Small and mid size online retailers are highly confident in the future of ecommerce, according to the 2012 spring survey by Vendio, a provider of ecommerce software solutions. Vendio’s spring survey, in its fifth installment, questioned more than 750 ecommerce merchants and found that 84 percent of respondents are optimistic about their growth potential while 16 percent of respondents listed brick and mortar stores as a method they currently use to sell their goods. Only 11 percent of respondents are considering brick and mortar locations for future sales compared to 33 percent who are considering opening their own web store, 29 percent who would use email marketing and 26 percent who are considering selling goods on Amazon.com.
eBay and Amazon Experience Good Overall
Fully 80 percent of merchants who sell products on Amazon.com said they were satisfied with the overall experience compared to 76 percent that were satisfied with eBay and, when it came to their sales volume, 64 percent said they were satisfied with Amazon compared to 66 percent who were satisfied with eBay. Concerning ease of use, 93 percent of eBay users rated the process of listing on the eBay site as either “Very Easy,” “Somewhat Easy” or “Easy” as opposed to 80 percent of Amazon users who gave these same ratings.
Fees, and the related impact they have on profit margins, are important to small and medium size online retailers and can influence their choice of which ecommerce solution to use. The fees that sellers pay to eBay (and PayPal, its primary payment source) and Amazon.com appear to be very close: 42 percent of respondents said less than 15 percent of their sales are taken by eBay/PayPal fees compared to 36 percent who pay less than 15 percent to Amazon.com. Additionally, 88 percent said they pay less than 25 percent of sales to eBay/PayPal compared to 91 percent who pay less than 25 percent to Amazon.com.
Many respondents have a long-term history selling goods online with 26 percent of those questioned having been an ecommerce seller for more than 10 years and 9 percent using ecommerce platforms for 7 to 10 years. Some 30 percent have conducted business online for 1 to 4 years, 20 percent, less than a year, and 15 percent, 4 to 7 years.