E-Commerce spending will rise 11% to $156.1 billion

E-Commerce spending will rise 11% to $156.1 billion this year, study says.
Despite the economic downturn, e-commerce sales, including event and movie tickets, will grow about 11% to $156.1 billion this year from $141.3 billion in 2008, according to the first installment of the three-part State of Retailing Online 2009: Marketing Report from research and consulting firm Forrester Research and Shop.org, the online retail arm of the National Retail Federation, a merchant trade association. Four out of five retailers say the web is better suited than offline retail to withstand the recession.
E-commerce sales grew 13% from 2007 to 2008, the report says. Online sales will account for 6% of total retail sales this year, up from 5% last year.
While Internet sales growth continues to outpace traditional retail sales, 54% of online retailers expect overall retail growth to slow during the next 12 months, and 57% acknowledge the economy is hurting their bottom line, according to the survey.

Ecommerce Know-How: Six Ways To Improve Your Online Store

An online merchant's most important marketing and sales tool is a content-rich, visually interesting, and factually accurate website.
In this edition of "Ecommerce Know-How," I am going to propose six ways to improve your site。
Six Ways to Improve Your Online Store：

No. 1: Upgrade Your Product Descriptions, Using Three Sentences Or Less
No. 2: Use Video for Product Demonstrations, Merchandising
No. 3: Use Adobe Flash, Flex, and jQuery Plug-ins to Merchandise and Cross-Promote Specials
No. 4: Implement Product Reviews and Ratings
No. 5: Add a Cross-Selling, Suggestions Tool
No. 6: Get a Single-Page Checkout

E-commerce broke 3 trillion yuan in turnover last year

Vice Director of the Department of Information Technology of the Ministry of Commerce Nie Linhai recently revealed in Fuzhou that the financial crisis is providing a rare opportunity for development in China's e-commerce industry, and China's total turnover from e-commerce exceeded 3 trillion yuan last year, an increase of over 40 percent year-on-year.

While attending the second E-commerce and Logistics Distribution Forum and the first Seminar on Joint Development of Cross-Strait E-commerce and Logistics in Fuzhou, Nie said that China's total turnover in e-commerce trade reached 3.1 trillion yuan in 2008, a 43 percent increase from 2007.

In the current financial environment, small and medium-sized businesses engaging in e-commerce have a better chance of survival than those using traditional modes of business.

According to relevant statistics, 84.2 percent of enterprises that do not engage in e-commerce experience financial difficulty in the financial crisis, while only 16.8 percent of enterprises that do engage in e-commerce experience financial difficulty, a difference of nearly five times.