Small business advice - Hamilton, ON

In the year 2005, Canadian online sales had a record fourth straight year of double-digit growth according to Statistics Canada.

Online sales recorded a huge growth rate in 2005 but e-commerce was just over one per cent of total operating revenues for private firms.

Statistics Canada reports that combined online sales in the private and public sectors increased 38.4 per cent to $39.2 billion. Online sales by private firms increased 37.2 per cent to $36.3 billion, while those by the public sector increased 55.4 per cent to $2.9 billion.

There is a long way to go yet for web - based selling, but it is growing at a faster rate then retail sales.

This was the fourth straight year that the overall value of e-commerce sales in Canada increased by 38 per cent or more - six times the rise in overall retail sales in Canada in 2005.

The strong growth rate for online sales is contrasted to the slow adoption of basic information and communication technologies: In 2005, 82 per cent of all private firms used the Internet, unchanged from the previous year, and about 38 per cent had websites, up from 37 per cent.

Stats Canada says this seems to indicate that these basic technologies have reached at least a temporary saturation point in the Canadian market, much like the use of personal computers did a couple of years earlier.

We will probably see continued strong growth in online sales, as it will continue to outpace retail sales (brick and mortar companies)

Based on article I first read at Canada.com

Search Engine Market Share for February 2006
This article shows data from the United States ( Year over Year )

NEW YORK - Google’s market share has risen 6 percentage points in the U.S. search market based on total queries. It is pulling ahead of Yahoo and Microsoft’s MSN, according to data released Tuesday March 28 2006 according to Reuters.

United States Search Engine market share summary for February 2006
Google = 42.3 percent
Yahoo = 27.6 percent
MSN = 13.5 percent

Google’s market share went from 36.3 up to 42.3 percent in February a year earlier, according to data provided by ComScore.

Yahoo’s market share went from 31.1 down to 27.6 percent from a year erlier.

MSN’s market share went fell from 16.3 down to 13.5 percent from last year.

Ask.com was the only other search engine to gain market share - from 5.3 up to 6 percent from a year earlier.

Google, had an 11 percent increase in total search queries for the month and this shows a healthy sector.

“We expect Google’s increased market share in search queries, and better monetization of queries to lead to increased share of ad dollars relative to its competitors” in the first half of 2006, Merrill Lynch analysts Justin Post and Lauren Rich Fine wrote Tuesday.

Merrill Lynch said Google also stood to gain in the coming months as its main competitors “struggle” to improve the technology and experience surrounding their search engines.

Google revenue rose 20 % in the third quarter of 2005, even though the number of searches on it’s site were down during that quarter.

Annual market share gains by the big 3 in the Search Engine Wars

Searches made via search engines in the U.S. topped 5 billion in December and the share of search by Google continues to grow according to research released this week by Nielsen//NetRatings.

Nielsen mentioned that just over 5 billion online searches were conducted across approximately 60 search engines in the U.S. in Dec. compared to 3.3 billion in Dec. 2004 - a 55 % year-over-year increase.
The big-three search engines: Google, Yahoo! and MSN performed 81.1% of all searches in December 2005, up slightly from 78.8% in December 2004.

In absolute terms, all of the big three experienced double-digit growth year-over-year in December 2005, however in terms of market share Google was the big winner.

Google Search grew 75 % to nearly 2.5 billion searches.
Yahoo! Search rose 53 % to nearly 1.1 billion searches.
MSN Search increased 20 % to 553 million searches

Google has pulled significantly away from its competitors. The market leader in online search posted a 48.8% share in December 2005 up from a 43.1% share in December 2004. Yahoo! place second with a 21.4% market share down from 21.7% the previous year while MSN dropped to 10.9% down from 14.0% the previous year.

Despite more searches, Nielsen-NetRatings found that the number of people connecting to the Internet in the U.S. rose just three percent to 207 million people. This meant that the average online American performed approximately 25 searches in December 2005 versus about 16 searches in December 2004.

More Internet Statistics

re: Canadian and U.S Search Engine Marketing spending statistics for 2005.

Search Marketing spending is up 44% from 2004 compared to 2005.

According to a Jan. 9 report released by the Search Engine Marketing Professionals Organization (SEMPO) this morning, U.S. and Canadian advertisers spent $5.75 billion on search engine marketing last year. That number is up 44% compared with spending in 2004. The report, �The State of Search Engine Marketing 2005,� also projects that SEM spending in North America will reach $11 billion in 2010.

�This report confirms our belief that Search Engine Marketing has almost single-handedly revived a flagging online advertising marketplace after the stock market crashed in 2000� said Kevin Lee, Chairperson of SEMPO. “As consumers have become increasingly reliant on search engines to navigate the Web, investors have shown a renewed interest in the digital technologies — and in search marketing in particular.”

As usual, pay-per-click advertising led the spending, accounting for 83% of the total spending. Organic search ( searching through the search engines ) , which has not yet become part of the strategy for many large companies, lagged far behind, logging 11% of spending.

The survey also found:

* Google and Yahoo still command the lion�s share of Internet advertising.
* Branding, sales, leads and traffic are the top objectives of paid placement programs.

The report is based on a survey of more than 550 search marketers conducted by Radar Research and Intellisurvey last November and calculated the spend based on payments to search engines, search marketing agencies and in-house search marketing employees.

See other Internet Statistics.

If you are wondering what types of advertising to consider for your business, you should consider Internet marketing. If these statistics are any indicator, 2006 will see a healthy increase in advertising dollars being spent towards marketing for the web.

The research
Online survey courtesy of Anita Cambell from Small Business Trends

Main Ways Vendors Find Small Business Customers – not including Online
#1 Referrals ( 83% )
#2 Networking events ( 52% )
#3 Cold calling ( 40% )
#4 Direct mail ( 34% )
#5 Trade shows ( 32% )
#6 Boards and civic organizations ( 23% )
#7 Retail walk-ins ( 16% )
#8 Other ( 9%)

Main Ways Vendors Find Small Business Customers Online

#1 Search Engines ( 73% )
#2 Visit website directly ( 71% )
#3 Published articles ( 34% )
#3 Email campaigns ( 33% )
#4 Your own blog ( 28% )
#5 Online ads ( 25% )
#6 Links in 3rd part blogs ( 23% )
#7 Forums or discussion boards ( 23% )
#8 Yellow pages site or Directory ( 18% )
#9 Other ( 8% )

The report is based on data collected from an online survey between October 29 and November 13, 2005. There were 481 respondents.

More stats
Online advertising in Canada accounted for 1.5 percent of total advertising revenue in 2003– less than half of the 3.3 percent share in U.S. market.

In the U.S., search marketing has grown to become the single largest segment of online advertising revenue, accounting for 35 percent of total Internet advertising spending in 2003