Whether you need to inform a strategy or convince your boss/client/career-choice-disapproving-mother that online marketing is the way to go, few things work better than cold hard numbers.

It’s with this in mind that we’re starting the Friday Fact Box. We’ll be compiling and listing all the statistics and info we can find from different industries/sectors weekly. No frills, no fuss, just those damn statistics.

This week we’re focusing on growth in online retail. Enjoy! 

From Nielsen’s Nielsen Reports 875 Million Consumers Have Shopped Online Jan 28th 2008

• 85% - the percent of the world wide online population making purchases online
• 40% - the increase in that percentage in the last 2 years
• 99% - the percentage of online South Koreans making purchases online
• 97% - the percentage of people online in Germany and Japan making purchases online
• 94% - the percentage of Americans making purchases online

Most popular online purchases over November 07 to January 08:

• 41% - books 
• 36% - clothes/accessories/shoes (up from 20% two years ago)
• 24% - video/DVD/games
• 44% - percentage of UK DVD sales online (highest worldwide)
• 38% - percentage South African DVD sales online (2nd worldwide)
• 60% - amount of online population using credit cards to make purchases
• 60% - buy from the same site repeatedly
• 1 in 4 relied on personal recommendations to choose what to purchase
• 1 in 3 used search to find the best deal

From the U.S. Census Bureau Quarterly Retail e-commerce sales 1st Quarter 2008 (US only) May 15th 2008

• $33.8 billion - retail e-commerce sales for the first quarter of 2008
• 13.4% - the increase in sales from first quarter 2007
• 3.4%  - the percentage of total retail sales made online for first Q 2008
• 0.6%-3.4% -  the rise in percentage of total retail sales (adjusted) from Q4 1999 to Q1 2008

From Internet Retailer June 2008

• B2C e-commerce grew 6 times faster than total retail sales in 2007
• The total online retail sales 2007 were $165.9 billion, an increase of 21.8% from $136.2 billion a year earlier.
• Total retail sales grew by 3.9% to $2.41 trillion from $2.32 trillion in 2006, according to the National Retail Federation.

From eMarketer May 2008 (full report for sale):

• Predicted e-commerce sales for 2008 146 billion

And for some local info:

From World Wide Works, Big Upturn for Retail on South Africa 1st October 2007

• 33% - growth in online retail sales in 2006, was expected to grow to 35% in 2007
• 6 years - the amount of time it takes people to feel secure shopping online, known as the Experience curve
• 826 - the number of South African retail sites online in 2005
• 1014 - the number of SA retail sites online in 2007