The progress seen in the e-commerce industry is sizable in terms of market share, great tenacity through the economic slump, and well developed customer base. Irrespective of all that, e-commerce marketing is considered a critical part of a business's marketing endeavor instead of a mainstream component. E-commerce websites are considered as a must-have to stay on top of competition but their value is still not fully realized. This thinking prevents e-commerce from getting its rightful share of the advertising budget, and for companies to get the most out of internet consumers and the e-commerce website.

E-commerce and the expanding internet market

Online consumers have evolved in the past years. Web-savvy youth are not the only people visiting websites. People in the 45-65 age range surf the internet on a daily basis. In fact, more and more people across all ages, genders and socio-economic backgrounds are making the most of e-commerce businesses today. Businesses are keenly following this change. As a result, growth in expenditure on internet advertising has outpaced growth in expenditure on more conventional media.

Though there has been a 5% decline in the internet advertising in 2009-10, it is not as bad when compared to the severe revenue drop experienced by television, newspaper and radio advertising. Businesses should look at the future prospects of the internet market rather than the past, and disburse their budgetary funds accordingly.

Fine-tuning e-commerce websites for customer segments

An e-commerce website's audience encompasses people from all sections of society and geographies. Businesses should streamline their website to better serve its targeted audience by enhancing the customer experience. Businesses can develop a successful e-commerce website by:

* Tracking browsing habits of website visitors: Gathering details about visitors on the website is not a one-time job. E-commerce developers should collect details of surfers such as age, sex, hobbies, earnings, on a continuous basis.

* Matching e-commerce website design to customers: Website designers are typically tech-savvy and young and this reflects in their website design. However, the site must remain easy to use since prospects may not be as skilled as the designers. Customers will come back to the site only if they have a satisfying shopping experience. For this, the website design should be

- customer friendly in features, organization, and navigation

- include appropriate content that attracts the audience's interest

- showcase the website's offerings effectively

* Developing separate websites for different target audiences: A company can offer more than one product lines for diverse customer segments. Businesses should consider launching separate sites for each target audience so that each site is in tune with the demographics of that consumer segment. With this approach, the target audience can immediately identify with the site.

Redistributing marketing budgets

The recession has paved the way for many experiments and innovations in advertising strategies. Marketing budgets that only include recurring incremental changes fail to take advantage of the successful marketing practices of today. It makes more sense to rebuild the budget; allocating more funds to promotions in media like internet that promise better results in the current times.

Online traffic is growing and e-commerce businesses should seize the opportunity to make the most of it. They should assess their e-commerce development tactics to ensure their website appeals to a wide range of clients.