E-commerce stocks continue to outpace the market in 2009

April 6, 2009 Leave a Comment

As reported by InternetRetailer.com, e-commerce stocks outpaced the market yet again.  The Internet Retailer Online Retail Index was up 9.5% last week vs. 3.1% for the S&P 500.  For the year the index is up a whopping 22%.

The best-performing stocks last week were American Greetings, Drugstore.com, Blue Nile, Bidz.com, and 1-800-Flowers.com, all with growth between 17 and 25%.

For those who are curious, the 25 companies in the Internet Retailer Online Retail Index are:

1-800-Flowers.com Inc., Akamai Technologies, Amazon.com Inc., American Greetings Corp., Art Technology Group Inc., Bidz.com Inc., Blue Nile Inc., CyberSource Corp., DemandTec Inc., Digital River Inc., Drugstore.com Inc., eBay Inc., GSI Commerce Inc., Keynote Systems Inc., LivePerson Inc., Netflix Inc., NutriSystem Inc., Omniture Inc., Overstock.com Inc., PetMed Express Inc., RealNetworks Inc., Shutterfly Inc., Systemax Inc., United Online Inc. (owner of FTD.com) and VistaPrint Ltd.

For more information, click here.

Filed under eCommerce, Finance, Retailing Tagged with , , , , ,

Bad Economy Isn’t Taking Bite Out of Apple, But SEC Might

January 22, 2009 Leave a Comment

 

Apple just released it’s first quarter financial results and posted record revenue of $10.17 billion and record net profit of $1.61 billion, or $1.78 a share.  Analysts had predicted that Apple would earn just $1.29 a share.  In addition, Apple even excceeded it’s per-share revenues of 1st Qtr 2008 of $1.76. 

 

 It seems that almost everything was up.  Mac sales increased 9% to 2.524 million units, iPods up 3% to 22.7 million units, and iPhones up 88% to 4.36 million.

 

apple-logo1One thing that was not up was a concern over Steve Jobs health and the way the company was disclosing information to the public.  Much like people who buy and sell Berkshire Hathaway stock pay close attention to Warren Buffett’s health, the same is true for a corporate icon like Steve Jobs.  Rarely in American business will you find a person and a company more closely tied together than Steve Jobs is to Apple.  Recently the stock price went up when they said he would still be going to work.  Then it went down when they said he was taking a medical leave.  In the language of stocks, that’s a beta of 1.0.  The SEC is apparently investigating.

 

 In a world that’s driven by HIPPA one might think that such disclosures of health are not a matter of public concern.  But the SEC and investors require transparancy where matters materially impacting a publicly traded business are concern.  And few things are more material than the health of Steve Jobs to a company like Apple.  I seriously doubt this will lead to any fines or penalties.  But perhaps it is a soft warning to other companies that a communications strategy around the health of their CEO should at least be considered.

 

Filed under Manufacturers, PR Tagged with , , , , , , , ,

Top 50 Retail Brands for 2009 Includes Two Online-Only Outlets

January 21, 2009 Leave a Comment

InterBrandDesignForum has just released their 2009 list of the 50 Most Valuable Retail Brands for 2009.  Heading the list of course is Walmart whose brand is valued at $129 billion.  To get a sense of the range, at #50 is Anthropologies at $420 million. 

Of particular note to Jedwar.com readers, two of the top 15 brands are actually online-only sellers eBay (at #11 and valued at $7.9 billion) and Amazon (at #14 and valued at $6.4 billion.)   As online-only brands both have the advantage of all consumer touchpoints – brand and otherwise – being under one experience.   However, being just on the Internet means their primary competitive differentiator is eBay and Amazon rankingconvenience, which is easier for competitors to narrow.  Brick & mortar stores who also sell online can express their value propositions in a myriad of ways including price, design, store-layout, store-location, attitude, etc.

In addition, eBay’s brand has some challenges ahead.  What was once an auction business is now a blurred collection of acquisitions that include Skype (which hasn’t faired as well as they had hoped) and online payments systems including PayPal.  Further adding to the challenge is their move towards fixed-pricing.  Keeping all those consumer experiences tied together logically will be difficut for eBay, just as it was for previous online aggregators like AOL.

Amazon is in better shape.  Their narrower scope allows them to vigilantly focus on making online buying really, really simple.  With fewer levers to pull they continue to drill down on the critical moving parts of their business which is site useability, product availablity, shipping and price.  It would not be surprising to see Amazon’s brand move ahead of eBay in the 2010 list.

Filed under Retailing Tagged with , , , , , ,

Q4 Venture Financings Down, But an Engine for eBusiness is Actually Up

January 20, 2009 Leave a Comment

 

With the economy still in a recession it’s no surprise that venture capital investing in the U.S. fell in the fourth quarter of 2008 to the lowest level in four years, according to VentureSource.  Financings for the quarter fell to 554, down from 620 the prior period and 718 a year ago.  The total number of 2,550 deals was the annual total since 2005.

But eBusinesses can take heart.  Media content and information financings actually increased to 50 in Q4, up from 33 a year earlier.  That’s because in economic downturns investment follows capital-efficient business models like those that deliver online advertising and products to consumers.  Content is central to attracting the eyeballs that information sites, retailers and manufacturers then efficiently monetize.

Filed under Editorial/Content, Finance Tagged with , , , , , ,

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