Ecommerce channel expanded 57% in 2011

The ecommerce channel expanded by 57% in 2011. Samsung leads fast-growth category LED-TVs and is the main CE challenger of traditional IT brands. Boretti fastest-growing brand in 2011, while HP still dominates.

The continued double digit expansion of the online sales channel represents a long cycle in the economy. Recession or no recession, the ecommerce channel has continued to expand dramatically for more than ten years in a row. It's logical that manufacturers and retailers continue to shift budgets and resources from traditional to online outlets and media as the ecommerce channel represents big business right now.

Ecommerce channel expanded in 2011 by 57%
The ecommerce channel, as measured by Icecat, has expanded in 2011 by 57% year-on-year in terms of Data-sheet Downloads (DDs) via 18,115 ecommerce partners. The growth of the ecommerce channel has slowed down only a little bit because of the Euro crisis and a slow-down in some markets. The ecommerce channel continues to be an exponent of the rise of the digital, worldwide economy.

The number of connected channel partners has grown by 37%. These partners were downloading 1.4 billion data-sheets in 2011, and are expected to download more than 2 billion data-sheets during the 2012. This roughly corresponds to 30 billion data-sheet views via the websites of connected ecommerce partners in some 40 different countries.
The number of brands monitored, has expanded year-on-year with 67% to 4,994 and the numbers of monitored sub-categories has increased by 29% to 1,203 in the sectors IT, Telecom,
Consumer Electronics and Office Supplies.

Top 10 overall: HP still dominates, Samsung rises
In the brands top 10, HP and Lenovo maintain the numbers 1 and 2 positions respectively, as in the previous year. Relatively, the download share of HP has eroded, a long term trend, to a still magnificent 21% of the total number of data-sheet downloads in the ecommerce channel. Philips (+95% increase) re-entered the top 10 together with Epson (+77%). Samsung (+84%) made a big leap within the top 10 to a 3rd position behind Lenovo. Samsung is successful with it's Android-based technologies.

Boretti is fastest growing brand in 2011
Boretti (ovens & cookers) and accessories brands Value and InLine are propelled into the top 200 channel brands 2011. Basically, these brands are entering the ecommerce channel.
The highest ranking fast-growth brands are respectively Startech.com (+258% increase), Gigabyte (+248%), and Trend Micro (+337%).
Interesting is the presence of mobile computing brand BlackBerry (+276%), that has embraced the ecommerce channel to regain market share from Apple and Samsung. Notable is the rise of consumer electronics brand Braun (+242%), consistent with the trend that consumer electronics becomes more important in the online market.

Top 15 categories: Notebooks lead, servers drop
In the top 15 categories little is changing. Notebooks are still by far the most important category in the ecommerce channel. Followed by warranty/support upgrades and PCs. Servers drop out of the top ten, probably because of stagnating demand. Digital cameras and mobile device cases enter the top 15.

CE categories and Tablets on fast-growth path
The fastest expanding category is that of LED TVs (+394%), clearly starting to replace older TV technologies. Other fast-expanding CE categories are cookers & ovens (Boretti!), and refrigerators. The rise of Tablets (+145%) is as expected given the eye-catching battle between Apple's iPad and Android-based competitors.

Fast-growth category LED TVs dominated by Samsung
The fast-growth category LED TVs is dominated in the ecommerce channel by a mix of IT and CE players: Samsung (40%), LG (23%), Philips (15%), and Toshiba (10%) the big four counting for 90% of the market. The last 10% of the market is shared by 35 other brands including Sony-fame. It's understandable that such a competitive environment makes players like Philips consider an exit from the TV market altogether. Especially, if the rumour that Apple is going to develop an iTV materializes.

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 is rated as a Deloitte Technology Fast 500 EMEA company based on 411% business growth over the past five years.
Icecat produced 1.5 million product data-sheets in 35 world languages. Icecat analyzes the performance of 5000 brands. Its statistics are based on 1.4 billion annual product data-sheets downloads by 18,000 connected ecommerce websites: online shops, ERP systems, comparison sites, purchase systems, rating portals, and other applications.

Open Icecat is an open catalog, part of Icecat's full catalog, via which the product content for 280 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 ecommerce 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.

Disclaimer: due to updated measurement methodology, the published historic data may differ a bit from report to report. However, within the same report the same methodology is used to take care of valid comparability. Only the indirect, channel activities of brands are measured.
More information:
- Full report