Could it be that romantic shoppers were the reason for boosted on-line sales in February? Certainly last month’s figures have helped to improve the slight downturn on January’s figures.

Sales from e-commerce sites were by 13% compared to February 2009, according to latest figures from the IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index.
An estimated £4.1 billion was spent on-line in the month compared to £3.6 billion in 2009.

This sales increase comes after a decline of 4% in January 2010, most likely a seasonal fall-off after the big Christmas spends.

Taking a closer look at Valentine’s sales on-line the report reveals a shift in the buying choice. The gifts sector – including flowers and hampers – fell by a third in the week before Valentine’s Day while sales of lingerie and beauty products grew by 30% and 25% respectively.

Chris Webster, vice president of retail consulting and technology at  Capgemini is reported as saying:
“It is reassuring to see that romance hasn’t been lost in the recession, and shoppers clearly haven’t lost the love for on-line retail.

“The growth of less traditional sectors in February paints an optimistic picture of consumers picking themselves up following the doom and gloom of the last couple of years. Despite on-line retail’s maturity, it is still showing strong growth levels of 13%.”

On-line traders will be very keen to discover a new app that allows them to widen their potential customer base via the hugely populated social network site Facebook.

The BigCommerce SocialShop allows e-retail traders to put their products on Facebook, where there are more than 400 million active users.

A business with a Facebook page can exhibit their products on their company’s page from their BigCommerce store.

BigCommerce SocialShop also gives shoppers the option to share products with their friends on Facebook.

This is how the app will work:
1. Add the BigCommerce SocialShop application to your Facebook page
2. Enter your store URL
3. Choose which products you want to display
4. A “Shop” tab appears on the businesses page showing products from your BigCommerce store
5.
Facebook shoppers can now click on the product and learn more about it
6. Shoppers can buy the product through the merchant’s BigCommerce store or share the product with their friends on Facebook.

There is good news for the future of e-commerce websites as new figures reveal that internet card-use fraud fell for the first time last year. The report from the UK Cards Association showed that card fraud on the internet, over the phone and via mail order decreased by a total of 19% to £266million.
Since 2004, card fraud losses have fallen 67%.

While any fraud is bad news – and certainly £266million still sounds like a huge amount – the fact that it is going down will help to increase the trust of shoppers who use on-line stores.

It’s believed that chip and pin technology and more secure e-retail websites have contributed to the fall in card fraud.

David Cooper, chairman of the Fraud Control Steering Group, is reported as saying: “The reasons behind the decrease in this type of fraud include the increasing use of sophisticated fraud screening detection tools by retailers and banks, as well as the continuing growth in the use of MasterCard SecureCode and Verified by Visa, by both online retailers and cardholders.”

While our last blog revealed a dominance at the top of the latest Hot Shops List by some of the world’s biggest on-line brands, as well as a few remarkable climbs up the list, there were also some brands that didn’t fare so well this last quarter.

Here we bring you some of the “fallers”:

*Ticketmaster fell 21 places to position 37
* Sainsbury’s fell 12 places to 41
* O2 Shop fell 12 places to 47
* Travelodge fell nine places to 46

Carphone Warehouse, HP, QVCUK.com and Toys ‘R’ Us UK all fell out of the top 50 this quarter.

As with all these lists there are always going to be the winners and the losers but it shows that competition is fierce in the e-retail marketplace.

The latest Hot Shops List compiled by 
IMRG, reveals that the story is “steady dominance” for the big on-line shopping brands, while the biggest movers this time are holiday and travel companies.

The UK on-line shopping top 10 lines up like this with the top four brands retaining their places,
1: Amazon.co.uk
2: Argos
3: Play
4: Apple Computer

Three more moved up one place compared to the previous quarterly report:
5: Amazon.com
6: Tesco
8: John Lewis

While M&S fell two places to position 7, Next dropped one place to position nine and Easyjet entered the top 10 at number 10.

Meanwhile some of the biggest movers in the latest Hot Shops List are
15: Thomas Cook, which moved up 31 places
31: British Airways, which moved up 11 places
11: Thomson Holidays, which moved up 10 places
24: The Trainline, which moved up 10 places

There was only one new entrant in the list this quarter: the new Littlewoods brand, Very.co.uk, which came in at position 34.

A new study has shown that more than three-quarters of mums are now on-line.

Meanwhile, another survey has revealed that there are now more women than men social networking on the net. In particular, Facebook reveals that the fastest growing segment is made up of women aged 35 to 55.

The chances are, too, that many families still rely on the woman to make many household purchases. Indeed, there are more women based in the home ¬ and therefore more likely to use the internet more regularly for buying products, including food, furniture, clothing and gifts.

So it stands to reason that on-line businesses and e-commerce sites should keep the purchasing choices of the fairer sex in mind.

We’re not saying here that such sites should be pink and fluffy but if your e-commerce business has items that may appeal to women then make sure they are displayed in an attractive way. For instance, women have been shown to prefer brighter, more “modern” colours on websites, as well as pastels and softer hues.

Women are also renowned for chatting so they are far more likely to pass on information about products via social network sites like Twitter and Facebook. As an e-commerce site you could encourage more feedback and comments about your products, so as to appeal to more women.

And don’t overlook the power of “sales” and “bargains”. Women, in particular, are known to be swayed by discounted products and cut-price deals. They love the thrill of a bargain.

Are there any other feminine focused tips that on-line business owners would like to pass on?