10 interesting digital marketing stats we've seen this week

10 interesting digital marketing stats we've seen this week:

from Posts from the Econsultancy blog by David Moth

Here are some of the most interesting digital marketing stats we've seen this week.
Stats include ecommerce in the Middle East, multiscreening, online spending in China, email marketing, mobile in emerging markets and digital budgets in APAC.
For more digital marketing stats, check out our Internet Statistics Compendium.

Ecommerce's popularity in the Middle East

• The updated version of our Internet Statistics Compendium includes new data looking at ecommerce in the UAE, Kuwait, KSA, Lebanon and Egypt.
• While the actual purchase of items is seemingly low in markets where penetration is highest, making bookings online (for things like airline tickets) are proving popular in the UAE and Kuwait, and the popularity of e-banking throughout these countries signals increasing trust with money-handling online and ample opportunity for growth.
• Currently, clothing is the most popular product bought online in the UAE (24%), Kuwait (63%), KSA (14%), Lebanon (38%) and Egypt (69%).

• Marketplace-style sites, including Amazon and Alibaba are popular with consumers on the look-out for the latest bargains in fashion and other popular products.

Multiscreening in the home

• New data from Kantar Media’s syndicated study, futurePROOF, reveals that nearly one-quarter of the British population (23%) has access to four screens at home (TV, computer, smartphone and tablet) compared to only 11% six months ago.
• Seven in ten of those with access to a tablet said these devices are shared by two or more adults in the household and 79% of tablet users with children said their offspring also use them.
• Just 7% of those with a tablet at home say they use it out-of-home on a daily basis, compared with 49% who claim to use the device at home every day.
• In contrast, smartphones are used when on the go. 53% of smartphone users claim to have used their device to search for information on a product or service whilst in-store, compared with only 26% of tablet users.

Chinese spending boom

• Chinese shoppers spent 352 billion Yuan online in Q1 2013, a 17% decline from the same period in 2012, according to iResearch Consulting Group.
• However annual sales in 2013 are still expected to exceed those in 2012 at a total of 1.85tr Yuan and Q2 sales could reach 425 million Yuan.

Just 14% of businesses say their CMS gives a complete view of engagement across channels

• Two of the major digital trends of 2013 have been content and inbound marketing, both of which rely to an extent on having an effective content management system (CMS).
• New research from Econsultancy and Adobe shows that although organisations are very aware that their ability to implement an effective content strategy is tied to the integration of their CMS with the other technologies, the promise of the technology far outstrips their current reality.
• The data shows that 94% of businesses believe that it’s “quite” or “very important” to tie content management together with the ability to measure its performance on site (i.e. web / mobile analytics).
• Digital asset management (91%) and personalisation (88%) are also seen as key areas that need to be integrated with the business’ CMS.
• But despite these results, only 14% of responding businesses say that their “CMS enables them to have a complete view of engagement across all channels.”

How important is seamless integration of CMS with the following types of digital marketing platforms or technology?

Australia's tech startup ecosystem worth more than $100bn

• Google and PricewaterhouseCoopers are predicting that Australian tech businesses will be worth $109 billion by 2023, employing 500,000 people and contributing as much to the Australian economy as the retail and education sectors.
• The new report, Startup Economy, examines the current state of Australia’s technology sector and looks at how this can be nourished to build a strong tech industry for the country, an area that's increasingly under scrutiny due to the positive effects it can bring.
• The technology sector in Australia currently accounts for 0.01% of the national economy and employs 9,500 people.
• There are around 500 tech startups, 64% in Sydney and 24% in Melbourne, putting the country ahead of both Israel and the UK when it comes to the preferred location to launch a technology-based business. 

More than half of businesses achieve 10% of sales through email marketing

• The new Econsultancy/Adestra Email Marketing Census highlights the importance of email as a sales channel, as just over half (55%) of all company respondents could attribute more than 10% of their total sales to the email marketing channel, with 18% of respondents stating that email accounted for over 30%.

Approximately what proportion of your total sales can you attribute to the email marketing channel?

• The survey also asked respondents how much their businesses are spending on email marketing each year.
• Just under two-thirds of companies (62%) are spending more than £5,000 per year on email marketing. This is exactly the same figure as in 2012, representing a significant drop from the figures of 75% and 70% in 2011 and 2010 respectively.
• A further 30% of companies are spending at least £25,000 annually, although this has also been declining since 2011. The proportion of respondents spending more than £100,000 on email marketing has declined by 4% from 14% in 2012 to 10% in 2013.

Attitudes to mobile in emerging markets

• A consumer survey carried out in Brazil, India, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia by Upstream found that mobile use surpassed the time spent on laptops (29%), tablets (7%) or desktop PCs (17%).
• Samsung is the brand of choice over the four emerging markets polled (32%). Nokia came in second place (22%) and Apple in third (21%) – a very different story to the UK/US with Apple being the frontrunner (32%).
• 60% of consumers surveyed are prepared to spend up to $5 a month on mobile applications, while in Brazil, 14% of consumers would pay $10 or above.
• 70% of consumers would like access to social networks, 60% want access to news, 54% entertainment and 56% photo/video applications.

UK tech jobs

• Research from Adzuna shows that tech hubs around the UK, including London’s Tech City, are hiring for 3,229 positions, up 22% since 2012.
• London leads the startup job market with 34% of all current open positions found in the UK, followed by Cambridge with 27%, Brighton with 11% and Bristol 8%.
• The figures also revealed which sectors of the tech startup market are experiencing growth and an increased need for talented employees. Software as a service (SaaS) came in top with 15% of the total demand, followed by travel and holiday, retail and ecommerce and music with 11% each.
• Developers are in hot demand with 1,122 jobs currently on offer, with marketing roles second at 924 and product at 759.
• In comparison to the wider UK tech market, startups are eager for ruby developers with 14% of startups hiring, compared to just 2% across the broader tech industry.

Business apps are going mobile according to CIOs

• A survey by Vanson Bourne of more than 590 global CIOs has found that while CIOs are predicting a 50% increase in the number of business apps moving to mobile in the next three years, their mobile app development teams are struggling to deliver the goods.
• CIOs describe their teams as sluggish, middling or outpaced and it’s taking an average of five months to deliver new versions of mobile applications for existing mobile device updates.
• The research also uncovered that CIOs made a clear choice to back Android as their mobile operating system, with 78% of organisations developing their mobile apps for this system today. Apple iOS came second, with 65% developing for it, and Windows Phone third at 52%.

APAC invests in digital

• Chief marketing officers in the Asia Pacific region are increasing their digital budgets and most (84%) are confident that they are well-prepared to meet their marketing objectives with the right people, tools and resources. 
• The CMO Insights Survey interviewed senior executives across ten APAC countries and found that 41% of Asian CMOs allocate a quarter of their budget to digital versus the global figure of 47%.