PayPal New President: no signs of e-commerce slowdown

In the interview published on Monday by Les Echos, the president of PayPal - Scott Thompson disagreed with the widely discussed topic of the lowering e-commerce activity. He said: "There is no proof that e-commerce is showing signs of a slowdown". According to Thompson, PayPal is planning to receive half of its profits from clients outside of eBay.

Lehman's Douglas Anmuth reports different findings. The new data shows that e-commerce grew only 12.7% in February from a year earlier. The report says that "this data continues to suggest more significant overall slowing of e-commerce growth". The trend was noted in January when e-commerce grew 11.3% down from 16% in the 1^st quarter and 18% in the 3^rd quarter. Anmuth suggests that the data "lends further support to the belief that a slowdown has begun to impact online retail" and predicts "headwinds in the online retail space" for companies like Amazon, eBay and Blue Nile, and potentially for Google and Yahoo.

The report highlighted some strong areas of e-commerce business which will be able to carry on during the projected slowdown such as consumer electronics, video games and event tickets. Some weak areas include apparel, computers, jewelry, music/movies/videos and home products.  

                                                         Marianna, reporter of Ecommerce Journal