“E-commerce spending continues to grow faster compared to other retail categories, as more people become comfortable shopping online and also shopping online during the holidays,” Kamalesh Rao, director of economic research for MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse, tells PaymentsSource.

This is great news for retailers who sell their products online. According to Master Card advisors, even during a recession, online sales were up 15% over last year. The largest increases were in electronics, jewelry, footwear, and men’s apparel. Many factors contributed to this figure, including the fact that some online stores offered free shipping during the holidays to sweeten the deal.

Given that more young people are becoming savvy online shoppers, coupled with an increased level of confidence in online security from the boomer demographic, the percentage of online sales should continue to grow. These indicators support the fact that retailers who sell online understand the value of ecommerce and return on investment.

Ecommerce is especially important in this market for the following reasons:

• Convenience. Customers may not have time to visit your physical store.
• Always open. Customers can order products at any time day or night.
• Branding. A good website store complements and enhances your positive brand experience.
• Credit Card Processing. Accepting credit card payments online makes transactions fast and returns easy.
• Marketing. Having a web presence is one of the least expensive ways to stay top-of-mind with your customer base.

There has never been a better time to sell your products and services online than now. In the past, depending on how many products you had to sell and the volume of traffic to your server, setting up an online store would cost anywhere from 5 to 20 thousand dollars. This is because you needed to hire a web developer and web designer to design web graphics and set up your hosting account, merchant account, shopping cart software, database, gateway, SSL, and upload all of your product descriptions and images.

Now you can do all of the above autonomously, essentially bypassing the web developer and web designer. Knowledge of HTML, CSS or any database languages to use our online storefront builder isn’t no longer necessary. Newtek Web Services even offers a FREE trial so you can see how easy it is to set up your store by yourself. PLUS, you get expert assistance 24/7/365. Newtek Web Services is the one-stop-shop for your online needs: websites, online shops, even credit card processing and merchant accounts!

Tags: credit card processing, ecommerce, gateway, marketing, Newtek, online store, shopping cart software, SSL