Mobile accounted for 13% of online sales in the US in Q1 2012

"Mobile is capturing a larger share of the online retailer sector in the US, according to a new report from IBM. Mobile commerce grew to 13.3 per cent of all online retail sales during the first quarter.
Mobile devices generated 17.1 per cent of all online sessions on retail sites, making a significant jump from 6.1 per cent in the year-ago period. The iPhone drives 6.5 per cent of mobile device retail traffic while Android captures 5.9 per cent and the iPad comprised 5.3 per cent.
"Over the first quarter, the digitally empowered consumer continued to demonstrate the momentum of the online channel and specifically mobile commerce, which has established itself as a legitimate channel for shopping," says Craig Hayman, general manager at IBM Industry Solutions. "Moving ahead, we will help retailers synchronize the demand and supply chains to address issues of product availability and connect to the mobile buyer.""
Source:  Data from IBM, reported by Mobile Marketing, 3rd May 2012

The iTunes store has 28 million songs

"The content glut keeps getting worse, not better, and this is now a very serious challenge for artists of all levels. Because even musicians that make incredible music are finding themselves drowned, undiscovered, and frustrated by statistics like these.    
"We now have a catalog of over 28 million songs and 45,000 movies..."
Apple chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer during the company's quarterly earnings call on Tuesday."

Source:  DigitalMusicNews, 25th April 2012

A fifth of online shoppers buy with smartphones

"Payment processing firm WoldPay released its Global Online Shopping Report, which surveyed 15 countries on their e-commerce behaviours in order to uncover differences between nations. It found that on average 22% of disposable income was spent online internationally.
Furthermore, in general the percentage of income spent was higher in emerging markets. Taking the lead is India, where respondents spend 36% of their disposable income on purchasing products or services online.
In China this figure fell slightly to 31% of income spent on e-commerce, and Brazilians were clocked a as dedicating 27% of their earnings in this fashion.
The survey found the spending amounts in mature markets are the highest in the UK, where people spent a quarter of their disposable income on online goods and services, whereas peoples in Finland spend only 13%. Spain and France allocate 17% and 19% of their income respectively.
The proliferation of smartphones has opened up different channels for shoppers to make their purchase, another factor that is proven to vary across the markets.
The survey found that just under a fifth of all online shoppers globally use their smartphone to make a purchase, with people in China using this method the most, (46%), and France coming in last with this metric at 7%."

Source:  Research by WorldPay, reported by UTalkMarketing, 27th April 2012

39% of people who bought a book from Amazon in the US has previously looked at the book in a physical store

"Looking at products in stores and then buying them at lower prices via the Internet. A survey conducted in late 2011 by a book market research company, the Codex Group, indicated that 39 percent of people who purchased books from Amazon said they had looked at the book in a bookstore before buying it online. Best Buy’s recently announced fourth-quarter loss – $1.7 billion, resulting in the closing of at least 50 stores – can in part be attributed to “showrooming,” the name given to the practice of visiting stores to look at products and then price shopping and ultimately purchasing the products online. Indeed, Best Buy stores seem to be a perfect venue for finding and toying with all the latest technology – but not necessarily buying it there."

Source:  ReveNews, 19th April 2012

The Pebble watch raised over $3m on Kickstarter in less than one week

"An electronic paper watch designed by a Canadian entrepreneur to work alongside smartphones has raised more than $3m (£1.8m; 2.2m euros) in less than a week on net funding site Kickstarter.
It is a record for the site which crowdsources cash to fund start-ups.
Eric Migicovsky initially sought $10,000 over a five-week period but the total, six days in, now stands at $3.4m.
It is the fifth Kickstarter project to make more than $1m.
The Pebble watch reached the $1m mark in 28 hours. The firm behind the device, which has been designing smartwatches for three years, said that it was "blown away" by the support.
The watch has an electronic paper screen and connects via Bluetooth with iPhones or Android powered devices to allow users to customise the watch face and download apps."

Source:  BBC News, 17th April 2012

The iPad accounts for 90% of mobile shopping revenue in the US

"According to the 2012 Q1 Mobile Study iPad users spent significantly more time and money on retail sites than other mobile users. Data from March 2012 shows that:
iPad users constitute the bulk of all mobile shoppers—accounting for about two-thirds (68%) of shoppers.
The iPad accounts for 90% of all mobile revenue (and 4% of total retail revenue).
Conversion rates were also strongest with the iPad (1.5% for iPad vs. 0.57% for other mobile devices).
Average pages per session were highest for the iPad compared with all other mobile devices, at nearly 6 pages per session (5.7 for iPads vs. 3.6 for iPhone vs. 4.1 for other mobile devices).
iPad Users Spend More, Buy More Expensive Items (even more than desktop users)
iPad users spend dramatically more – on fewer items – than other mobile shoppers. When compared to online shoppers, iPad users spend approximately the same amount on an average order, but buy much more expensive products.
The iPad had the highest average order value (AOV) of any mobile device: $158 for iPad vs. $105 for other mobile devices vs. $104 for iPhone and other iOS devices in March 2012.
Interestingly, AOV for iPad shopping is creeping ahead of the AOV from desktop computers. ($158 for iPad vs. $153 from desktops).
While they spend more per average order, iPad shoppers had on average fewer number of items per order of any mobile device (2.98 for iPad vs. 4.22 for other iOS devices vs. 4.41 for all other mobile devices in March 2012)
Overall, iPad shoppers averaged $52.66 per item vs. $21.86 per item for desktop users and $23.80 for other mobile users."

Source:  Data from the Rich Relevance Shopping Insights Q1 Survey, reported in a press release, 11th April 2012

Ringtones generated more revenues than music streaming services in the US in 2011

"Technology simply moves faster than consumers, and older formats die hard. Which is why ringtones still accounted for $277.4 million in revenues last year - in the US alone - according to stats just released by the RIAA.  That compares to $241.0 million in revenues from the likes of Spotify, Rdio, Rhapsody, MOG, and ilk, combined."

Source:  DigitalMusicNews, 3rd April 2012

Visitors arriving from Pinterest are more likely to spend than those arriving from other social channels

"Pinterest isn’t just driving record levels of traffic to the websites of retailers and publishers — it’s also driving sales, some early data indicates.
Wayfair (formerly CSN Stores), the second largest home goods retailer by revenue, has found that Pinterest referrals are more likely to make a purchase and spend more on average than visitors from other social channels.
Wayfair CEO Niraj Shah says that shoppers referred by Pinterest are more 10% more likely to make a purchase than visitors who arrive from other social networks, including Facebook and Twitter. They’ll also spend 10% more on average.
The statistics are in some respects even more impressive when non-social channels are added in. On average, Pinterest referrals spend 70% more than visitors referred from non-social channels, including search. They are not, however, as likely to make a purchase as those referred by other channels.
Those statistics are averaged among Wayfair’s three home goods websites: wayfair.com, allmodern.com and jossandmain.com, the latter of which is a daily deals site. Collectively, the three sites brought in $500 million in revenue last year. (Williams-Sonoma, the number one player in the category, posted revenues of $3.7 billion for fiscal 2011.)"

Source:  Mashable, 3rd April 2012

Domino's Pizza generated £1m in sales through its mobile platform in one week

"Domino’s has announced that it took over £1m in sales through its mobile platform in a single week in Q1 2012.
In total e-commerce sales accounted for 50.6% of UK sales in the 13 week period up to March 25 2012, up 44.5% year-on-year to £59.3m.
Mobile payments made up 16.4% of total online sales, a slight increase on reports last month that the pizza company took 13% of digital sales through a tablet or smartphone."

Source:  Econsultancy, 28th March 2012

Pinterest drives more referral traffic than Twitter

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Source:  Shareaholic, 7th March 2012

25% of Groupons purchased in December were bought on a mobile device

"Groupon today announced record mobile performance in North America in December 2011 with one quarter of all Groupon vouchers purchased via a mobile device and both consumer and merchant app usage up significantly year over year.
December 2011 North American Mobile Performance:
25% of Groupons were purchased on a mobile device
Mobile app users increased by more than three times from last December to over nine million
More than 12,000 merchant partners used Groupon's merchant mobile app to redeem vouchers and track purchases using an iOS device or an Android phone."

Source:  Press release from Groupon, 27th February 2012

Taobao reportedly accounts for half of all packages posted in China

"Taobao, the largest online retail platform in Asia, mirrors eBay but with an Amazon-like service tacked on. It has a user experience and engagement that puts its Western cousins to shame. Crucially, Taobao has overcome one of the biggest hurdles facing any retailer in China--a lack of trust--by not processing a payment until the consumer receives goods. It reportedly now accounts for half of all packages posted in China, something neither eBay nor Amazon have come close to claiming in the U.S."

Source:  AdAge, 27th February 2012

Caution - I can't find another source to back this up - can anyone help?

eCommerce levels for European countries in 2011

"E-commerce is one of the fastest growing markets in Europe. The statistics are problematic as state statistical research organisations tend to underestimate the size of the sector. Based on CRR research commissioned by Kelkoo, 2011 online sales in the UK were £50.34 billion (€59.4 billion) or 12.0% of UK retail trade. In 2008, online was equivalent to only 8.6% of retail sales.
For Europe (including UK), the total market was worth £169,880 million (€200.52 bn) in 2011 (up from £143,720 million [€169.63 bn] last year). Online retailers in only three countries, UK, Germany and France accounted for 71% of European online sales. In 2008, online sales in Europe were £101,840 million (€117.84 bn).
Online sales in Germany were £38.18 billion (€45.07 billion), 9.0% of retail sales (+13% over 2010). In France, where online retailers grew at one of the fastest rates in Europe, 2011 online sales were £32.75 billion (€38.66 billion) or 7.3% of retail sales (+24% over 2010)."
Source:  Retail Research - No date
Click on the link to see full data and a chart showing % of spend by market

Eventbrite has sold 50 million tickets

"Holy bananas, readers! We did it! Well, really, you did it.
Since Kevin and Julia Hartz and Renaud Visage founded the company back in 2006 in a Ramen-filled conference room, we have issued a dazzling 50 million tickets on Eventbrite."

Source:  Eventbrite blog, 22nd February 2012

Shopping behaviour of people who research purchases on a smartphone

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Source:  Data from Google, reported in a blog post, 13th February 2012

Amazon have 22% of the home entertainment market in the UK

"The online retailer overtook [HMV] in the run up to Christmas last year, making it the biggest seller of CDs, DVDs and video games in the UK, with a 22.4% market share. HMV is still in second place with 17.5%, putting it ahead of other mail-order sites, download stores and the supermarkets, though, of course, its costs – having to operate 200+ high street stores selling just entertainment product – are so much higher.
These figures come from research company Kantar Worldpanel, whose Consumer Insight Director Fiona Keenan, says: “Amazon’s strong performance is down to a number of factors: it is typically really competitive on price, has a wide range of products with no restriction on display space, and is known for its very good customer service”.
After HMV and Amazon come: Tesco (11.4%), Asda (8.1%), Game (7.7%), Sainsbury’s (5.2%), Play.com (4.9%), iTunes (3%) and Morrisons has (2.7%)."

Source:  CMU 8th February 2012

US eCommerce levels & growth rates 2007-2011

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Source:  data from comScore, reported in a press release, 6th February 2012

LivingSocial made a net loss of $588m in 2011

"LivingSocial’s financial results for the past year were reported by Amazon today, revealing that the company continues to trail behind Groupon by a wide margin.
Amazon, which has a 31 percent stake in the second-largest daily deals company, released the figures as part of its quarterly filing today with the Securities & Exchange Commission.
It said LivingSocial’s 2011 net loss totaled $558 million on revenues of $245 million."

Source:  AllThingsD, 1st February 2012

5m guest reservations have been made on Airbnb

"Airbnb, the online marketplace where you can rent out your house or spare room to travelers, announced today it has reached a milestone of five million guest reservations overall. The company also celebrated its strong international growth, with property listings in more than 19,000 cities in 192 countries around the world.
In terms of reservations alone, 2011 was a great year for Airbnb. The company launched in 2008 and it took about three years to reach one million bookings. In the last year alone, more than four million reservations were made, bringing Airbnb’s total to a cool five million.
The company also brought in some serious funding in 2011. Last July, investors gave Airbnb $112 million at $1.3 billion valuation, bringing the company’s total funding to $119 million dollars.
[...]

The online listing and booking service is paying off for many in a big way; earlier this week we reported that New Yorkers are making an average of $21,000 per year by renting out their spaces to travelers. The legality of renting out spaces for short periods of time is questionable in some cities, but people have flocked to the service none the less."

Source:  VentureBeat, 26th January 2012

eBay's revenues increased 35% Y-o-Y in Q4 2011

"eBay Inc., a global commerce platform and payments leader, today reported that revenue for the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2011, increased 35% to $3.4 billion, compared to the same period of 2010. The company reported fourth quarter net income on a GAAP basis of $2.0 billion, or $1.51 per diluted share, and non-GAAP net income of $788.6 million, or $0.60 per diluted share. The year-over-year increase in the fourth quarter GAAP earnings per diluted share was driven primarily by a gain on the sale of the company's remaining investment in Skype. The year-over-year increase in the fourth quarter non-GAAP earnings per diluted share was driven primarily by strong top-line growth and improved productivity partially offset by a higher tax rate.
[...]
The company's PayPal business continued to expand its leadership position in global payments. PayPal ended the quarter with 106.3 million active registered accounts, a 13% increase year over year. On average, PayPal added a million new accounts every month in 2011. PayPal revenue for the quarter increased 28% year over year driven primarily by continued merchant and consumer adoption as well as increased penetration on eBay. In the fourth quarter, revenue from PayPal's international markets exceeded revenue from the U.S. for the first time, reflecting the company's strong global footprint and growth in emerging markets. PayPal's net total payment volume (TPV) grew 24% to $33.4 billion in the fourth quarter of 2011. The company's mobile payment volume reached $4.0 billion in 2011, more than five times the mobile payment volume in the prior year, as more consumers used their smartphones and tablets to pay online."
Source:  Press release from eBay, 18th January 2012