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Survey explores upcoming priorities for online retailers

Retailers identified a renewed focus in marketing efforts, investing in tools with greater data capture and analytical capabilities.

September 23, 2014

Retailers are prioritizing immediate investments in customer-facing tactics such as price, marketing and customer service over strategic infrastructure, according to research released from eBay Enterprise, an eBay Inc. company. The 2014 Holiday Retail Audit, a U.S. survey of more than 1,000 e-commerce and marketing professionals from retailers with revenues of $5 million to $250 million, examined planned investments in retail infrastructure ahead of the holiday season.

Retailers identified a renewed focus in marketing efforts, investing in tools with greater data capture and analytical capabilities, including social media (29 percent), email promotions (22 percent) and search engine optimization (12 percent). These investments also help retailers feel better prepared to capture in-store consumer data (87 percent).

While brands continue to aggregate consumer data within their organizations, security is top of mind for large-scale online retailers with projected revenue of $50 to $250 million. Large retailers reported heightened concern around data security at their company (65 percent) while 77 percent said they have not experienced a security breach to date.

Although respondents revealed mobile commerce as their top competitive weakness and the area of infrastructure in which they are least confident, 68 percent did not express plans for new or continued investments in mobile infrastructure for holiday 2014. One in three online retailers cited mobile commerce as an investment priority for holiday 2014, ranking ninth.

Fifty-one percent of retailers viewed Amazon as a direct competitor heading into the 2014 holiday season, and gave the online retailer a perceived competitive edge in mobile commerce (60 percent), inventory (56 percent), shipping (54 percent) and returns (44 percent).

While 45 percent of large online retailers detailed plans to invest in global expansion for holiday 2014, the investment priorities contradicted market opportunity. This study revealed that top markets for global e-commerce expansion were Canada (23 percent), followed by the U.K. (16 percent), China (15 percent), Australia (7 percent) and Mexico (5 percent), respectively. Large online retailers cited a lack of reliable local partners (33 percent), diminished market demand (32 percent) and hampered inventory capabilities (31 percent) as top barriers for pursuing new global opportunities.