Icecat.biz, July 11, 2011: The online channel expanded 49% in Q2-2011, according to Icecat's download figures. HP's position in the online channel is gradually eroding further as PCs, Workstations and PDAs are in the decline, and imaging manufacturer Epson surprises. Competitor DELL consolidates a top 30 position and has momentum. Further, networking brands Juniper, StarTech.com and Cisco are fast-growth champions. The importance of online sales of whitegood categories continues to increase relatively quick. Finally, Sony Ericsson is a shaker loosing online footprint quickly similarly to Nokia.
Download the full Q2-2011 report here: http://www.icecat.biz/en/forum.cgi?post=6003
Online channel expanded in Q2-2011 with 49%
The online channel, as measured by Icecat, has expanded in Q2-2011 with 49% year-on-year in terms of Data-sheet Downloads (DDs) via 15,446 online channel partners. The growth of the online channel has doubled compared to Q1 2011, which means that the recovery of the online channel is gaining momentum. The number of connected channel partners has grown with 31%. These partners were downloading more than 346 million data-sheets in Q2-2011, and are expected to download more than a billion data-sheets during the whole of 2011.
The number of brands monitored, has expanded year-on-year at a faster rate with 45% to 4060 and the numbers of sub-categories has increased with 12% to 1070 in the sectors IT, Telecom, Consumer Electronics and Office supplies. It implies that the long tail of brands active in the online channel has increased at a similar pace as the online channel itself.
Top 10 overall: HP's online share is decreasing rapidly, Epson and Cisco are surprising
In the top 10 brands, HP (+8%) and Lenovo (+40%) stay the numbers 1 and 2 respectively. Relatively, the download share of HP has decreased further, which is a long term trend, to a still magnificent 20% (down from 25% one year ago) of the total number of data-sheet downloads. HP is both under pressure from competition in a number of its major categories, and experiences the effect of having a rapid increase (+45%) of brands that are now also included in the measurement. Epson (+99%) and Cisco (+91%) enter the top 10, outgrowing their competitors formidably. Toshiba (+15%) and IBM (+26%) leave the top 10, as their online visibility grows far less than average (+49%).
Juniper and StarTech.com, networkers that outgrow all others
If we look at the 20 fast-growing brands in the top 100, networkers Juniper (=738%) and StarTech.com (+433%) are the surprises of Q2 2011, compared to the same period one year earlier. StarTech.com was also in the previous quarter a fast growing brand, but has accellerated even further, and now enters the top 30. Juniper is a suprise for us, just entering the top 100 from 'nowhere' (place 318 one year earlier).
Other steady fast-growth brands are Trend Micro (+413%), 3M (+250%), Verbatim (+238%), Gigabyte (+203%), Fellowes (+187%), Ricoh (+146%), and DELL (+121%). DELL continues its rise to the top of the channel, and consolidates a top 30 position. If DELL is able to continue its growth, it will next year reach the top 20, and become a serious challenger of top computers brands that sell indirect. Toshiba, Fujitsu, and IBM are - given their B2B profile - the first possible 'victims' of DELL's new channel strategy.
The top 20 fast-growth brands are a mix of IT and office supplies, imaging, software publishers and computers. A surprise to us is the revival of software brand Corel (+125%), just entering the top 100. Corel is a competitor of both Microsoft and Adobe, which both have a stable position in the online channel.
And the shakers are... Sandisk, Sony Ericsson, and APC
If there are movers, there are also shakers. Top brands that dropped out of the 100 and saw a decline in online popularity, the true shakers, are Sandisk (-10%) and Sony Ericsson (-11%). These two brands are under pressure in both the online and the traditional channel. Sony Ericsson has similar problems as Nokia (-6%), to keep up with competition in the field of smartphones. Another brand - still in the top 100 - that is clearly under pressure is APC (-37%).
PCs decline, but Netbooks are stable waiting for the next generation of Tablets
In the top categories little is changing. Notebooks (8.25% download share) are still the most important category in the online channel. Warranties/support guarantees (4.73% share) follow, and next PCs (3.46% share). PCs are declining in terms of downloads, similarly to workstations (down 9 positions) and PDAs (will drop out of the top 100 soon).
The relative increase of Netbooks has come to a stand still for the first time in years around position 33. At the same time, Tablet PCs are stable as well around position 99. Clearly, the market is waiting for the new generation of Tablet PCs - running on Android, Chrome OS or Windows - in answer to the splashing break-through of Apple's iPads. Computer manufacturers are clearly uncertain if they should continue to invest in Netbooks or should fully gamble on their next generation of Tablet PCs.
HP continues to dominate Notebooks
In the online channel, HP (37% share) continues to dominate the category notebooks, followed by Lenovo (16% share), Toshiba (11%) and Acer (10% share). Acer continues to loose footprint, and will soon be overhauled by Asus (8% share). Apple (2% share) has hardly an online channel strategy and continues to sell direct, successfully. DELL (1% share) is increasing its channel position step by step, has become visible on the radar, but still has a long way to go to reach the top.
White-goods on the rise
More dynamics can be found in the rest of the top 100 categories. The top 20 fast-growth categories in the online channel is led by cookers & ovens (+182%), projection lamps (+173%) and audio/video cables (+142%). In the top 20 further a lot of other supplies, options and security software. Also refrigerators (+83%) are next to the cookers & ovens a successfully expanding white-goods category. Like we noticed in the previous quarter, white-goods are strongly on the rise as consumer electronics etailers are becoming mature.
White-goods, dominated by traditional local brands
The fastest growing category, cookers & ovens, is a traditional white-goods category, dominated by traditional, mostly European players. It has taken some years, but the white-goods manufacturers are incorporating the online channel as their foremost retailers develop online stores. In total, we measure 93 different brands. Boretti (23%) is on top, followed by Bosch (6%), Smeg (5%), Siemens (4%), AEG (4%), ETNA (4%), ATAG (4%), Miele (3%). In the top it's mainly an Italian-German affair. It seems highly unlikely, that this white-goods category will be trampled by Asians as is the case in many ICT categories.
Juniper uses online channel to distribute options for its high-end routing solutions
The number one fast-growth brand in Q2-2011, Juniper Networks, is known for its high-end routing. But, it's not the routers that are searched for in the online channel, its mainly the options: warranty & support extensions (80% of downloads), software license & upgrades (2%), network management software (2%). Around 10% of online buyer orientation is spent on Juniper hardware: firewalls (7%) and network switches (2%). It makes clear that Juniper has still more upwards potential in the online channel as more of its main categories are made available through internet partners.
About Icecat, http://www.icecat.biz/
Icecat NV is an independent worldwide publisher of ecommerce statistics and product content, part of the iMerge BV ecommerce group. Icecat's statistics are generated by 1 billion product data-sheets downloads by around 15,000 ecommerce websites: online shops, ERP systems, comparison sites, purchase systems, rating portals, and other applications. The online channel activity of more than 4,000 different brands is analyzed by Icecat and their products are extensively described in 35 world languages.
Open Icecat is an open catalog by which product content from 260 top technology brands is distributed for free (see: http://www.icecat.biz/menu/partners/index.htm ).
The download popularity of a brand's products is influenced by:
the popularity of its individual products;
product ratings by buyers and professionals;
the availability of its products via distributors and online channel partners;
the level of standardization of its product data for search & comparison engines;
online campaigns;
compatibility, cross-sell and up-sell intelligence;
free of charge distribution of (multimedia) product data.
Note: the direct online activity of brands like Apple or DELL is not included in Icecat's measurements.
Download the full Q2-2011 report here: http://www.icecat.biz/en/forum.cgi?post=6003
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