E-Commerce Writ Large

April 11, 2012 — The Editors

Sector Pie Chart

The announcement this week that two large players in the Internet world have made billion dollar plus acquisitions made us think again about e-commerce. It is a term that is used regularly but one suspects that its meaning is somewhat subjective and based on the user’s own concept of the business. E-commerce can be viewed, as it often is, as electronic shopping. Of course, that might more accurately be called e-shopping or e-retail. Commercial exchange is much bigger than that.

By taking the electronically transacted portions of each of the primarily commercial sectors of the economy, we see (in the pie chart) that e-retail makes up only a small share of the more broadly defined e-commerce. E-wholesale and e-manufacturing account for the lion’s share of the total but they are not new and shiny and so attract far less media attention or investor interest.

Even within the retail sector as a whole, e-commerce accounts for just under 5 percent of the whole. That percentage is, of course, growing, and growing rapidly. It is this fact that must be causing companies like Facebook to spend in excess of $1 billion on a company with a popular photo sharing app (Instagram). Worth noting is the fact that in some retail sectors, e-commerce does play a far larger role than the 5 percent it represents of the sector at large: electronics and books are two such.

Today’s market size numbers measure the size of the U.S. retail sector in the 4th quarter of 2011, and the size of the e-commerce portion of that total.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2011, 4th quarter
Market size: Retail, $1.072 trillion, E-commerce: $51.38 billion (4.8% of total retail)
Source: Quarterly Retail E-Commerce Sales, 4th Quareter 2011, U.S. Census Bureau, available online here.
Original source: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census
Posted on April 11, 2012

Posted in Digital Distribution, E-Commerce. No Comments »

E-commerce Sales on Cyber Monday

December 8, 2011 — The Editors

The estimate of how much is sold on a single day is of limited use to anyone but it is something reported on and tracked by the retail industry. And when that day is either the day after Thanksgiving, or, for the online world, the Monday following Thanksgiving, interest in the estimates is particularly high as they are believed to foreshadow the level of retail sales for the rest of that year.

Today’s market size is an estimated range of the total sales generated by e-commerce web site on Monday, November 28, 2011.

Geographic reference: World
Year: Nov. 28, 2011
Market size: $1.17 to $1.2 billion
Source: Claire Cain Miller, “A Shopping Day Invested for the Web Comes Alive,” The New York Times, Nov. 29, 2011, Page b1, available online here.
Original source: comScore and IBM Benchmark
Posted on December 8, 2011

Posted in E-Commerce. No Comments »

Online Poker

October 18, 2011 — The Editors

Gambling moved onto the Internet as soon as a reliable means of exchanging funds was available on that network. One could call this industry an early adopter of e-commerce. The rules of the game, however, are not always clear and vary from country to country and jurisdiction to jurisdiction which complicates things for a system that spans geographies. Nonetheless, according to those following the market it is a lucrative one.

Today’s market size is an estimated total number of dollars gambled through online poker sites by Americans in 2010.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2010
Market size: 16 billion
Source: Janet Morrissey, “Poker Inc. To Uncle Same: Shut Up and Deal,” The New York Times, October 9, 2011, page B1, available online here.
Original source: PokerScout.com
Posted on October 18, 2011

Posted in E-Commerce, Entertainment, Gambling. No Comments »

Streaming Video

August 17, 2011 — The Editors

Netflix and Hulu are two services that allow their customers to stream videos. A March 2011 Nielsen survey found that a majority of Netflix users who stream videos watch them on their TVs through gaming consoles, while a majority of Hulu users stream video on their computers.

Data are the number of videos streamed in the United States in May 2011. This was an all-time high.

Geographic ref.: United States
Year: May 2011
Market Size: 15 billion videos
Source: The Associated Press, “Half of Netflix Use Done on Consoles,” Lansing State Journal, July 31, 2011, page 4E

Posted in Digital Distribution, E-Commerce, Entertainment, Movies, Publishing. No Comments »

e-Education—Students Enrolled in Online Courses

June 28, 2011 — The Editors

Enrollment in online courses

The number of students taking at least some of their classes online has risen steadily throughout the first decade of the 21st Century. In 2003, 11.2% of college and university students took at least one class online. By 2009, 27.4% did. The chart at the right shows the growth in the number of students enrolled in at least one online course in the Fall of each year.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2003 and 2009
Market size: Approximately 1.9 million and 5.6 million students respectively

Source: “Entering the Mainstream: The Quality and Extent of Online Education in the United States, 2003 and 2004,” [Abstract], Sloan Consortium, available online here; “Survey Reports: Online Education Grows by Almost a Million Students,” [Abstract], Sloan Consortium, available online here; “Table 176. Total fall enrollment in degree-granting institutions, by level of enrollment, sex, attendance status, and type and control of institution: 2003,” Digest of Education Statistics: 2005, Spring 2004, available online here; “Table 202. Total fall enrollment in degree-granting institutions, by level of enrollment, sex, attendance status, and type and control of institution: 2009,” Digest of Education Statistics: 2010, September 2010, available online here.

Graph Source:“Entering the Mainstream: The Quality and Extent of Online Education in the United States, 2003 and 2004,” [Abstract], Sloan Consortium, available online here; “Making the Grade: Online Education in the United States: 2006,” [Abstract], Sloan Consortium, available online here; “Staying the Course — Online Education in the United States, 2008,” [Abstract], Sloan Consortium, available online here; “Survey Reports: Online Education Grows by Almost a Million Students,” [Abstract], Sloan Consortium, available online here.

Posted in E-Commerce, Educational Services, Information Technology. No Comments »

Digital Publishing Market

May 6, 2011 — The Editors

UK books

Data show combined digital sales in the United Kingdom, including academic, professional, school, and consumer digital downloads and e-books. Academic and professional digital sales accounted for £84 million. Consumer sales, which includes fiction, non-fiction, and children’s books, were £16 million. Of that £16 million, e-book sales accounted for £13 million. The graph to the right breaks down consumer digital sales by category.

Geographic reference: United Kingdom
Year: 2010
Market size: £120 Million
Source: Philip Jones, “Digital Sales Now Worth 6%, as E-books Grow 300% in 2010,” TheBookseller.com, March 5, 2011 available online.
Original Source: Publishers Association

Posted in Books, Digital Distribution, E-Commerce, Information Technology. No Comments »

e-Filing in the United States

April 19, 2011 — The Editors

Individual income tax returns were due for 2010 yesterday. A large number of these tax returns are now filed electronically, in 2010 e-filing accounted for 69.3% of all individual income tax forms filed for the tax year 2009. Today’s market size is the number of those returns files as of December 31, 2010. The IRS expects this figure to rise for coming tax years. Of the returns filed electronically last year, 35.3% were filed by the filer him or herself and the remaining 64.7% were filed by a professional preparer.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2010
Market size: 98,740,000 Individual Tax Returns for tax year 2009
Source: “2010 Filing Season Statistics,” an online report made available online by the
IRS here.
Source: U.S. Internal Revenue Service

Posted in E-Commerce, Information Technology, National Infrastructure, Personal Services. No Comments »

App Store Sales

March 23, 2011 — The Editors

We hear a lot about “apps” these days, or application programs. But what are they, really. These are computer programs designed as standalone software to run on a variety of devices, usually mobile devices. These apps are sold through online stores and usually have a well defined and somewhat limited purpose. They usually have a filename extension “.app” for use on mobile operating systems such as Android; iOS (Apple); Linus; MeeGo; Microsoft Mobile; RIM (BlackBerry); and Symbian.

Apps are a class of products whose market is based on volume. The average price of an app is around $2.50, (reached with lots sold for 99¢ and a few sold for $9.00 plus) so a whole lot of apps had to sell in order to reach the market size presented below. There are 5 billion mobile device subscribers worldwide, according the the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). Now, all mobile devices are not “smart” devices and thus are not equipped to run apps. Nonetheless, based on the fact that an estimated 10% of these 5 billion devices are smart we can calculate, very generally, that each one of these smart device owners bought just under two apps in 2010. There seems room for growth here…

As a side note, that figure of 5 billion mobile device subscribers is rather noteworthy given that the world population in 2010 was just shy of 7 billion. Food for thought.

Geographic reference: World
Year: 2010
Market size: $2.15 Billion
Source: Whitney, Lance, “Report: Apple Remains King of App Store Market,” CNET News, February 15, 2011, available online here. Also, press release from the ITU which is available online here.
Original Source: IHS Screen Digest, February 2011

Posted in E-Commerce, Entertainment, Information Technology, Mobile Devices, Telecommunications. 2 Comments »

Online Sale of Computers—hardware & software

February 25, 2011 — The Editors

Selling computers and software online seems pretty natural, after all, the buyer is using a computer to make the purchase. This may explain why the growth rate of online sales of this line of merchandise was not quite as robust between 2003 and 2008 as the growth rate for other lines of merchandise—clothes, sporting goods, food, beer and wine, and appliances to name a few lines, each with an online sales growth rate over 200%. Selling computers online has been underway since the 1990s whereas online sales of other lines of merchandise have only moved onto the Internet in a big way since the early 2000s.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2003 and 2008
Market size: Sales: $7.8 and $14.3 Billion respectively, an increase of 84%.
Source: “Table 1055. Electronic Shopping and Mail-Order Houses—Total and E-Commerce Sales by Merchandise Line,” Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2011, page 663, U.S. Census Bureau, available online here in a spreadsheet format, and here as a PDF file.
One word of clarification to help prevent any confusion about just what is being presented here. The data in the source table are provided in two columns per year, the first one called “Total,” and the second is “E-Commerce”. The column headed “Total” refers to the total sales for the industry “Electronic Shopping and Mail-order Houses,” [NAICS 4541], and the second column is the e-commerce portion of that industry’s total. Do not confuse the “Total” column for a measure of total sales of the product line listed in that row. It is, rather, the total sales of that product line made electronically and through mail-order houses.
Original Source: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census.

By the way, for anyone not familiar with the Statistical Abstract of the United States, a wonderful compilation of a huge variety of important measures of the United States, learn about it here. It is a great place to start with any investigations about the U.S. economy, business climate, people, government, and many more things yet.

Posted in E-Commerce, Information Technology, Retail Outlets. No Comments »

Online Sale of Clothes and Shoes

February 24, 2011 — The Editors

The market size presented here is the total value of clothing and shoes that were sold electronically in 2003 and 2008. It is interesting to see that growth of online sales of clothes and shoes have grown briskly over this five year period since it was believed that such merchandise would be harder to sell online than other things, things that people would not wish to try on before purchasing. Four Census Bureau product codes are included in this market size calculation, they are: 20200 (Men’s wear); 20220 (Women’s wear); 20240 (Children’s clothes), and 20260 (Footwear).

Geographic reference: United States (based on the location of the selling entity)
Year: 2003 and 2008
Market size: Sales: $5.13 and $17.06 Billion respectively, representing a 233% increase.
Source: “Table 1055. Electronic Shopping and Mail-Order Houses—Total and E-Commerce Sales by Merchandise Line,” Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2011, page 663, U.S. Census Bureau, available online here in a spreadsheet format, and here as a PDF file.

One word of clarification to help prevent any confusion about just what is being presented here. The data in the source table are provided in two columns per year, the first one called “Total,” and the second is “E-Commerce”. The column headed “Total” refers to the total sales for the industry “Electronic Shopping and Mail-order Houses,” [NAICS 4541], and the second column is the e-commerce portion of that industry’s total. Do not confuse the “Total” column for a measure of total sales of the product line listed in that row. It is, rather, the total sales of that product line made electronically and through mail-order houses.
Original Source: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census.

Posted in Apparel, Clothes, E-Commerce, Footwear, Retail Outlets. No Comments »
« Older posts «
»