Contribution of German eCommerce to the German GNP in 2013-2017

Germany is the second largest e-commerce market in Europe. The German people are very familiar with online shopping; making them smart, savvy eConsumers with high expectations and highly cautious with online shopping where a typical customer reviews a store's terms and conditions, compares commodity prices etc.

Last year (2012), there was a notable growth in the German eCommerce revenues, something that can be attributed to the increasing use of mobile technologies such as smartphones and tablets in Germany, and to some extent by e-commerce marketing in social media networks such as Facebook. It is estimated that in that year, online shopping in Germany grew by 27 percent to reach a total volume of 27.6 billion euros ($37 billion), according to figures released by German mail order lobby group BVH with clothing making up the biggest share of Internet sales with revenue of more than 11 billion euros. Consumer electronics and books came in second and third with sales worth 4 and 2.6 billion euros respectively.

 eMarketer.com postulates that in Western Europe, about 179 million people aged fourteen and above will buy via digital channels in 2013. Around one in four of these will be German residents. This is good news for  the German eCommerce sector and will be one of the contributing factors as to why the German economy will likely remain one of the most stable in Europe. On the contrary, German brick and mortar retailers will continue to feel the pinch of this expanding eBusiness, as one out of ten purchases is expected to be done via e-commerce platforms creating a need for them to make online ventures.

ECO, the association of German Internet Industry, estimates that Germany's Gross National Product, GNP, will be related to e-commerce by 2017. This is one of the findings of a survey carried out by eco. The association defines e-commerce as any online activity having to do with business procedures such as ordering, paying, or complaining, online retail, cloud computing, or electronic administration – regardless of the technical platform the transaction is performed on (PC, tablet, or smartphone).
This means that e-commerce already contributes to the GNP with 37 percent, a significant contribution that is set to increase as mCommerce will increase with increased spread in mobile technology.

How to add an amazon store to blogger

This is a simplified guide to adding amazon store to your blog. You do not need to be an expert in programming to start selling amazon products on your blog. One thing I love about Google’s blogger is the ease with which you get to modify it’s template to suit your taste-quite convenient for those like me who have a problem understanding the HTML code but still have good content to share. Blogger allows you to add up to ten stand alone pages to your blog. In this post, I will give you directions on how to add an amazon store page to your blog and start selling to millions of customers online.

1. The first thing you will need to do is to create a merchant/publisher account with amazon. After this, enroll as an amazon associate.

2. In this step you'll need to choose a tracking ID for your store. This is a unique name Amazon can use to identify your store and make sure you get credit for sales that occur on it.This will give you a unique link through which you can sell amazon products and earn commissions from doing so.

3.You've now created a new store and it's time to customize it. You customize your aStore by choosing the types of products you want to display on your store by category and keywords. For example: If I want to display only Easton brand baseball bats I would drill down in the sports category to display bats which only contain the word Easton in the product description.

4. After choosing the products you want to display on your store you can customize the look and feel. You can choose from one of Amazon's custom themes or change to your own custom fonts and colors. You can even provide a custom logo in your header by entering the URL of your image into the field provided.

5. Choose which widgets you'd like to display in the sidebar of your store. This ranges from things like similar items, to custom Amazon wish lists etc. The idea behind these widgets is to help your shoppers find more items to purchase.

6.  Click the button labeled "Finish and Get Link". On the next page click on the radio button labeled "Embed my store using an inline frame." The code you'll need to add to your website will be displayed in the field below. Copy it to your clipboard by selecting it, right clicking, and choosing copy.

5. After that, log in to your blogger account and on the blogger inter-phase, click on ‘’Pages’’. This will display your current pages and an option to add a ‘’new page’’. Click on the ‘’new page’’ link and then on ‘’blank page’’. This will bring up a page editor where you can add some content for your page. Paste the store HTML code from amazon and paste it on your new page on blogger. On the right hand side of the page editor, click on ‘’Options’’ and select ‘’Translate HTML’’. Your page is now ready. At the top right hand side of the editor, click the ‘’Publish’’ link. Your store will now start displaying on the TABS bar on your blog and your visitors will be able to see your products.

Succeeding in E-commerce

Things are never easy for a small-business owner. No matter how hard you try, there will always be hurdles to jumpand fires to put out. At least you can take comfort in knowing you're not alone. Every small-business owner goes through the same thing. The primary challenge as a small business is having access to capital in order to facilitate our exposure for example through marketing and to a larger extent, trying to identify who the buyers are.
 Launching an e-commerce store involves much more than simply setting up a website with a shopping cart. Driving real traffic to an e-commerce site takes serious marketing and follow through. Most E-stores close down after barely six months of operation after the owners realize  that the ride is not as smooth as anticipated. For that reason, if you are thinking of taking your store online, consider doing the following;

1. Invest your time– For your own e-commerce business to be successful, time is your biggest investment. The more time you put in to your business, the greater the chances are of succeeding. However, an e-commerce business can also benefit you if you only invest a short amount of hours in it, as long as your time is being spent effectively. 
2. Find a platform that is attentive to your needs- When sourcing for your site's host, get one that has an attentive and passionate customer support team as this can save you loads of time.
3. Keep reliable sources of information- While running a business, store owners tend to encounter unpredicted challenges. It’s important that once you face a challenge, you have a knowledge base filled with information that helps you overcome it.
4. Dream – Convey your dreams through your store design. Technology today barely limits your design aspiration. When choosing a store design template, let loose, but also ensure that it corresponds to your products.
5. Strategies to generate traffic- Once their store is up and running, owners must start attracting customers to their businesses. Therefore, the platform you choose to work with has to have suitable marketing tools (Facebook Store, eBay & Amazon Integration, Price Comparison sites integration, Coupon Distribution, etc.) 
6. Analyze and optimize – For a business to grow, its weaknesses must be translated into strengths. Future store owners should guarantee their business has the tools and integration capabilities for a thorough analysis of their operation. Thereafter, adjust and optimize their actions consequently.

I wish you all the best in your business. Feel free to ask questions through the comment box or my email address if you like.

why amazon affiliates?

There are a number of pros that make Amazon affiliates a first choice for for the average blogger seeking to earn from blogging. However, I'll request you to allow me to just consider a few.

1. Wide Array of Products
The Amazon store is probably one of the largest and has a breadth of products on offer. This is a great thing because you get to choose what to blog about from a wide range of topics plus it increases the chances of the people you refer buying more products hence earning you more commissions.

 2. Payment Options – Amazon pays their affiliates in a number of ways. One of the things that I like is that they give you the option to be paid in products instead of cash. This makes it easy to get prizes for blog readers where the prize can be paid for out of your affiliate earnings.

3. Commissions – Amazon will initially offer a 4% commission for your referrals. 4% isn’t that much when you’re selling a $10 item, however when you’re selling a Get a Price on the $50 Camera or a $5,000 Tractor  it certainly adds up. The 4% rate  is the base rate.  By selling more than 6 items in a month, your commission goes to 6% – by selling over 630 you’re up to 8% .

Finally, maybe the most important one is that;
4. Amazon is a trusted Brand – Amazon comes up as number 1 as the most popular shopping destination . Readers know Amazon and are familiar with it – they trust it and do spend significant money there.

With this information, you might just consider shopping or signing up at  Amazon