Top Online Purchase Categories During Financial Crisis

During the tough economic times, people tend to stay home more instead of going out, and naturally the Web use increase. According to comScore World Metrix, visits to financial news and research sites grew 10% to 8.8 million visitors in September, during the height of the financial crisis, from the previous month.

People wants to save money, get more for their dollars, so they would use the web to do more researches. So what are people buying online? According to Nielsen study released in November, top transaction sites are for Travel and Entertainment related sites are number 1 (Online travel), 6 (Hotel reservation), and 8 (Event tickets).

Credit card account management and home banking were the second- and third-most-popular transaction types for 2008.

Number 4 is clothing/shoes/accessories. Think Lipsticks. One of the top sellers at the Malls are Lipsticks during recessions, people need a pick-me-up, small purchases to make be happier.

Sources:
eMarketer: Online Banking During a Financial Crisis (12/8/2008)
New York Times: Hard Times, but Your Lips Look Great - Lipstick May Ben an Economy Indicator (5/1/2008)

eMarketer: Pitching Cars Online in Tough Times

The economic is getting tough very quickly and broadly. Everyone is cutting but and focus on efficiency. Email finally being recognized again as an effective and efficient channel. Even the dying Car makers/car dealers are still expecting grow their ad spending online.

Sources:
eMarketer: Pitching Cars Online in Tough Times (11/21/2008)

Credit Crunch and Start ups

Times are tough right now for everyone, and it will be tough for a while. This time, the tech sector is not immuned, either. Here are some suggested articles from a start up CEO:

-- A presentation that Sequoia Capital provided to 100 of their CEO's, "Sequoia Capital’s 56 Slide Presentation Of Doom"

-- Similarly, an email to Benchmark's CEO's, "Benchmark Capital Advises Startups To Conserve Capital, Look For Opportunities"

-- Here's a piece in today's Journal, "Silicon Valley Finds It Isn't Immune From Credit Crisis"