Another boom on its way
Can I hammer this point a bit?Hello again.
* Latest figures for The Census Bureau on the Dept of Commerce in the USA found that ecommerce accounted for US$15.65 billion of the US$919 billion total retail sales for the second quarter of 2004.
* There are now 123 million users of broadband.
* Domain registrations hit an all-time high at the end of the second quarter of 2004 - 64.5 million domain names are now registered (4.6 million names between April and June alone!).
* Online advertising (according to the Online Advertising Bureau) grew for the 7th consecutive quarter. Advertisers spent $2.37 billion in the 2nd quarter of 2004. Online advertisers for the first half of 2004 totaled $4.6 billion. That's an increase of 39.7% from the first half of 2003.
* Yahoo! has tripled their profits in the three months to the end of September, 2004 - $65.3 million to $253.3 million. That's after sales soared to a sixth consecutive record high of $906.7 million.
That tells us a lot
1. E-commerce is strong and getting stronger
2. More and more people have fast Internet connections. Now they don't have the frustration of slow connections they stay online longer. Which means more familiarity. More looking. More confidence. Increased sense of security. Increase in buying online.
3. More and more businesses are recognizing the need to get a web presence.
4. Online advertising is growing, growing, growing. If it wasn't working it wouldn't be growing.
And then there's my experience
As you might know, we run a few e-commerce web sites. They have been growing strongly especially over the past 6 months or so.
I launched a site about 14 weeks ago that is already doing big, big sales and providing big returns.
This is the start of a fantastic e-commerce boom. It's going to be bigger than the tech-wreck of a few years ago because this time it's built on something solid - viable business models.
If you have ever considered starting an e-commerce site then now is the time to gather up that courage, get ready for some hard work and have a go at making your dream a reality.
Cheers
Brendon
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