2009 Cost Of eBusiness Operations And Customer Acquisition

There's good news and bad news for eBusiness executives. A recent survey of our eBusiness And Channel Strategy Professional Research Panel found that online budgets will increase this year. While spending varies by industry, we found that, like last year, costs of goods eat up most of the average eBusiness team's budget, followed by marketing and advertising. Here's the bad news: Increased attention and budget for the channel has meant rising costs, as well. We found that while eBusiness executives still spend significantly less to acquire a customer online than other channel counterparts, the costs of acquiring customers online is rising: Online acquisition costs total half of store acquisition costs, an increase from one-third of the cost that was reported a year ago. This situation will require that eBusiness executives focus on better satisfying and serving existing customers and understanding the engagement of those customers with their companies in the remainder of 2009.