Thursday June 28 01:17 PM EDT
Report: Online Auction Spending Hits Record Level
By Clare Saliba, www.EcommerceTimes.com
Online auction sites racked up record revenues of US$556 million in May -- a 149 percent spike from their $223 million in sales in May 2000 -- according to a report released Thursday by Nielsen//NetRatings and Harris Interactive.
"Auctions have grown from a niche clientele of collectors to become a mainstream vehicle for online purchases," NetRatings e-commerce vice president Sean Kaldor said.
The report found that more than 6.2 million consumers conducted online transactions at auction sites for the month, a 22 percent jump from the 5.1 million that did so in May 2000.
Moreover, the report said that these surging metrics helped push online auctions up in rank to the third largest e-commerce category, behind books and apparel.
As a further testament to the popularity of online auction sites, the study also concluded that online auction revenue claimed a 10 percent stake of overall Internet spending, climbing from 8 percent a year ago.
Meanwhile, total e-commerce spending for May ballooned 104 percent, to nearly $5.4 billion, from $2.6 billion during the same period last year.
King of the Hill
Leaving its competitors in the dust, Internet auction powerhouse eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY - news) generated more than 64 percent of all auction revenues for May, said the report. The San Jose, California-based company also posted the highest conversion rate, with almost one quarter of the site's visitors turning into purchasers.
"eBay has done an excellent job converting a very high percentage of their shoppers into buyers and keeping customers extremely satisfied at the same time," said Kaldor. "This has enabled them to dominate the online auction category with four times more revenue than their next closest competitor."
Rising Auctioneer - Egghead?
Rounding out the top three online auctioneers in the Nielsen//NetRatings and Harris Interactive report were uBid.com, which had a 14.7 percent total revenue share for May, and Egghead.com (Nasdaq: EGGS - news), with a 4 percent share of total sales.
Although Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN - news) and Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO - news) have worked aggressively to make their auction offerings viable alternatives to eBay, both sites were dwarfed by the sector leader. According to the study, Yahoo! Auctions claimed a 2.4 percent share of total auction revenue, while Amazon Auctions staked a 2 percent share.
Approximately 35,000 Web users were surveyed by Nielsen//NetRatings and Harris Interactive to collect data for its latest eCommerce Pulse report.
Spreading its Wings
In addition to achieving the greatest reach among online auction sites, eBay has ramped up efforts to remain at the top of its game. Last month, the firm said it would begin enforcing a company policy banning links that lead its users to other Web sites, in an effort to cut down on the number of non-eBay sales made by buyers and sellers who find each other on eBay.
The company has also made inroads with its other offerings, including the acquisition of Half.com, which allows users to buy and sell fixed-price merchandise. The May eCommerce Pulse report data for eBay did not factor in figures for Half.com.
Earlier this month, eBay also launched its own fixed-price storefronts category.
posted on June 28, 2001 05:27:52 PM new
Those numbers are amazing, if they are true. What are people buying with this millions of dollars? Around here all we hear about is falling bids and lower sales.
I find this statement interesting:
"...almost one quarter of the site's visitors turning into purchasers."
posted on June 28, 2001 05:57:22 PM new
Something doesn't add up there...
$556 million X 64% = $355 million for eBay in the month of May???
No way...
They've been reporting around $50 million/mo revenues in their last 10-Q. I think most people would agree that auctions are "level" at best (probably declining a bit this quarter if anything).
No chance they increased 7x over March revenues. Something is wrong with their "Nielsen/Net rating" for sure.
