eCommerce Journal - Learning more about virtual economy - Figures

Most confident and active online shoppers. Survey

ayny — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 12:08:15 +0200

According to the study conducted by the Coremetrics consumers in Australia and New Zealand are more enthusiastic about making purchases online in comparison with shoppers in the UK, which is very advantageous for businesses as they may earn money on such a trend in customers’ behavior.

Romanians prefer alternative payments

ayny — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 15:16:03 +0200

In Romania people paying for local online purchases with plastic cards make up just about 15% while the rest of online shoppers give preference to bank transfer and cash on delivery (COD). Gecad ePayment e-commerce solutions integrator conducted a corresponding study.

The study also shows that the current average value of an online purchase accounts for 92 euros, compared to 80 euros in 2007.

M-banking is not in favor with the smallest continent

ayny — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 15:00:10 +0200

The recent survey has shown that the Australians are the least trustful users of mobile banking and other online services requiring the use of mobile phone different from conventional communication.

The conclusion was based on the survey conducted in 14 countries during which the customers were expressing their attitude towards mobile devices for making payments and banking. Among Europeans the most distrustful users were French and the British who were the most suspicious of the technology.

Chinese online-shoppers spend billions online

ayny — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 15:12:35 +0200

According to the latest surveys e-commerce in China is developing in a galloping pace. Only during the past 6 months it has grown by 60%.

The Data Centre of China Internet reported that the Internet users of China have spent 256.1 billion yuan (37.5 billion dollars) within a half a year, that is 58.2% more than during the same period of 2007. By making average calculations it can be seen that Chinese online-shoppers spend on the Internet 211.8 yuan each month, that is 13.9% more than they did a year before.

New Zealanders are at one with Australians

ayny — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 12:10:30 +0200

As it was mentioned earlier, the study conducted by MasterCard showed that Australian customers are very unlikely to carry hard notes with them for making their purchases. The same study held in New Zealand reveals that customers here are also more reluctant to carry cash than they were five years ago and give preference to paying for an item with plastic cards.

Financial future by eyes of the Bank of Thailand

ayny — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 14:23:26 +0200

The Bank of Thailand ''BoT'' expects electronic payment services to gain high popularity with plastic cards set to play an active role in place of cash in the next 4-5 years. The supposition is based upon the fact that a group of service providers, including both commercial banks and non-bank institutions, are rivaling to provide a variety of new services to meet consumer needs.

MasterCard says: Farewell, hard notes

ayny — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 10:40:57 +0200

A study conducted by MasterCard Worldwide shows that Australian customers are most unlikely to use hard cash feeling uncomfortable carrying big portions of paper notes in their wallets.

New technologies such as contactless payments were found to be more popular with Australians as reported by the survey from MasterCard.

Online habits in China

ayny — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 11:23:58 +0200

A recent report made by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) reveals that Chinese internet users spend about 570 million hours online per day which means that the country has an immense potential for e-commerce.

The figure was determined by the BCG due to the assumption that last year 210 million and more internet subscribers were surfing the Web averagely for 2.7 hours a day.

Juniper Research presents a new research

ayny — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 14:30:33 +0200

The recent report of Juniper Research has showed that in 2013 the e-market can expect a rise in Africa & Middle East region to more than $107 billion of revenues. According to the research this rise will be pre-conditioned with the growth of mobile service. But at the same time Juniper Research notes that regional operator-billed voice revenues will probably peak in 2011 and then go down in view of the competitive pricing in that sector.

Unaware banks with unaware customers

ayny — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 10:48:03 +0200

Recent survey conducted on online scams showed that over a 12 month period more that 25% of banks in the Asia-Pacific region ran across numerous attacks aimed to elicit financial information online.

However the existence of the fraud risk is not a sole problem so far. Ignorance of the security importance adds to the juncture. 75% of the polled confessed their being unaware of the impact of cyber security on their operations.

Fees making high jump

ayny — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 10:42:12 +0200

In Australia credit card fees increased 170% over the last five years with other household banking charges raised about 50% according to a study.

The fees related to the use of reward cards, the most popular form of credit among Australians jumped 40% for the five year period while standard cards fees increased 16%. As per the supposition made by the survey the total increase of fees is partially explained by customers’ shift from standard cards which had an average annual fee of $29 in 2007 to no-frill low-rate cards with an average fee of $48.

50 million cards in 2009

ayny — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 13:16:23 +0200

50 million credit cards of the largest lender the Industrial & Commercial Bank of China are expected to be in use by the end of the next year with 33 million being used today. On the score of growing usage of credit cards when making purchases credit card business is extending to a substantial degree.

More cash for a travel

ayny — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 18:25:31 +0200

British holidaymakers are going to take more cash with them while traveling abroad this year. As per reports from foreign-exchange group Travelex.co.uk Britons were taking an average of nearly £200 more with them on holiday this year against the previous year. The main impetus of the move is customers’ concern about overspending on their plastic.

Information privacy neglected

ayny — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 18:20:17 +0200

A recent survey by consultancy Ernst & Young show that about 65% of internal audit chiefs polled don't consider data privacy and IT fraud to be the most important issues.

Audit executives ranked corporate breaches and data-privacy regulation to be 6th in the top 10 concerns while CIOs ranked them 9th.

Latin American e-commerce "boom!"

ayny — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 15:25:47 +0200

Visa commissioned a study to figure out e-commerce popularity in the countries of the Latin America. As per the data gained in the course of the study held by the way by the AmericaEconomia Intelligence research over the last two years e-commerce increased 121 percent with $10.9 billion spent online by the consumers in 2007.

ID theft - your reaction?

ayny — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 08:53:14 +0200

ID theft is not an uncommon thing today. A special center for assistance at identity theft ITAC (Identity Theft Assistance Center) has promulgated the results of survey where they have note that the first step most consumers take upon learning, or suspecting, they are a victim is to contact their financial services company.

Discover Financial Services Reports Second Quarter Results

addy220 — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 08:07:35 +0200

Discover Financial Services has reported net income for the second quarter of 2008
of $234 million, or $.48 per share, as compared to $209 million, or $.44 per share, in the second quarter of 2007. Managed loans grew 2% to $47.8 billion while sales volume on Discover Cards grew 2% to $22.5 billion in the quarter.

The US become more and more internet addicted

ayny — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 13:28:39 +0200

In view of its anniversary PayPal has conducted a study titled ‘The PayPal 10th Anniversary Survey’ by Ipsos. According to this report most of US online shoppers (80%) say that owing to the Internet their life became easier. 84% of the polled people said that they had been using the Internet for 5 years or more and 87% went shopping online at least once a month.

Asia-Pacific under the microscope of MasterCard

ayny — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 16:05:46 +0200

The recent survey conducted by MasterCard has shown that the online shopping in the Asia-Pacific region is growing by 23.3 percent annually and is expected to reach US$168.7 billion by 2011. And Indian and Chinese markets play the main role in this boost. For example, the study says that by 2010 the number of shopping population will be 480 million.

Closer watch on finances

ayny — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 14:02:25 +0200

In view of the ubiquitous economic slump people in Great Britain more often resort to monitoring their finances online, so that the time spent for online banking exceeds the one spent for visiting social network sites, as per the information provided by the study done by an online bank Cahoot.

Javelin Strategy & Research presents:"Mobile banking in America"

ayny — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 12:50:31 +0200

Ten million Americans already are mobile bankers. But that represents just 6 percent of all U.S. cell phone users. Clearly, there is a vast untapped market of potential mobile bankers. Javelin Strategy & Research, however, contends that banks are missing out on a huge opportunity by targeting m-banking services only at online banking users.

Chinese credit preferences

ayny — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 13:22:55 +0200

When choosing a credit card, Chinese consumers are more preoccupied with where they can pay bankcard bills than with other matters, a study reveals. 63 percent of respondents claim they are concerned about satisfactory ways to pay card bills, at ATMs, bank branches or convenience stores. 55 percent of those surveyed are preoccupied with card safety.

E-commerce forecasts in Western Europe

ayny — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 14:16:01 +0200

In France business-to-customer (B2C) e-commerce is expected to increase 30% in 2008 which corresponds to €20.9 billion according to a study. However the figure is 35% lower than that in 2007 and 37% in 2006. Electronic sales in the country are predicted to slightly decrease next two years. In 2009 25% increase amounting €26.2 billion is expected while 2010 will see a 20% growth which makes up €31.4 billion.

Banking hindered in Ireland

ayny — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 10:59:09 +0200

According to a survey conducted in Ireland over 60% of Irish consumers do not have credit cards and 10% have no bank account. The situation is attributed to such factors as identity theft incidents, income levels, cultural and ethnic aspects and others. 17% of population aged 18 have no current account, as for life insurance, it is actual only with a third of the population. Credit union accounts are held by 43% of customers.

All the truth about Russian e-commerce

ayny — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 14:50:54 +0200

This month the Central Bank of Russia released a report stating that out of the total 2007 cashless payments made by individuals in Russia 19.4% (657 roubles) were made using plastic cards, while 9.4% were made through the Internet. That is a good indicator of a financial Internet activity for a developing country.

Prodigious growth of online markets in China

ayny — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 15:05:24 +0200

High growth is going on in the Chinese e-commerce sector. This year top online site of China Taobao which is Alibaba's online consumer website expects its transaction volume to surpass 100 billion yuan corresponding to 14.4 billion U.S. dollars, a 130 percent increase from the previous year the figure rendered by Liang Chunxiao, Alibaba's vice president.

Recent report from Nielsen Research group

ayny — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 15:50:18 +0200

Every day we get new and new proofs of popularity of m-payments. The recent report of the Nielsen Company also confirms this issue. So, according to their data almost half of American mobile phone users (49%) are going to use mobile phones for payments in the future, while 9 million Americans are already using them.

Online transactions boost in China market

ayny — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 14:34:50 +0200

Analysys International, a China-based consulting company, reported that in the China market during the first quarter of 2008 the amount of total sales transactions achieved by third-party e-payment services made up 45.467 billion yuan (US$6.34 billion), which is 98.3% up from the previous quarter and 217% from the previous year.

Credit cards are loosing their popularity

ayny — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 11:02:51 +0200

Having studied all the figures, the Federal Reserve has announced that in April consumer borrowing grew at an annual rate of 4.2% against 6.2% in the previous month. Though it is necessary to add that those 6.2% came second after 8.2% growth rate registered in November 2007.

A new trend: cash is out of fashion!

ayny — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 14:43:11 +0200

A prominent payment processor, MasterCard, has published its study on the popularity of cashless payment tools. The survey was based on 7,000 interviews in 12 countries located worldwide, including such countries as South Korea, Canada, Malaysia, China, Italy, France and Germany.