The 90/20 rule: 90% of online sales accounted for by only
20% of consumers who buy online

October 30, 2000
Cyberdialogue, the eCRM solutions provider, recently conducted an analysis that reveals that the 80/20 rule should soon become a 90/20 rule online.

According to Cyberdialogue's analysis, only 20% of online shoppers account for 87% of the total consumer online sales market.

Another thing worth mentioning is that the top 20% of online shoppers spend at least $1.000 per year online.

Shoppers spending the most money online are likely to be affluent, educated, middle-aged and male.

As for its online behaviour, this group is much more likely than the average online shopper to buy high price-point items online (products and services).

Another point is that these top 20% online shoppers readily participate in reward programs, seek customer after-sale service by email and they might even change their mind about a specific brand after gathering some piece of information online.

This analysis shows, if some people still needed to be convinced, the key role played by a customer relationship in an Internet strategy.

According to Cyberdialogue's analysis, companies who want to be able to recognize which customers are making online purchases and how to keep them need to use eCRM tools in order to do so successfully.

Even though such eCRM tools is not always the best option (it does not work for eTourism "Sales Machine" sites, for instance), Internet offers many opportunities for those who want to improve customer relationship. But in most cases, at the time being, marketing tools are not used in the best possible way, if used at all.

An eTourism Sales Machine site should be fast and efficient, and should not bother the websurfer with data and form filling which are bound to put him off the service he was looking for on the site.

But there must be a way for these Sales Machine sites to keep their customers somehow.

Yet, most of the time, sites are unable to choose a business model and stick to it. As they want to keep everybody happy, they end up losing their specificity which is bad for the Web surfer who is no longer able to classify the site.

There is not only one but several answers to give the top 20 online shoppers and eCRM is only one of these answers.

This analysis points out how important eServices are if you want to keep customers.

This analysis also proves that quantity in terms of visitors is not the only key to success, quantity is much more important since you're now aware that nearly 80% of the online shoppers are only accountable for 10% of your turnover.

Knowing that, you realize that there is no need to spend huge sums of money in advertising campaigns, until you are well able to identify the top 20 online shoppers among your customers.

Source : Cyberdialogue