Before diving in, we should note that the second quarter of this year is well over, and last week, the Dow was way up. That said, a new report from Hitwise covering the second quarter of this year indicates that things went pretty wrong for small businesses.
Gian Fulgoni, the executive chairman and cofounder of comScore, wrote on the comScore Voices Blog, "In a blog post earlier this year, I wrote about the challenges facing small e-commerce businesses, noting that their share of online spending in Q4 2009 showed a 4.2 point decline versus Q4 2008. Unfortunately, the situation hasn't improved since then. In fact, it's gotten worse."
Small businesses actually suffered a 5.6 percent year-over-year decline in the second quarter, according to Fulgoni. And the below tables illustrate his point.
Later, Fulgoni added, "The market share loss suffered by the smaller retailers corresponds to an absolute sales decline of about 6%."
Let's hope things have gotten a lot better since then.
Anyway, Fulgoni did end his blog post with a push for policies that favor small businesses, and perhaps his position will help catch the attention of someone even more important.
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Comments
Perhaps UK is different
Very interesting article but happily as a small UK business we are not seeing a decline. In fact the business continues to grow year on year at well over 50%. This may be due to our efforts (we hope) but perhaps the UK online shopping market is on a different path to that in the US. As for Google Shopping we continue to see good results in that area as well.... but perhaps it is because our niche in lingerie and swimwear retail does not have too much in the way of massive companies competing.
Many Factors
Could it not be the many factors in the economy, consumer buying habits, Search Engine Results Pages, Small Business Marketing etc. Overall, stats can show whatever your choose to show or want them to show. In the 5.6pt decrease, I am sure there are those who have gone up and those who have gone down, so be careful in generalizing Look at the charts carefully, the smalls are at 34% vs 40% compared to the same quarter last year. The large have increased by the same, so there is the shift. Are buyers feeling more comfortable with large names because of the economy, or is Google made some change that effects the smalls to the benefit of the large.
Competing on the Net is a daunting task. As was mentioned in the UK post, the niche they have is doing well. Find a niche, and compete there, not with everyone else selling the same thing.
Re
Until the economy begins adding jobs at a meaningful rate, the lack of spending power among consumers will continue to be a drag on purchasing, with many consumers indicating their intention to cut back on gift buying this holiday season.
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