Multichannel Report: Web Sales Will Grab Higher Share

Internet sales, as a percentage of total sales, are projected to rise to 43 percent in 2007 and to 46 percent by 2009, according to the new Multichannel Marketing 2005 Report released yesterday by the Direct Marketing Association at DMA?05 here.

The report, which offers best practices and trends in channel integration within the catalog, retail and e-commerce infrastructures, was produced in partnership with DMA members DoubleClick and Abacus and with expert commentary by Mark Swedlund, 5 5ff senior vice president, Haggin Marketing.

The report, which surveyed direct marketers, is designed to create benchmarks that direct marketers can use to leverage multichannel marketing opportunities and increase profitability.

Other findings:

? An increasing percentage of orders are being placed via the Web: 38 percent in 2004.

? Respondents were asked what percentage of Web sales was considered to be new customers as opposed to customers who previously had used other channels. Results show that 33 percent of sales were incremental—sales that would not have occurred otherwise—and 53 percent shifted from phone or mail, up from 42.2 percent in 2003.

? Sixty-five percent of respondents think that a better ROI is yielded when a multichannel approach is incorporated into their DM campaigns. Only 7 percent indicated that a higher ROI was achieved using a single-channel process.

? When asked for the benefits of online marketing, the top responses were increased revenue (73 percent), greater visibility (58 percent) cost savings (56 percent) and reaching new customers/new segments (54 percent).

? Nearly three-quarters (74 percent) of companies’ e-mail marketing budget was spent on customer retention as opposed to acquisition.

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