B U S I N E S S
• A new “ social e-commerce” platform continues to emerge based on social networks and supported by advertising. • Retail e-commerce continues double-digit growth (about 1 4%), building on its 201 0 resurgence, after slow growth in 2008 and 2009 due to the recession.
• Facebook continues to grow, with more than 800 million active users worldwide.
• Twitter continues to grow, with over 200 million accounts worldwide.
• Mobile retail e-commerce explodes to over $5 billion.
• Localization of e-commerce expands with group marketing and localized tracking of mobile consumers.
• Consumer packaged goods begin to find their online market.
• Facebook and Google struggle to dominate social interaction on the Internet.
• Search engine marketing continues to challenge traditional marketing and advertising media as more consumers switch their eyes to the Web.
• Social and mobile advertising platforms show strong growth and begin to challenge search engine marketing. • Online population growth in the United States slows, but the amount of the average purchase expands.
• The online demographics of shoppers continue to broaden with the fastest growth among tweens, teens, and older adults.
• Online businesses continue to strengthen profitability by refining their business models and leveraging the capabilities of the Internet.
• The breadth of e-commerce offerings grows, especially in entertainment, retail apparel, luxury goods, appliances, and home furnishings.
• Small businesses and entrepreneurs continue to flood into the e-commerce marketplace, often riding on the infrastructures created by industry giants such as Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Google, and eBay.
• Brand extension through the Internet continues to grow as large firms such as Sears, JCPenney,
L.L.Bean, and Walmart pursue integrated, multi-channel bricks-and-clicks strategies.
• B2B supply chain transactions and collaborative