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Online Commerce Struggles While Online Communities Thrive

posted on December 4, 2008


With the economic struggles this year, it shouldn’t come to a surprise to anyone that e-commerce site traffic is down this year. What was surprising to me was how much. According to a recent ClickZ article, the Online Publishers Association (OPA) reports that e-commerce is suffering from a 20.4% dip this year. It is important to note that the data is only updated through October, so Black Friday and Cyber Monday were not included.

While e-commerce sites suffer this year, community, search and content oriented sites have seen increases in users time spent online.

Community sites saw the biggest increase. While the OPA credits this mostly to Facebook, I think their are more sites that deserve credit for this. Twitter, in particular. Now that Twitter has grown to 6 million users, it deserves credit for the impact it is having in the online world.

Here is the complete breakdown of time on site increases/decreases:

  • Content: 6.1%
  • Communications: -2.4%
  • Commerce: -20.4%
  • Community: 16%
  • Search: 4%


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  • http://themakemoneyfromhomeblog.com Ken @ Money From Home Blog

    Gooooo Blogs. lol. Seems that continuing to build community through blogging will be a good investment. Maybe even adding a content community (blog or forum) to an commerce site would help to boost their traffic and possibly their revenue or at least add some other income streams.

  • http://www.blogsuccess.com Jack

    This relates nicely to recent reports that, while the economy is in the tank, movie ticket sales are strong as ever. People need an escape in times like these, so it’s no surprise to me that they are doing it online too.

  • http://thelostjacket.com Stuart Foster

    Community building IS marketing. The faster people realize that the best way to convert people is to interact with them on an individual and humanized level. Simple really, people like being treated like people (not cattle and not a number). It comes as no surprise to me that SM is doing better then E-Commerce overall.

    Stuart Foster’s last blog post..The State of the Micromediapshere – Guest Panelist

  • http://www.jaankanellis.com Jaan Kanellis

    Well said Stuart

    Jaan Kanellis’s last blog post..Top Christmas Songs – Jaan Found Santa CD

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  • http://www.gadgets4nowt.co.uk PS3

    Yep, I also agree Stuart. The biggest part of any business and the way it markets itself is people.

  • http://www.livelifetothefullest.biz/wpblog Matt Helphrey

    Doesnt surprise me at all. Maybe the ecommerce sites could make them selves more community oriented ;)

    Matt Helphrey’s last blog post..A Little Article Marketing Research

  • http://spudmobile.co.uk/guitar-hero-world-tour.aspx George Nobles

    You are right this is very bad time for online bussiness.

  • http://www.paystolivegreen.com Patrick

    Online shopping on Black Friday was much better than retail stores this year. I’m sure those statistics are a little skewed as they didn’t even include Black Friday.

    Patrick’s last blog post..Make Your Own Homeade Pesticides and Repellants

  • http://www.adwords-secret.net JT

    Well, I hope people keep shopping online even though the economy is not that good.

    JT’s last blog post..Zen and PPC campaigns

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