American E-retailing Has Invaded Europe

Four of the top 20 e-retailers in Europe are American companies—Amazon, Staples, Apple and Dell. All told, American companies control an amazing 27% of the European e-commerce market. More important,according to Internet Retailer, American companies grew their online e-retail business in Europe last year by 25%, compared to just 14% for Europe-based e-retailers.

Internet Retailer identifies the following factors for American e-retailers success:

• Unlike European e-retailers American e-retailers do not constrain their e-commerce operations to any one country


• Us e-retailers are building warehouses throughout the Continent to serve the entire common market


• Americans e-retailers are not retail chains managed by executives who have spent their careers running brick and mortar stores


• Big store chains dominate e-retailing in Europe, accounting for 43% of all e-commerce sales in 2010, with web-only merchants, catalogers and manufacturers accounting for the rest


• American e-retailers are not dabbling in e-retailing as European retail chains often do and they are using the same e-commerce technologies that work well in America


• While American e-retailers sites “speak” multiple languages, they are based on a single brand

Given all this, it is no surprise that Amazon is the #1 e-retailer in Europe. Contrast this with Europe's presence in the US e-retailing market. According to Internet Retailer, European companies own only 11 of the 500 leading retail web sites ranked and profiled in their Top 500 e-retailer Guide. Together, these e-retailers account for a diminutive 1.6% of the total e-retail sales recorded by the 500 largest e-retailers in the U.S. last year. And that share is shrinking: Europe’s e-retailers last year only grew their U.S. retail web sales by just 12%, compared to the 18% growth rate registered by the American companies ranked in the Top 500 Guide.

European e-retailers are not letting this invasion go unchallenged and are beginnning to adopt the American e-retailing model. However, it will take 2-3 years of dogged effort for them to catch up and turn around the American e-retailing onslaught.

It’s the Same Online; Girls (and Boys) Just Want to Have Fun

We're more likely to spend money when we're having fun and don’t notice the price quite as much- just ask casinos. There is a trend toward merging e-commerce and entertainment that is increasing sales and helping brands stand out.

Some consumer experts note that we are moving from a consumer economy to an experience economy. People would rather spend money on experiences than acquiring material goods. Marketers and e-commerce retailers are, therefore, looking at ways to provide experiences and at the same time sell products. The earliest example of this merger are home shopping channels that have demonstrated the power of live shows and interaction with consumers in selling products. Now, e-commerce businesses are seeking ways to replicate that experience online. Examples of this include:

• Hosting live shows that feature experts, sellers, producers, and influencers. Natural products retailer Abe's Market, has been hosting live shows intended to entertain and inform, and also to create a sense of loyalty and excitement among consumers. These live shows promote sellers such as soap company Chivas, telling the story of the mother-daughter team behind the company's handmade goat milk soap, the process of making the soap, and the farm where they live.
• “View and click to buy” is a technology driven strategy which is based on the old-standby product placement. With “view and click to buy” a star in a music video might be wearing sunglasses that a consumer can click on and buy in an instant. This has the added fun dimensions of  relating to being a rock star and instant gratification. The applications for this technology is endless with particular application to information or how-to videos where the required tools or products are purchased and delivered with simply a click. Imagine watching a cooking show and immediately ordering all the ingredients and cooking utensils for home delivery. The experience factor becomes even richer when the purchase is then shared on social media sites- friends can now know about ones latest interest, or impulse buy.
• The power of storytelling and minor-celebrities are used to move consumers to buy. The internet enables more in-depth information, inexpensive videos, and the use of local minor celebrities. In the past marketers would use major national stars to pitch products and influence consumers. Now local, more accessible, “minor-celebrities” can be engaged using videos and live shows. These minor-celebrities living in the community are far more accessible and provide a “like me” connection which influences buying choices. The cost of these minor-celebrities enable e-commerce sites to produce content which engages site visitors on a more extended basis.
• People love to earn points and get recognition. E-commerce sites are beginning to reward frequent visitors and more engaged consumers with special recognition including points, special status, and discounts. For example, BuddyBuddyBuddy gives “BuddyBucks” for every friend that purchases the same item as you do three levels out. So, if a friend of a friend of a friend purchases the same product, you get “BuddyBucks”. According to BuddyBuddyBuddy, the average buyer has the potential of two million friends buying the product. The fun is purchasing a product, watching how “viral” it goes, and getting rewarded for each person that buys the product. Now once you have bought the product the interaction does not stop there, it goes on and on.

Jaded consumers are no longer willing to believe advertisers and celebrities that may seem to have integrity today and major personality flaws and marital infidelity tomorrow. In your face advertising and marketing is beginning to shift to informational content and interactions that entertains, informs, engages, and creates loyalty. The degree of entertainment and engagement is measured by how much of the content is shared and ultimately the sales figures. Today’s consumer wants to be entertained and have fun as they are purchasing or being sold on a product or service. E-commerce sites are beginning to up the entertainment and fun factor blurring the boundaries between shopping and experiences. The thinking is- “after all we all could use a little more fun in our lives.”

What is Groupon Up To and Why Should You Care?

Groupon, the daily deals giant, currently employs some 10,000 people all over the globe and has revenues of $878 million(and lost roughly $205 million in the first half of the year). Last week, Groupon registered a gaggle of domain names with ‘groupongoods’ in them (.com, .net, .us, .info, .biz and interestingly, .fr). What's up with that?

Techcrunch is spitballing that Groupon may be planning to use these domains to debut a service by the name ‘Groupon Goods’. Techcrunch wonders if Groupon will start directing its vast sales forces, which are located all around the world, to start focusing on opportunities other than restaurants, spas, massages and pilates classes.

One possible strategy is to establish partnerships with companies like Alice.com (who has recently partnered with a French company to bring Alice.com to France -thus the .fr), Drugstore.com, Pets.com, Overstock.com or Newegg.com and branch out into selling discounted groceries, households items, consumer electronics and so on.

Techcrunch postulates, "Groupon could apply its successful ‘local commerce’ model and leverage its enormous international subscriber base (circa 120 million subscribers and counting) to venture into offering deals for groceries, household items and other goods regularly purchased online." This would be a way for Groupon to diversify its revenue streams and accelerate sales growth as the company prepares to go public, without necessarily adding a lot of overhead costs (especially if they go for partnerships rather than building such a service in-house). Groupon has been scrutinized for its large sales force and its high cost of customer acquisition. This would be a way to leverage its existing sales operation in a new market with the added benefit of holding its vast number of competitors at bay.

Techcrunch n otes that Groupon has made similar moves partnering with juggernauts Expedia and Livenation to offer online deals on travel (Groupon Getaways) and event tickets (GrouponLive), respectively.

Is it possible that ‘Groupon Goods’ could potentially be a challenger to Amazon, which is not only known for its Amazon.com ecommerce business but also for its grocery shopping site Amazon Fresh and (acquired) niche online stores such as Diapers.com, Soap.com, Wag.com and Zappos.com?

This is an unfolding story to which CPG etailers and manufactures should pay close attention. If Groupon is building a strategy to challenge Amazon in the online sales of CPG, online sales will grow rapidly and manufacturers need to position themselves to ride the wave- or is it a Tsunami?

Not All CPG E-Shoppers Are the Same; Do You Know the Difference?

Ecommerce is the fastest growing channel for consumer packaged goods companies and there is an urgency for consumer packaged goods companies to develop sales and marketing strategies to address this rapidly expanding E-Commerce market- or risk losing share and relevance. To maintain share and relevance, CPG companies need to understand their consumers and position their online offerings and strategies accordingly. A new online world with emerging consumer groups and consumer behaviors requires marketing insights. A new study of 21 etailers by E-tailing Solutions and Catapult Marketing provides interesting and valuable insights (full disclosure- this blog is produced and supported by E-tailing Solutions).


The study found the following:

• Younger consumers (under 34) buy across a wider variety of etailers (19 out of 21 etailers studied). Consumers over 35 shopped at half as many eatilers (6 out of 21).
• Across the 21 retailers questioned in the study, households with children were likely to shop at 20 of them, while childfree homes tended to stick to Amazon.com, Drugstore.com, Staples.com, Walmart.com and CVS.com.
• Millenials use online shopping as a typical shopping strategy and they usually use the web as a way of learning about products in addition to purchasing products.
• High-income consumers, earning over $100,000, are among the most active online shoppers.They shop online for the superior selection and the convenience of home delivery.
• Families are shopping online for many consumer packaged goods categories, and they are shopping across retailers at a much greater rate compared to households with no children.
• Key categories for households with children include office/school supplies (50%), facial care (48%), hair care (47%), household cleaning supplies (37%), and oral care (34%), while 26% purchased baby care and 15% purchased baby food.
• Amazon is a key destination retailer for both households with and without children; nearly 60% of shoppers without children shop Amazon, while 69% of households with children shop there.
• Vitamins are one of the most popular consumer packaged goods products purchased online. Other categories with high penetration include body care, hair care, facial care, office supplies, pet food, and teas and coffees.
• There are some categories that have lower penetration but are shopped with very high frequency. Categories that have loyal, high frequency consumers include: wholesome bars (such as protein bars and granola bars), ready-to-drink beverages, powdered beverage mixes, meat/seafood, crackers, and teas and coffees (a category showing high penetration and frequency).
• While Amazon dominates several categories, there are opportunities for other etailers to build their presence as a destination for categories ranging from everyday household goods (cleaning supplies and laundry products), to fresh foods, and to center-of-store grocery staples. Among value shoppers, Walmart.com ranked high especially for grocery items like beverages and snacks. Target.com was a popular destination for new moms who found it to be a great place to shop for baby.

The E-tailing/Catapult Marketing study suggests that in order for CPG brands to establish their etailer presence they need to understand the following:

• How are shoppers buying brands online today and how will that change in the short and long term
• Who are the key retail partners who are selling to the target consumer group
• How can CPG brands partner with etailers to drive traffic and conversion
• What are the key dynamics influencing online shopping and purchasing behaviors
• How CPG Brands Can Get in Charge of Their Online Selling Space

In conclusion, the study states that establishing a baseline and understanding the landscape is the first step that a company can take towards getting in charge of their online-selling space.

To learn more about this study and find out how E-tailing Solutions can help CPG brands establish or improve their online strategy contact:
Angela Edwards director, consulting services, etailing solutions. She can be reached at angelaedwards@etailing-solutions.com

Category Management in the Online World

“Category management is a process that involves managing product categories as business units and customizing them [on a store by store basis] to satisfy customer needs.” (Nielsen – 1992). When Nielsen penned this definition in 1992 they were ahead of the capabilities of the time. Store-by-store customization was beyond the organizational and supply chain capabilities of both manufacturers and retailers. As with many other retail challenges, the internet is enabling a transformation in category management including greater levels of store level customization, let’s examine how.

Bob Wong, Director of Category Leadership at Del Monte Foods identifies mistakes category leaders make in brick and mortar stores. Those mistakes are listed below with connections drawn to challenges in the online world.

• Forgetting to put things in context. One example is forgetting to account for adjacent categories in the aisle.
  - Online stores are laid out in categories however, moving from one category to another is only a matter of a mouse click and online stores tend to place products in multiple often disparate categories. For example, a disinfectant wipe will listed in health and personal care, electronics, office products and baby care. This makes locating a product easier but more confusing in terms of branding and applications. Online category management requires mapping out a logical and rational product placement schema so customers are clear about a product’s promise and applications. For example, will a consumer purchase a disinfectant wipe to clean their bathroom if it is listed under baby care?
• Not putting yourself in the other person’s shoes. Several examples include looking at things through “our” lens; failing to anticipate their concerns; writing the script according to “our” logic, not theirs. Tip: Find out what’s important to your customer.
  - Product reviews are the ligua franca of customer insights, logic and concerns. Reviews not only inform category management but they also inform other customers. In the online world, customer reviews is a central component of category management.
• Leaving out the “so what?” Data and facts are not ‘insights.” Tip: Look for a triple win for the retailer, manufacturer and shopper.
  - Creating a win-win-win is as important in the online world as the offline world. However, in the online world category management becomes increasingly complicated with additional factors such as thousands of small “affiliate” retailers, proper product listings (planogramming), and delivery as part of customer satisfaction. These additional factors need to be analyzed and included in category management practices.
• Overlooking what you already have. For example, forgetting to leverage data you already have. Tip: maximize existing resources.
  - Online retailing has created more, larger, and more diverse data sources. This has become a challenge for category management that was barely staying ahead of store data. Now category managers have to understand an entirely new path to purchase which includes social media sites and how customers move through online stores. Also, it does not work to simply transfer customer patterns from brick and mortar to e-commerce- it just does not transfer. Good category management requires developing unique insights that come from mining and linking disparate data sources.
• Not recommending practical solutions. Don’t ask: How long before I see a return? Is it worth it? Tip: Do a reality check; for example, how would it be implemented?
  - Implementing and measuring online category management is in its infancy. Methods, measurements, placements, messaging is all being developed and refined on a daily basis. Many manufactures are still struggling to get it correct offline after many years of trial and effort. The online world is so fluid and flexible, implementing effective category management will take innovation and creativity as well as new and yet undefined measurements of success.
• Not getting everyone on the same page. We live in a world of silos. Marketing and sales don’t all agree. Tip: Help others understand how category management can help align objectives and goals.
  - Although the ultimate goal of online and offline category management remains the same, online category management requires new perspectives, new definitions, and new success metrics. This requires aligning marketing and sales around online category management strategies which may be foreign to both marketing and sales organizations. This is both a challenge and an opportunity- challenging because it is new and an opportunity because there is a blank piece of paper to work off of.
• Forgetting the shopper’s perspective. We need to see the shopper’s perspective. Understand the pain points and expectations. Tip: Invest in shopper understanding via loyalty data.
  -Once again, the all important shopper’s perspective is unveiled online through reviews, Facebook Follows/Likes, Google+1, etc. Online category management needs to incorporate these channels into traditional channel management activities as well as Shopper Insights.

A 2011 Category Leadership Study by Kantar Retail concluded “category management needs manufacturer leadership and shopper insights to evolve into a worthwhile process for retailers.” Their conclusion is that current category management is more tactical than strategic and category management requires links that result in real growth solutions and more holistic plans to address joint manufacturer and retailer business issues across the Path-to-Purchase.

The ultimate goal of category management to help manage similar sets of products or categories better with the end goal of driving profitable growth at retail and greater collaboration between trading partners remains a noble and necessary goal. E-commerce presents new challenges, a greater order of complexity and is layered on the older barriers of retailer/manufacturer lack of leadership. As e-commerce expands, manufacturers and e-tailers that get category management right will emerge as the best-of-breed organizations.

The Zagat of CPG?

According to Consmr “Consmr is the fun and easy way to share your opinion on consumer packaged goods. It was founded to help people share and discover great products ranging from frozen foods to skin care to household goods. We encourage a social community where users can share their opinions on Facebook and Twitter and “check in” to share their active usage of products.”

Consmr is an attempt to help consumers manage the often overwhelming abundance of choice they confront both in the supermarket and online. This “tyranny of choice” often becomes overwhelming and consumers typically resort to making a choice based on appearance, brand familiarity, a quick read of the product’s label, or something they read somewhere once and faintly remember. Really, do consumers know the difference between Scope and Listerine, other than one is “sexier” than the other and supposedly better for kissing.

Just how extensive is the choice confronting consumers? A quick search for mouthwash on drugstore.com returns 81 results and on Amazon 1250. How are consumers to cope with 1250 mouthwash choices or even 81? Our free market capitalist society believes competition is good and this writer agrees, but if we’re going to have this level of choice, we need a better way of making an informed choice than eeny, meeny,miny, mo.

Overwhelming choice is the shopper’s dilemma Consmr is attempting to remedy. As an internet startup, Consmr faces a difficult path to profitability and survivability however, Consmr is interesting for the following reasons:

• They are attempting to bring customer generated reviews to CPG which is a far larger and more diverse market than electronics, movies, books, restaurants, and the other categories which have dedicated consolidated review sites.
• They have identified that consumers are willing to spend time writing reviews for CPG products. One would expect consumers to write electronics reviews, book reviews, movie reviews, and restaurant reviews. Consumers interact at length with these products and services and they tend to form emotional ties which lead to strong opinions worth writing about. But mouthwash, toilet bowl cleaners, stain fighters, sexual health products- who knew consumers have strong emotions for these products and are willing to dedicate the time to write reviews for these products.
• Consmr is depending on social interaction and “gamification’ to motivate consumers to write reviews. Consmr will be offering Foursquare type badges for reviewers and the top reviewers will become prominantly displayed category leaders. Reviewers will also be able to amass followers which has the potential of influencing large numbers of consumers to buy Scope instead of Listerine. Lots of “prestige” , an unknown amount of influence, and no compensation.
• Consmr is entirely amateur based. Movies have expert reviewers as does books, restaurants, electronics, appliances, art, etc. There are no expert toothpaste reviewers, with the possible exception of consumers reports. Consmr is hoping to motivated large numbers of everyday consumers to write reviews which will impact other consumers’ choices. This is an emerging trend on the internet where people turn to first the people they know and then strangers to get help making purchasing decisions.
• Consmr is an indication of the emerging presence of CPG e-tailing. Traditionally, consumers walked into their local grocery store and bought their regular brand, which is always in the same location, with little thought. Now with the increased exposure to new and different brands and the convenience of shopping online, consumers are considering a wider range of possibilities based on cost, reviews, and exposure to new products.

As mentioned above, Consmr has a long road to profitability with a lot of challenges. One of the big challenges is to amass reviews of enough products to be a valuable resource. However,there are at least two factor in Consmr’s favor. First is Consmr Founder and CEO Ryan Charles left his full-time job at Zagat (where he was the head of mobile and was responsible for its partnerships with Foodspotting and Foursquare) to pursue his new startup. Second,they have forged a partnership with Gary Vaynerchuk, the popular author, business guru, and “sommelier of social media”. Veynerchuk told TechCrunch. “I’m thrilled to speculate at times with new platforms and Consmr hit my radar as something that was worth trying”. Vaynerchuk’s partnership is a strong endorsement which is bound to make that all-important first round of investment easier to land.

Here is a question to contemplate, if Consmr becomes influential, how will this impact CPG manufacturers’ traditional marketing and advertising strategies?

Another Mashop Species Located in the WWW (Wild Wild Web)

Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group defined Mashops as “Virtual Shopping in Physical Stores”. A mashop combines web-like and in-store shopping experiences and gets their name because they "mash up" the virtual and physical worlds to create a new way to shop. Turns out that Cisco's definition is a little limited.

Quidsi (parent company Amazon.com)-owned BeautyBar.com is mashoping with Allure to provide e-commerce on Allure.com, the online arm of Conde Nast's Allure magazine. The mashop will allow users to buy health and beauty products featured in articles and reviews throughout the site through BeautyBar.com rather than linking to manufacturer sites.

The Mashop will have the following convenience and etailing functions:

* Pricing information and a "buy it now" button will appear on product pages that come up when users click on branded items mentioned within articles.
* In a tabbed format, product pages will include basic information, including what it does, key ingredients, and why it is recommended.
* All products on Allure's site will be researched and tested by its editors and vetted by the magazine's expert panel of cosmetic chemists, dermatologists, makeup artists and hairstylists.
* Users can save products to a favorites list or click the "buy' button to begin filling a shopping cart that will follow them through the site.
* At checkout, customers will be taken to a co-branded page on BeautyBar.com, which sells high-end brands including Bliss, Philosophy and Dermalogica.
* Beauty-Bar.com will offer mass-market beauty products through its Soap.com sister site.
* If not already registered on BeautyBar.com, Allure.com, visitors have to do so before making a purchase.
* The site promises all products will arrive in one or two days, with same-day delivery for New York City orders and free shipping on all orders over $39.
* The new e-commerce component will be accompanied by a refreshed design for Allure.com, which says it averages 21 million page views and 1.2 million unique visitors per month.

Quidsi's mashop with Allure provides a seamless integration of editorial content, product information and vetting, etailing convenience, and home delivery of Consumer Package Goods. Now Allure readers can shop from the friendly confines of Allure Magazine without having to leave the pages of the magazine or their houses. One wonders where the next mashop species is hiding!

A Taxing Question

Online shopping is about to get more expensive. Currently, Americans who shop over the Internet from out-of-state vendors aren't always required to pay sales taxes at the time of purchase. For the past seven years, online sellers have argued successfully that bizarre distinctions between definitions of taxable and non-taxable items as well as the existence of more than 7,000 different tax agencies is why online sales should not be taxed. Pro-tax officials and state governments have been pressing Congress to enact online taxes arguing that reduced sales tax revenue threatens budgets for schools and police, and say that, as a matter of fairness, online retailers should be forced to collect the same taxes that brick and mortar retailers do. If online retailers were, like their land-locked colleagues, required to collect the taxes at time of purchase, tax collectors would unlock a virtual flood of cash to support strapped state finances. According to an estimated by University of Tennessee researchers in a 2009 report, state and local governments this year will lose $10.1 billion to $11.3 billion in sales taxes not collected by Web retailers. Taxes are coming to the Internet!

As of July 1, 2011 California enacted a state law that requires large out-of-state retailers to collect sales taxes on purchases that their California customers make on the Internet. "Getting the taxes, which consumers typically don't pay to the state if online merchants don't charge them, is "a common-sense idea," said Gov. Jerry Brown, who signed the legislation into law. The new tax collection requirement is expected to raise an estimated $317 million a year in new state and local government revenue.

However, there is another law which also came into effect in California, the law of unitended consequences. The new California tax law applies only to online sellers based out of state that have some connection to California, such as workers, warehouses or offices there. So, in response to the new law, both Amazon in Seattle and Overstock in Salt Lake City have told affiliates that they would have to move to another state if they wanted to continue earning commissions for referring customers. As an unintended consequence, many of approximately 25,000 affiliates in California, especially larger ones with dozens of employees, are likely to leave the state, said Rebecca Madigan, executive director of trade group Performance Marketing Assn. According to Madigan, the affiliates combined paid $152 million in state income taxes last year.

California is the seventh and largest state in the country to pass a law to collect taxes on out-of-state Internet sales. Illinois, Arkansas and Connecticut acted earlier this year, North Carolina and Rhode Island in 2009 and New York in 2008. Amazon sued to overturn the New York law and lost in the lower courts. The company is paying sales taxes into an escrow account pending an appeal.

Taxing internet sales is bad news for online sellers, who’ll lose a 5 percent to 10 percent pricing edge over their brick-bound competitors, which helps to offset shipping costs, and it’s good news for conventional retailers, who won’t be hampered by that pricing burden. As you might expect, Amazon is leading the fight against collecting taxes using all strategies at their disposal including declaring the law unconstitutional and counterproductive and collecting signatures on a petition to overturn the California law. Credit Suisse recently estimated that if Amazon were forced to collect sales taxes in all states, it would lose as much as $653 million in sales this year, or 1.4% out of an estimated $45.5 billion in revenue. Amazon's Mr. Bezos has said he established the company in Washington partly because it has a tech-savvy but relatively small population, so state taxes wouldn't affect many potential customers.

Online auction giant EBay Inc. is taking yet another anti tax approach claiming it would "harm small Internet retailers" that sell products using the EBay website. "Forcing small businesses to take on the same costs and tax burdens as national retail businesses is unrealistic, unfair and will unbalance the playing field between giant retailers and small business retailers on the Internet," said Brian Bieron, EBay's senior director of federal government relations and global public policy.

States have responded with the Main Street Fairness Act, which would require states to sign a Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement before they could require retailers to collect the Internet sales tax. That agreement, signed by 24 states so far, would create a uniform national standard for collecting state and local sales taxes. Such simplification is aimed at satisfying the Supreme Court's concern that requiring Internet sellers to collect sales taxes is a burden that unconstitutionally interferes with interstate commerce.

Even as Amazon and other mega online retailers try to hold back the oncoming flood of online taxes, the desperate need for additional state revenue appears to be too much for the etailers to overcome. The next question is how the taxes will impact ecommerce sales.

Price of Gas Drives Shoppers Online

There are a number of factors driving the dramatic growth of e-commerce including broadband penetration, convenience, mobile, value, ease of use, improved marketing, social media and so on. One, perhaps less obvious driver, is the cost of gas. Recent research has identified the cost of gas as a prime motivator for people staying home and shopping online.

According to a survey conducted exclusively for Internet Retailer by Synovate, a global market research firm, more than 28% of U.S. consumers say they are shopping online more because of rising gas costs. National average gasoline prices have jumped $1.07 per gallon in the last year to an average of $3.703 Regular and $3.953 Premium, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Synovate's survey of 1000 US Adults found:
* 28.2% said recent rise in gas costs had led them to do more shopping online rather than travel to stores.
* Consumers in the Northeast and Midwest stated they did more shopping online (each at 31.5%) while fewer consumers in the South (26.8%) and West (24.5%) answered the same. These numbers reflected the price of gas in the area with the price of gas varying between $3.70 and $4.14 per gallon.
* 35.1% of consumers living in areas with a population density—defined as the total population of a defined metropolitan area and its adjacent counties—of 50,000 to 100,000 said they were shopping more online because of higher gas costs.
* Fewer shoppers but still significant in numbers, 26.3%, living in extremely rural areas said they were shopping more online because of higher gas costs.

The impact of high gas prices may have shown up in e-retail sales as early as April where online retail sales were up 19.2% year over year. Michael McNamara, vice president, research and analysis for MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse, says higher gas prices will likely boost online sales. “We can expect consumers to make fewer shopping trips, especially on weekends, and this may contribute to an ever stronger growth for e-commerce,” he says.

The price of a gallon of gas tend to fluctuate at the pump and drivers focus on the cost of a purchased gallon of gas. However the true price of a gallon of gas is hidden from drivers and is dramatically higher. According to the International Center for Technology Assessment, the true cost of gas includes:

* Tax Subsidization of the Oil Industry
* Government Program Subsidies
* Protection Costs Involved in Oil Shipment and Motor Vehicle Services
* Environmental, Health,and Social Costs of Gasoline Usage
* Other Important Externalities of Motor Vehicle Use

Together, these external costs total $558.7 billion to $1.69 trillion per year, which, when added to the retail price of gasoline, results in a per gallon price of closer to $15.14. If consumers knew the true price of a gallon of gas is five times what they are paying at the pump, how many more would be parking their cars and shopping online?