For an informed Irish E-Commerce Sector

The Irish E-Commerce Survey will be closing this Friday, April 1^st. If you have not done so already, please take a moment to fill out the questionnaire: Go Direct to the E-Commerce Survey.

With only a week left of the Irish E-Commerce Survey, we have gathered some preliminary information. While an average of 55 companies responded to background information, there is only an average of 25 responses to those questions most significant to e-commerce. With more participation, the results will become more robust and relevant to those competing in the e-commerce market in Ireland.

While we believe all the survey questions have potential valuable insights, if you only have a short amount of time, we ask that you still take a moment to participate. Please answer the first few questions on company information and respond to the following questions: total online turnover, total website visits, and total orders placed through the website.

The following involve some of the early findings of the Irish E-Commerce Survey:

Because 93% of businesses who responded (55 out of 59) are headquartered in Ireland and 83% (48 out of 58) are micro with less than 10 employees, the following averages only take into account respondents fitting this criteria (across all industries).

Lifetime of E-commerce Site: 2.75 Years Range: 2 months – 8 years (48 Responses)

Average Total Turnover: €466,683 Range: €2,500 – €5.2M (27 Responses)

Average Online Turnover: € 114,704 Range: €520 – €380,000 (26 Responses)

*As seen from above, online sales are accounting for almost ¼ of total company turnover.

Average Conversion Rate: 1.87% Range: 0.00% – 4.52% (Calculated from 27 Responses)

Average Basket Value: € 102.73 Range: €3.33 – €404.76 (Calculated from 24 Responses)

85% (41 out of 48) of respondents to the question on what type of analytics software is used, have Google Analytics. However, only 60% (29 of 48) of respondents use the e-commerce tracking available in the analytics software.

In regards to what type of conversion rates are tracked through the e-commerce site, 90% (25 responses) look at sales while 21% (6 responses) also track registrations.

How many Google searches have to be run to find current statistics relating to the status of Ireland’s e-commerce sector? Too many. Few results turn up that are relevant to the specific statistics that would be helpful to existing or emerging companies. By the time one finds a minimum number of potentially useful data, such as the total revenue from the online channel or upcoming trends, it is easy to forget why one started the search in the first place. Not to mention that many of the statistics are rarely on a country basis much less broken down by sector. The most recent State of the Net quarterly issue states that “there is a scarcity of robust e-commerce data in this market.” Agreed.

As more and more consumers are turning to the internet to research products and make purchases, e-commerce is becoming an increasingly important aspect of conducting business. The Winter 2010 State of the Net bulletin explains that “Irish businesses are losing out to overseas e-commerce providers which have been aggressively targeting Irish consumers.” As of November 2010, of the 66% of Irish businesses that had websites, only 21% had e-commerce capability, according to the .ie Domain Registry.

If Irish companies hope to compete, knowledge of important statistics related specifically to the state of Irish e-commerce and the different sectors within it would be incredibly useful. This is where our survey comes into play. Because the market is changing rapidly, the goal of the survey will be to keep Irish e-commerce statistics current and relevant while also simplifying the data search.

The launched survey will be aimed at companies competing in Irish e-commerce. Among the data gathered will be information regarding turnover, conversion rates, traffic, and total orders. The results of the survey will allow for better benchmarking for those already competing in the Irish e-commerce sphere. Wouldn’t it be useful to know in what areas your company needs to work at to improve results? New ventures will also benefit through having a greater understanding of realistic expectations and projections. The more information available, the better prepared companies will be to compete. Lastly, as the hope is to complete the survey annually from this point forward, it will provide an understanding of how the state of Ireland’s e-commerce is changing through the years.

Stay tuned for more information on the survey and the types of reports we intend to make available to participating companies…