[Sigia-l] Good News?

[Andrew McNaughton]

On Thu, 13 Jun 2002, Ziya Oz wrote:

> For those who work with electronic retailer clients: in 2001 56% reported
> profitable online operations, up from 43% in 2000.
>
> <http://www.shop.org/press/061202.html>
>
> If you believe these kinds of stats, this is a rather significant figure,
> especially in a very tough market.
>
> Now, the real question is, if people complain so much about the proverbial
> ecommerce user experience and all those abandoned shopping carts :-) how
> come we have such spectacular growth? Doesn't the world need us? :-)

They talk of growth in the proportion of retailers who make a profit.
This isn't the same as growth in e-commerce as a nactivity, or growth in
overall profit.  This may just be a reflection of un-profitable e-commerce
ventures going out of business and a reduction in the number of new
ventures which are not yet at a profitable stage.  Presumably the full
report would clarify this.

Andrew McNaughton