eBay and Amazon.com are fighting for customers willing to buy clothes via the Internet this holiday season, hoping to boost their results in this lucrative segment. Apparel is currently the single largest category of online sales in the U.S. but was virtually ignored by both companies in favor of electronic products like in previous years.
Although eBay says it is the largest Internet seller of clothing in bulk, not in values, comparisons with Amazon.com are not simple to do. Online sales of clothing at retailers such as Nordstrom or the Gap are growing at a double digit rate, but these units are still relatively small.
The category of clothing and accessories must represent 14% or $25B of the total $173B in projected sales over the Internet in the U.S. in 2010, according to Forrester.
Web Experts believe that Amazon.com, the world’s largest online retailer, is favored to win the battle, while eBay is still trying to reorganize its businesses to have a picture of a business environment for new product sales, not just an auction site for used items.
With the proximity of the holiday season, both companies are betting that improvements made for the experience of buying clothes over the Internet – better viewing on your pages to partnerships with designers – will ensure growth.
No comments:
Post a Comment