Im not totally sure what's going on "accross the pond", but things are seriously begining to go wrong here in the UK: *Lowest number of house sales/month in 30 years *Falling house prices has eroded away much of the past years gains. *Consumer Spending is low *Fuel and food prices are soaring (We are now paying £1.20+/litre of unleaded petrol and energy costs are expected to rise 40% by xmas!! ) *Inflation is predicted to hit 4% later this year. *Interest rates are rising- making personal and corporate investment fall. SO, the big question how will this affect the online world. You would think with falling consumer confidence, combined with less investment in corporations ( to spend on advertising budgets etc) we are going to see a sharp fall in the amount of advertising dollars floating around. Your thoughts Please...
In general, I do not see ecommerce business doing anything but following the overall economy. However, that is pretty meaningless to you or me, individually. If you are in a hot business, online or offline, you will continue to do fine, just as is the case in all economic downturns. Likewise, if you are a strong marketer, you will likely do well no matter what the business is. General trends in the economy only hurt you if you allow yourself to be captive to them.
I think it will have different affects depending on your niche. If, for example, you are in the new motorhome sales niche you are seriously hurting for traffic right now. One advantage of online business versus offline is the ability to adapt quickly and at relatively low cost.
Good point, i suspose its the same offline,supermarkets like asda/wallmart are going to suffer far less than car manufacturers like Honda/BMW. I still believe there will be an overall fall in revenues though, as every industry will in some way be affected by the credit crunch.
This is the most ridiculous poll I have seen in months. "Yes, I do believe the credit crunch will lower my sales approximately 15.7% over the coming 2 months. Exactly 8.1% of this will be caused by the poor performance of the US housing market. Furthermore, my earnings will drop by 3.9% because of the higher price of gasoline in America"