Leadpile's Blog» e-commerce

Internet use catches up to TV

Nicky — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 22:19:18 +0000

While people ranging from ages 18-30 have been spending more time on the Internet as opposed to the television, others ranging from age 32-44 are starting to do the same. A recent Forrester study revealed that people are spending more time on the Internet than they are watching TV, and it is up 121% since 2005. The average time people in the U.S. use the television is 13 hours, which is now the same as internet use. The rise of Broadband has contributed to these technological advances. E-Commerce remains the main interest on the Internet, followed by social networking which was accelerated because of the utilization of Facebook and other social networks.

Consumers Spending More Time On Content Sites

Mari Woods Holt — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 02:23:01 +0000

We hear so much news about social networking sites and all the changes that are going on with them. However, I would have thought that reports would show internet users tend to use social networking sites more than content related sites. That does not seem to be the case. DMNews is reporting that users are actually spending almost twice as long on content websites versus the social networking sites. I found that very surprising. According to the reports, “Consumers spent an average of 6 hours, 58 minutes on content sites, while they spent about half of that time on community sites: 3 hours, 1 minute.
Consumers spent an average of 2 hours, 40 minutes a month on e-commerce sites; communications — e-mail and instant messaging — sites commanded 4 hours, 54 minutes; and search took up 57 minutes. Compared with 2008, time with content rose slightly, while communications, community and commerce slipped a small amount, and search jumped by a few minutes.
In terms of share of online time per category, people sent 42% of their time on content sites, down 2% compared with 2008. They spent 13% of their time on e-commerce sites, down 19% vs. 2008; and 13% of their time on community sites, up 63% compared with last year. Time spent on searches remained flat at 5%.””
So actually when looking at the numbers the community sites/social networking sites had increased which now really makes sense. In future years, this report I am guessing will continue to show a rise in the social networking sites year after year. I would also have guessed that e-commerce sites would have been higher because a lot of people purchase products online. Maybe because of the status of our nation’s economy has made an impact on the figures for that category? Either way, this is pretty interesting information for all of us that are looking to know where consumers are.

Internet Fraud Numbers Up For 2008

Mari Woods Holt — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 14:29:21 +0000

We all purchase items, do online banking, pay our bills, apply for credit and all sorts of other tasks each day through the internet. Companies like ours work with trying to connect those on the intenet looking for services, with those that can provide that service. Unfortunately, no one, including Leadpile Lead Exchange, is 100% safe from online fraud activity. According to internet news,“Sophisticated computer fraud schemes continue to flourish as financial data migrates to the Internet.” It appears a lot of this increased fraud is directly related to the e-commerce industry. Everyone and anyone is buying their products online while supplying their credit card information. Groups such as The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) partner up with agencies such as the FBI to help monitor internet fraud. However, 2008 saw a 33% spike in the the number of complaints received versus the year before.
We all know the internet is the wave of the future, but how are we all going to maintain consumer safety with such a massive conglomerate as the internet? Is there really a way to be totally safe on the internet? Sadly, fraud is not the only issue the internet is dealing with. Children and young adults are using the internet as a means of socializing and even “bullying”/harassing others. I am thinking schools will need to incorporate internet communication skills and proper etiquette to help with teaching children proper ways to utilize the internet. This might help prevent some of the fraud and other problems the internet is facing. Educate kids at a young age to help define the future of the internet.

Online Ad Spending Could Possibly See Its First Decline Since 2001

Mari Woods Holt — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 14:23:42 +0000

According to internetnews.com, “A new forecast from research group IDC is projecting that in the first quarter of 2009, online ad spending will see its first real decline since the dotcom implosion in 2001. ” In addition, the fourth quarter e-commerce spending had declined, compared to 2007 e-commerce spending. Consumers spending less could certainly have an impact on the overall online ad spending, however it appears paid search has been the best performing. This article also points out the correlation between the US economy (recession some call it) and the overall online advertising being down. Companies don’t have as much money to spend on this aspect of their business, compared to when sales are up they can afford to spend more on things such as advertising.

Leadpile Lead Exchange deals with all sorts of online activity. Paid search is a very common way of driving traffic to our lead generation websites, however there is also a lot of others that seem to be performing well too. I am not sure I really see the decline in ad spending, but time will tell.