and it is expected to keep growing with the strong pace in the future.
Even though e-commerce growth rates will shrink in some countries through 2017 as the market matured, like the US, the UK and Germany, the report says, the existing web consumers become more experienced shopping online, total spending base becomes larger and consumers will shop online in a much wider variety of categories.
The factors to drive the growth of online business
The continued growth of e-commerce occurs at the expense of conventional stores. Retail research center says that online sales are expanding about 20 times faster than traditional outlets in Europe as a whole, and about 6 times in the UK and 3.3 times in the US. But what is driving the growth of e-commerce greatly outpacing the brick-and-mortar?
From consumer perspective, e-commerce provides unlimited resources of commodity, service and information, makes purchasing well informative, very fast, quite convenient, and pretty entertaining. With 24/7 accessibility without boundary of territory, online shopping has been considered as most cost effective and most efficient way to buy. Fast, convenient, well informative, cost effective, easy to communicate, accessible 24/7 supported by the daily upgrading advanced Internet technology have got more and more people attracted and adhere to online shopping experience.
The popularity of using smartphones, tablets and other portable devices has driven the sales industry irrevocably shifts towards e-commerce and boosted the amount of time people spend online. Nowadays, people are able to shopping any time from any places (at home, in the office, on the bus, in travel…), we are using mobile devices to search products, find stores and compare prices and can easily and immediately complete a transaction on the device whenever a purchasing decision is made.
From business perspective, the advancement of the Internet creates a fertile land for the cultivation of new Online business ideas and marketing Strategies that we are going to discuss a lot more later in the related sections.
Businesses in any size today are taking advantages of the Internet to tie their sales chains with web and mobile and create what is called omnichannel to reach targeted customers, expand shares in marketing, promote product and service, increase visibility and build brand. They can be done so easily, efficiently with such low cost that traditional way of marketing can never achieve.
The recession of economy and the downsizing of companies induce more and more people turn to start up their own business. Building a business online has become the best choice for the people who want to be an entrepreneur, you can avoid many of the legacies confining the traditional business, such as brick-and-mortar stores, office space, employees, facilities, equipment, inventory and expensive advertising. Low risk, low cost in investment and operation, highly advanced enterprise software available for pennies, and unlimited space of growth and development make it possible for small business to start up, expand very fast and compete successfully with those multinational corporations.
