The E-Merchant Profile

Oxatis Survey 01/2009

Marc SCHILLACIOxatis Founder and Chief

Executive Officer

Objectives and Methodology

ContextIn a booming market, e-commerce is still relatively misunderstood when it comes to those playing a role in its development. A significant amount of visibility is gained through national or international corporations and through amateurs selling in online marketplaces. However, this takes the limelight off of the main players in this underdeveloped sector: only 2% of French companies sell online!It is the 2 million French SOHOs and SMBs that are taking center stage with a large number of sites, a high level of diversity and numerous commercial skills.

ObjectiveFor the second year in a row, Oxatis conducted this study to battle against some common misconceptions by unmasking the true portrait of e-commerce professionals – not the multinational corporations or amateur sellers.

ConclusionAll entrepreneurs, no matter their profile, can reap the benefits of e-commerce.Economical, efficient and simple methods are available for opening an online shop.There is a plethora of opportunities for boosting sales or creating a business activity.E-commerce is a major lever for economic development, including that of rural areas.

Methodologyconducted from 10 January to 17 January 2009by email, with 2,500 Oxatis site managers303 surveys were completed correctly, collected and analyzed

WHO IS SELLING ON THE INTERNET?

ID Card

E-merchants are not youngsters! The under-25-year-olds are under-representedA strong majority of forty-year-olds7% more women than men in the 25-34 year-old range7% less women than men in the 50-65 year-old range

More women than all company managers put together.

17% are single81% are married, PACS-ed, or cohabitating79% have children

Age M + W Men Women- 25 3% 3% 2%25 to 34 21% 18% 25%35 to 49 51% 51% 51%50 to 65 25% 28% 21%+ 65 0% 1% 0%Total 100% 59% 41%

Where E-Merchants Live

Whereas 2/3 people in France live in urban areas…53% of e-merchants live in towns with a population of less than 10,000 (32% of which live in rural areas)Only 16% live in and around Paris and cities with a population of more than 100,000.

E-commerce, an opportunity to revitalize rural areas? A lot of people are taking advantage of being able to work in pleasant surroundings without having to offer physical services or work irregular hours.

0%5%

10%15%20%25%30%35%

32%

20%29%

9% 8%

Rural area Small city - Medium-sized city Large city Paris and its population 10,000 population population Suburbs 10,000 to 100,000 > 100,000

“Pure Players” or Merchants

Is your activity exclusively online?

70% say No, 30% YesWomen are more “pure player” than men:

37% of women e-merchants devote themselves entirely to e-commerce

Whereas only 25% of men conduct all business

through their online shop

30% of pure players over-all, but32% in rural areas43 % in Paris and surrounding areas, versus 22 to 25% in urban areas.

E-commerce is an opportunity for merchants, not a threat

Education Level

Education Level M + W Men Women

> Bac +3 27% 26% 28%Bac +3 12% 9% 16%Bac/Bac +2 35% 34% 37%CAP/BEP 17% 21% 11%Not a Graduate 9% 9% 9%

E-merchants have a higher than average level of education compared with the rest of the population.E-merchants have more degrees than the average person.

76 %of e-merchants have attained a

Bac++

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

26%

9%

34%

21%

9%

28%

16%

37%

11%9%

Bac + 3 Bac +3 Bac/Bac +2 CAP/BEP Not a

Graduate

Men

Women

Number of Employees

70% don’t have employees or employ only one person.This figure climbs to 83% for pure players.

18% have 2 to 5 employees.Less than 1% have more than 5 employees.There are no significant differences between men and women.

Number of Employees0 employees 56%1 employee 14%2 to 5 employees 18%More than 6 employees 1%

70 %operate their sitealone or with only 1 employee

GETTING STARTED,GETTING ORGANISED

Buying Online

2% never buy online25% rarely buy online50% every month22% once a week

98% of those surveyed are online buyers versus 73% of Internet users.

When asked: “Do you purchase more frequently online since you’ve become an e-merchant?”33% say yes2/3 say no, they already purchased a maximum online

Motivation

What motivational factors prompted you to launch your site?57% wanted to create their own business/company (60% when it comes to women)53% wanted to increase their sales figure46% wanted to be able to operate their business 24/722% wanted to develop customer loyalty19% wanted supplement income

Did you already have a site?

51 % didn’t have a site19 % had an e-commerce site that they built on their own13 % had a personal home page or a blog16 % had a brochure site4 % had an e-commerce site created by a web agency

Only 23 % of e-merchants already had an e-commerce site, which proves market immaturity. But, 49 % already had an e-commerce site, blog or brochure site and had already had first-hand experience with the Internet channel.51 % jumped directly into e-commerce with no experience. E-commerce platforms allow them to do so with no prior technical knowledge.

51%of web merchants didn’t have a site before opening an online shop.

Visibility Tools

Using marketing tools is considered to be vital for all E-merchants.

69% work on natural search engine optimization52% use Google AdWords keyword campaigns15% use Yahoo Search Marketing7% hire an outside agency to work on their visibility

However, the concepts remain somewhat unclear, and simple procedures, such as Google Sitemaps, are little used.

The tendency to use marketing tools has little connection with the person’s education level.

52% use AdWords, 55% of non-graduates or those with a CAP-BEP use marketing tools

Blogs

40% read blogs15% have a blog

80% of the time, the blog is related to their e-commerce.

Women…Read blogs more than men (46%/36%)Write blogs more than men (19%/12%)

The younger the e-merchant, the more they blog!

Social Networks

• 50% use social networks.– Women more than men (54%/47%)– Young people more than their older

counterparts

• Networks Used– 29% Copains d’avant– 28% Facebook– 14% Viadeo– 7% other platforms

SATISFACTION REPORT

Time it took to create your site*

20% took less than 15 days48% less than a month70% took less than 2 months to create their site

Women take a little longer to create their sites: 51% of men took less than a month to create their site versus 43% of women.

You might deduce that they are more at ease with the process, but the questions asked through Oxatis technical support allow us to conclude that they are less demanding.

*from the 90% of sites used in the study that created their site themselves

What do you like about e-commerce ?

Both Men Women

Flexible hours 62% 59% 67%Working at home 59% 57% 62%Being my own boss 53% 48% 60%Earning a substantial income 33% 35% 30%Making a living doing what I love 31% 31% 31%

67 %of e-merchantsvalue flexible hoursmore than anything else

Percentage of Business Activity Online

When asked: “If you have a bricks and mortar shop, what percentage of sales do you do online?”

26% of e-merchants do less than 10% of their sales online.More than half of online sellers make more than 15% of their sales figure online. For 16% of them, e-commerce is their principal activity (more than 50%)

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30%

Online Sales / Total Sales 1% to 5% 26%5% to 10% 17%10% to 15% 10%15% to 20% 6%20% to 30% 12%30% to 50% 13%More than 50% 16%

100%

More than 50%

30% to 50%

20% to 30%

15% to 20%

10% to 15%

5% to 10%

1% to 5%

Online Sales / Total Sales

Rise in Sales

When asked: “How have sales progressed in the last 6 months?”

13% of those surveyed had more than a 50% increase in sales! 40% had sales increase by more than 20%.62% of e-merchants had more than a 10% rise in their sales.

Only 17% had no rise in their sales figure.

Increase in sales figure over thelast 6 months 0% 17%1 to 5% 9%5% to 10% 13%10% to 15% 12%15% to 20% 10%20% to 30% 12%30% to 50% 15%More than 50% 13%

62%of e-merchants had more than a

10% increase in sales in the last

six months.

ConclusionThis study, based on 5,000 Oxatis merchant sites, has revealed and specified the TRUE e-merchant profile:

They are not online superstores, They are not amateurs selling products in online marketplaces, They are not 25-year old fanatics, They ARE mature, professional merchants, a large proportion being women, They are all trying to choose ideal work conditions.

We were also able to determine that e-commerce:Strengthens bricks and mortar businesses Is a factor helping to revitalize rural areas.

Lastly, we were able to understand that supplying e-commerce website creation platforms provides everyone with a real chance to start up their business

for a moderate investment,with rapid success, and no matter what the e-merchant’s education level is.

E-commerce is an opportunity for France, and we’ll take advantage of it by informing, helping and encouraging the 98% of SoHos and SMBs that aren’t yet selling online.