Online sales houses are experiencing an unprecedented seasonal boom
as advertisers gear up for Christmas - and they are predicting a
soaraway 2000.
Some sales houses report that they are running out of inventory because
demand for e-space is so high.
Peter Wilson, sales manager at TSMSi, said the agency was benefiting
from a rash of e-commerce start-ups as well as advertising from
traditional marketers.
’We have noticed many advertisers are budgeting for the internet for the
first time when they’re considering next year’s spend,’ he said. ’While
they might have dipped a toe into the water before, they are now
seriously looking at shifting money from other media.’
Mark Nall, sales director of 24/7 Media, said talk of a Christmas boom
was ’putting it mildly’. ’It has been an incredible quarter and figures
will outstrip projections. Many of the new advertisers are e-commerce
ventures, and they are swimming in venture capital cash.’
Spending on the internet started to snowball in March, when the number
of people online officially hit ten million. ’That seemed to make a huge
difference,’ said Nall. ’Marketers seemed to suddenly realise that they
could hit a large number of people through the internet.’
Nall said total online spend had been expected to hit pounds 40-50
million this year, but that the eventual figure was likely to be higher.
Next year’s figure could grow to pounds 100 million, although there may
be a fall-off in the first quarter.
Jonathan Bill, head of sales at Real Media, confirmed that advertisers
were putting cash into Christmas. ’It goes against the theory that the
new-media sector doesn’t follow the same seasonal trends as traditional
media,’ he said. ’We’re running out of inventory to sell.’
This Christmas will also be pivotal for the online retailers. More
people than ever are expected to buy gifts over the web this year. Peter
Wilson at TSMSi said: ’The e-commerce companies know it’s going to be
big, but they’re not sure how big. While established people like
Amazon.com are sure they can handle it, some of the newer operations
aren’t sure whether they will be able to fulfil distribution.’
