European Commission Vows to Boost eCommerce by Removing its Barriers
Editor’s note: The following is a guest post by Michael Essany.
On Thursday, the eC
ommerce industry awoke to news of the European Commission’s plan to double the share of eCommerce in retail sales – a move that would simultaneously increase the role of the internet sector in Europe’s GDP.
The European Commission, which serves as the powerful executive body of the European Union, is largely responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, and running the day-to-day operations of the European Union.
At a time when great economic headwinds persist across Europe, any proactive efforts to advance the EU’s economic strength while driving job growth are widely viewed as positive steps among the European population. As a result, the body certainly has the political leverage and governmentalauthority to carry out its freshly unveiled and highly ambitious plan.
Government Backed Growth Assured
This week, the European Union presented to the public a 16-point plan that will aggressively promote eCommerce in the 27-nation economic union.
“In the difficult circumstances facing Europe we must seize every source of activity and new jobs as a matter of urgency,” said EC members in a public statement. “The action plan we are presenting today will create new opportunities for citizens and businesses and will bring Europe much-needed growth and employment.”
The European Commission’s so-called “action plan” is intended to double the volume of eCcommerce in Europe within three years. According to the EC, the internet economy now creates an estimated 2.6 jobs for every “offline job” lost today.
The proposed steps, however, primarily deal with overcoming present obstacles to cross-border online purchasing. Citing a 2009 study, the Commission says that although more than 50% of EU retailers are selling to consumers online, only 21% receive orders from online shoppers in other countries.
Details made public Thursday also show that the Commission is making it a high priority to finally address the longstanding need to deploy high-speed networks and advanced technological solutions across the European Union.
The full proposal to the European Parliament can be read here.
Economic Hopes Pinned to eCommerce
In the big picture, European Commissioners Michel Barnier, NeelieKroes, and John Dali believe that their robuste Commerce initiative will spark new opportunities for citizens and businesses as Europe continues to recover from and resist further economic calamities.
“Each year,” Kroesreveals, “200 million Europeans – 40% of all citizens – buy over the internet. But faced with different national rules and systems, less than one quarter of that number do so across national borders.”
With vast economic hopes underpinning the proposed plan of action, Europe’s lawmakers vow to be resolute in their aims to insure that Europeans don’t fall behind the rest of the world where eCommerce is already boosting both economies and job growth at a significant and perpetually accelerating pace.
“If 15% of retail sales were eCommerce and the obstacles to the internal market were removed,” the EC claims, “the gains for consumers might be as much as 204 billion euros (US $259.2 billion), or 1.7% of European GDP.”
Source: European Commission
Ticketmaster Wants a Slice of the Daily Deal Pie – Launches tmDeals
Ticketmaster enters the realm of daily dealing with the launch of tmDeals.
Ticketmaster UK, a Live Nation Entertainment Incorporated company (New York Stock Exchange ticker symbol: LYV), announced the launch of its new site tmDeals. TmDeals will offer consumers personalized deals via email for theater, music, sports, comedy and family events, based on their location and preferences.
Chris Edmonds (managing director – Ticketmaster UK), was thrilled with the launch and in his press statement had this to say: “We are extremely excited about launching tmDeals into the UK marketplace. Given our leading position in the live entertainment industry, we are in the ideal position to be able to offer consumers great deals on tickets to a wide range of events.Given the strength of our digital infrastructure and consumer database resources, we can tailor our service to match each and every fan’s needs, setting us apart from the competition.”
Fully focused on entertainment, tmDeals will reach consumers interested in value-priced tickets and make sure they get emails about the events in the location they are interested in. The key to the success of tmDeals is the ability to focus on entertainment tickets and ensure the information delivered to consumers is relevant. Consumers will also be able get the latest deals from tmDeals with full integration in to the key social networks via dedicated Facebook and Twitter accounts helping them keep up to do date with the latest deals and discount tickets.
For those fortunate enough to live or be in the UK, feel free to check out some of these hot deals:
- Buy one get one free for We Will Rock You in London’s West End
- £20 tickets for Question of Sport for dates in Birmingham, Cardiff, Manchester and London
- Buy one get one free on tickets to T4 Stars in London
- 30% off tickets for Alan Carr’s latest tour for shows in Newcastle
- Buy one get one free on tickets for the Moscow State Circus for dates in London
Contests? You bet. There will also be fantastic opportunities to win tickets to see awesome venues such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers live and Cirque du Soleil.
Live Nation Entertainment seems to be hopping aboard the daily deal highway, like others, in the hopes of turning financials around. Publicly traded on the NYSE, the shares peaked in 2007 in the mid $20’s. Over the next two years, the share price plummeted, losing 90% of its value, literally teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.
Since then, the balance sheet has been cleaned up dramatically. Latest numbers show that Live Nation has returned to cash flow positive, although baseline earnings per share are still negative. The company employs about 6500 workers of which my sources show the top five take home over $32 million annually. In my opinion, that’s a LOT of bacon to be taking off the table for a company with earnings still in the red.
It’s interesting to note that insider buying of shares has accelerated in the past six months with a 2:1 buyer to seller ratio. Unfortunately for those buyers, the stock has lost 20% of its value during that same time frame. Currently sporting a lofty $1.8 billion market cap, LYV is having an outstanding day (as is the overall market) trading up about 6% at the $9.52 level as of this writing. Moving forward, it will be important for Live Nation to capture as much daily deal revenue as possible. Cash flow positive is certainly a successful step, however, shareholders will need to see some positive earnings to further justify the huge corporate paydays.
Stay tuned with us at Daily Deal Media as we follow this story down the daily deal highway.
About Ticketmaster:
With operations spanning 19 countries, Ticketmaster is the world leader in event ticketing and ranks among the top five eCommerce sites globally. Ticketmaster is a division of Live Nation Entertainment. Live Nation Entertainment is the world’s leading live entertainment and eCommerce company, comprised of four market leaders: Ticketmaster, Live Nation Concerts, Front Line Management Group and Live Nation Network. Ticketmaster has over 26 million monthly unique visitors. Live Nation Concerts produces over 20,000 shows annually for more than 2,000 artists globally. Front Line is the world’s top artist management company, representing over 250 artists. These businesses power Live Nation Network, the leading provider of entertainment marketing solutions, enabling over 800 advertisers to tap into the 200 million consumers Live Nation delivers annually through its live event and digital platforms.
Source: www.livenation.com , new media age
