A report by the Direct Marketing Association found that more than half (55%) of all direct marketers who engaged in e-commerce transactions earned a profit on the Web in 2001. Of those not currently earning a profit, 55% anticipate being profitable in 2002.
Approximately 71% of consumer direct marketers have the ability to conduct financial transactions online, according to the DMA’s State of the E-Commerce Industry Report 2001-2002. Compared to last year, average online revenue per company increased by more than $1 million (from $3.9 million in 2000 vs. 5.3 million in 2001).
The report found significant efforts underway to integrate dot.coms into the overall brick-and-mortar retail and catalog marketing and operations infrastructures. Fifty-eight percent of companies now consider themselves “dot.corp”, and 21% either dot.com, or a combination of both. The companies who reported the strongest dot.corp presence are those who market their site to the B-to-B segment (69%), medium-sized (61%), and small (58%) businesses.
The average online order size in 2001 was $100, according to the report. In the B-to-B segment, this figure substantially increased to $350.
The majority of respondents continue to use their Web sites primarily for product/service information, (85% in 2001, up from 78% in 2000) and lead generation (57% in 2001 up from 55% in 2000).
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