Archive notice: This article was originally published on November 7, 2007. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
The positive signs in the e-commerce industry for the coming businness year are reflected in the fact that a large proportion of experts assume increasing innovative strength. The results of the study supported by the German Association for the Digital Economy (BVDW) will be presented on the occasion of the 4th Pangora E-Commerce Congress.
According to expert opinions, the 2007 business year will once again be a successful year for the industry. In total, around 80 percent of the 167 respondents expect a business result that is better or somewhat better than in the previous year. By comparison, the forecasts for the Christmas business – just getting underway during the October 2007 survey period – look somewhat more restrained, but still positive: 59 percent of respondents believe that the Christmas business will be better or somewhat better than in 2006.
Economic growth through increasing innovative strength in e-commerce
Innovations are the engine of a growing industry: 72 percent of experts assume that innovative strength in e-commerce will continue to increase next year. This positive trend is also emphasized by Dagmar Wöhrl, Member of the Bundestag, Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister of Economics and Technology, who has taken over patronage of the 4th Pangora E-Commerce Congress: “The economic growth of the e-commerce industry does not happen by itself, but requires innovative paths in order to activate the great potential for value creation and employment.”
High revenue expectations stimulate investment and employee growth
Optimism in the industry is unbroken; almost three quarters of respondents are planning for higher revenue in 2008 than in the current business year. Willingness to invest is correspondingly positive. 46 percent of respondents plan to invest more heavily in 2008. The need for employees in the industry is also enormously high: 60 percent of experts assume that they will need more staff in the coming year than in the previous year. More than two thirds of experts believe that it will not be easy to meet this need. 14 percent are even of the opinion that the industry will lack qualified staff. These results confirm the shortage of skilled workers diagnosed by the BVDW months ago. “A trend that will unfortunately in all likelihood take on a life of its own if the protagonists from business and the private education sector do not pull together,” judges BVDW Managing Director Tanja Feller. The BVDW has already taken the first concrete steps to improve the situation, with more to follow shortly.
Web 2.0 in e-commerce still at the beginning of its development potential
Web 2.0 was and is the big trend of recent months and triggered genuine euphoria in the Internet scene. Today, a large proportion of experts rate communities and rating functions in e-commerce as having high additional value and as very important for the user, but 26 percent of experts are of the opinion that these functionalities are only at the beginning of their development and innovation capability.
The role of Web 2.0 applications in a company’s business success is not seen as quite so significant by the experts: More than 50 percent of respondents rate them as “helpful,” but only four percent classify them as “essential,” and one fifth is even of the opinion that they play no role.
Economic-policy digression: Uncertainty regarding corporate tax reform
The fiercely controversial economic-policy discussions about corporate tax reform are also leading to uncertainty in the e-commerce industry. Almost half of the experts cannot yet assess what the corporate tax reform will actually bring. 14 percent are even of the opinion that the reform will have no positive impetus for growth at all. 18 percent of respondents believe that the reform will allow entrepreneurs more scope for investment.
At least 16 percent of respondents think that the corporate tax reform will make a contribution to securing Germany as a business location.
At the 4th E-Commerce Congress 2007 in Munich, organized by Pangora GmbH, a technology provider for online marketplaces, more than 200 participants from the e-commerce industry are meeting today, including above all shop and portal operators, e-commerce service providers, researchers and strategists as well as journalists, and discussing current market developments, political influences and the opportunities of new marketing strategies in online retail. The online survey conducted in the run-up to the congress by Pangora, Internet World Business and the German Association for the Digital Economy (BVDW) shows the experts’ fundamental assessment of the industry’s development.
Further links:
- German Association for the Digital Economy
E-Commerce Congress
Pangora
