Industry News

European E-Commerce Continues to Rise in 2011: +18%

• An increase of 18% in 2011 and projected growth of 16% in 2012
According to the data published by the Center for Retail Research, e-commerce in Europe grew 18% in 2011 to reach 200.5 billion euros. This strong growth recorded in the last several years is set to continue. This proves that the digital has become part of the shopping process since they are 59% of Europeans who have made a purchase on the Internet in 2011*.
The European e-commerce sales growth should be similar in 2012 and is expected to increase by 16%.

• A bigger market than the U.S
The European e-commerce growth rate was far higher than in the United States. Indeed, if one compares the amount of online retail sales published by Barclays Capital in the U.S, Europe has exceeded the U.S in e-commerce spending in 2011.

*Source: Forrester Research

Online Newspapers Visited by Half of European Internet Users

According to comScore, 48% of European* internet users have visited Newspaper sites in November 2011. This new figure confirms the increased consumption of digital news.
The penetration of online news is even higher in Western European countries. Indeed, 55% of European online users across 7 markets in 2011 (UK, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Sweden) are online news readers**.

*Source: comScore Media Metrix, november 2011, 49 European markets aggregated into the European region.
**Source: Forrester Research, “online activity and paid content forecast, 2011 to 2016″, july 2011.

US Digital Music Sales Surpassed Physical Sales for the First Time in 2011

According to the Nielsen/Billboard 2011 Music Industry Report, for the first time digital music sales are larger than physical sales, accounting for 50.3% of all music purchases in 2011. In a continuation of a multi-year trend, digital sales increased by 8.4% from 2010, while physical sales declined 5%.
Digital track sales set a new record with 1.27 billion sales in 2011, an increase of 100 million sales over 2010.

These results confirm that Internet is the top way of consuming paid music which was also highlighted in a recent survey conducted in September 2011 by Insight Research Group*. The study found that more than half of respondents (53%) preferred to purchase music files online.

*”Digital Music Consumer Behaviors: Ownership & Streaming”; 1,000 online music consumers ages 18-64 were surveyed during August-September 2011.

Click here to download the Nielsen/Billboard Music Industry Report 2011.

Pre-Roll : Top Video Ad Format in 2011 and in 2012

Online video has reached a critical mass amongst internet users. Indeed, according to comScore in october 2011, 89% of Spanish internet users and 87% of French internet users watched at least one video online during the month.
With a such sizeable audience, advertisers are spending more money in online video ads, and more particularly in pre-roll ad which is the most used video ad format:
• In France, pre-roll represents ¾ of the online video inventory (Source: Aegis Media Solutions, November 2011).
• In the US, pre-roll accounts for more than 90% of the total video impressions served (Source: YuMe, Q1 and Q2 video metrics report).

Pre-roll will continue to be a favored video ad format in 2012. According to a study conducted by Break Media* 63% of US advertising decision-makers plan to place pre-roll ads in 2012.

*“Digital Video Advertising Trends 2012”, December 2011

US: Mobile Surpasses Print in Time Spent

Americans adults now spend more time using their mobile phones than reading newspapers and magazines, according to new research from eMarketer.

Time spent on mobile devices is now an average of 65 minutes a day, compared to 44 minutes a day for print (magazines and newspapers combined). That’s a 30% increase on last year.

However, despite this increased use of mobile which now takes up over 10% of an American adult’s media time, yet it attracts less than 1% of ad spend.

This study highlights the discrepancy between consumer behavior and advertising spending which is promising for the business on the Internet and on mobile devices.

China: Time Spent Online Surpasses Time Spent on Traditional Media

A new study by Starcom MediaVest Group, the Publicis media agency network, found that Chinese consumers spend significantly more time online each day than with any other medium. Thus, they spend more time online than watching TV. According to the study, the average Chinese consumer spends 3.25 hours a day online compared to 2.21 hours watching TV.

Users are also turning to the web for video entertainment. The survey revealed that digital media users in China spend more time watching video on their mobile devices and computers than their TV.

As China’s consumer economy rapidly expands, more agencies and marketers are devoting greater effort to growing market share in the country.

Source: Starcom MediaVest Group “China Yangtze Study”, october 2011. Results are based on in-person interviews with 13,507 ages 13-45 consumers in China conducted during May 2011.

US: When’s Prime Time for Mobile Video?

FreeWheel has recently released a study titled “The Video Monetisation Report” which analyzed more than 11.8bn video views during the third quarter of 2011. The study has revealed that the primetime viewing hours for online video is directly related to the length of the media:
short-form video (under five minutes) and mid-form video (5-20 minutes) have a primetime period of 1-4pm,
• while long-form video (20+ minutes) have a primetime period matching up with television’s primetime from 8pm to 11pm.

The complete report is available for download, here.

Europe: SMS is the Most Used Method of Payment for M-commerce

“The DIBS E-Commerce Survey 2011”* conducted by YouGov reveals that SMS is the most used means of payment for mobile purchases in almost every european country surveyed.
Poland, Sweden and Denmark are leading the way with respectively 54%, 45% and 42% of mobile consumers who have used SMS as a means of payment for mobile purchases.

* About the Dibs’s survey: the survey was conducted in the third quarter of 2011 by research agency YouGov, and includes interviews with over 9,000 Internet users and 333 online retailers in 9 european countries (Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Spain, UK, Germany, France and Poland).

US: Online CPG Advertising Increases by 21% In-Stores Sales

Online CPG advertising has been growing in importance among marketers due to its ad effectiveness.
A new study, conducted over a two-year period, and published in October 2011 by comScore and dunnhumbyUSA, highlights this fact by indicating that exposure to online display ads can lead to improved in-store sales for CPG brands.

CPG campaigns register median offline sales lift of 21%
The study found that that there was a median 21% in-store sales lift among shoppers who had been exposed to online advertising for CPG brands compared to those who had not seen them. Approximately 70% of campaigns generated a double-digit sales lift.

Ads anonymously targeted to in-store brand buyers drive incremental conversion
The results showed an in-store sales lift of 42%, double the lift from campaigns that were not targeted using this approach.
These results demonstrate how targeting algorithms can help improve efficiency and effectiveness in display ad delivery, providing more relevant ads to consumers, improved ROI for advertisers and higher CPMs for publishers.

However it is important to note that the use of traditional media for CPG brands will still be prevalent for a couple of decades from now, but digital media, which is increasingly proving its value, will take a growing share of CPG ad spending in the coming years.

The press release is available for download here

Internet Is The Preferred Channel for Shopping

According to the fourth annual Global Consumer Shopping Habits survey conducted by ChannelAdvisor, the majority of consumers globally prefer shopping online (59%) over shopping at brick-and-mortar stores (35%). French consumers have the greatest appetite for online shopping when compared to other countries, with more than 68% of them preferring to shop online rather than in-store.

The survey results are available for review here