In this year’s first quarter, U.S. consumers spent a collective $106 billion and drove e-commerce sales up 14.7 percent from a year ago, according to a recent article published in U.S. News. The article includes the Quarterly Retail E-Commerce Sales report for Q1 2017, as published by the U.S. Department of Commerce. The study includes data from 2007, wherein retail e-commerce sales made up only 3.5 percent of all retail sales, having now increased to 8.5 percent in 2017.
Tim Stringfellow, president and chief investment officer of Frost Investment Advisors, is quoted in the U.S. News article: “the big winner (and more indicative of the health and mindset of the consumer) was the online retailing category.” Statista, a statistics and studies gathering website, estimates total retail e-commerce sales will reach roughly $354 billion dollars in the U.S. in 2017.
The article suggests consumers are changing the ways in which they spend their money. For many companies, this required a replanning of how much time and money they spend on the physical aspects of their businesses. In April of 2016, Victoria’s Secret announced it would discontinue producing its physical catalog, once used as a means for customers to buy items from the catalog via a phone call. Arnie Preston, the investor relations officer of the parent company L Brands, estimated Victoria’s Secret spent between $125-$150 million annually on the catalog.
As both retail and B2B companies cut back on print, Dirxion continues to be called upon to create a strong online catalogs experience. Dirxion’s online catalog services allow retailers to stay alongside consumer’s evolving online habits while delivering a seamless and on-brand shopping experience. This is done by integrating existing programming from e-commerce sites and hosting a catalog on a dedicated URL. This allows the catalog to live within the customer’s website.
A good example of this is through Dirxion customer David’s Bridal. Dirxion integrates programming developed by David’s Bridal’s website. When customers interact with linked products throughout the catalog, an iFrame opens within the catalog that is pointed directly at the URL where a product is hosted. This allows customers to look at available sizes, colors and even add that particular item to their shopping cart, all without breaking the shopping experience. Such practices allow for the publisher’s e-commerce strategies to take hold within the online catalogs, creating a common user experience and easier path to purchase.
