According to eMarketer, the global retail market will see steady growth over the next five years. eMarketer expects worldwide retail sales to increase 5.5% to reach $28.3 trillion. Ecommerce is still a small part of worldwide retail sales but it is growing at a brisk pace.
eMarketer notes in its report that ecommerce accounted for nearly 6% of the total retail market worldwide in 2014. But given the increasing Internet penetration even in the developing world, the share of ecommerce in total retail sales will increase going forward.
eMarketer expects the share of ecommerce to increase to 8.8% by 2018. This means that ecommerce sales will total around $2.5 trillion by that year. The most important markets for ecommerce are China and the U.S. China will exceed $1 trillion in retail ecommerce sales by 2018, according to eMarketer. The U.S. will reach nearly $500 billion by then.
The robust outlook for ecommerce of course augurs well for Izea Inc. (OTCQB:IZEA). Based in Winter Park, Florida, IZEA operates an online marketplace that connects brands with influential content creators. This morning, IZEA introduced product enhancements, new data tools and enhanced analytics.
At the IZEAFest, the company launched Version 1.0 of IZEAx, its pioneering platform. The platform is out of beta. The IZEAx features a comprehensive list of product innovations, technology refinements and entirely new ways for marketers and creators to interact.
The new tools and features include SocialLinks(TM) for eBay, IZEA for iOS Beta, ShareMonitor(TM) and SocialSearch(TM), Campaign Dashboard with Total Social Value(TM), IZEA Score Suite(TM) Beta, and Creator Portfolio & Search.
The company’s SocialLinks for eBay has been launched in partnership with eBay, which is the world’s leading online marketplace. It provides Creators with unlimited ability to monetize their blogs and social channels. The new product offering bridges the gap between fixed-fee sponsorships and performance-based incentives by allowing qualified creators to search through select eBay listings to generate affiliate links quickly and directly inside the IZEAx experience.
Ted Murphy, Chairman and CEO of Izea, said that today’s announcements continue IZEA’s steadfast commitment to platform innovation and industry leadership. Murphy further said that the company is proud to introduce the substantial array of new features. He added that the company has invested resources to create new service layers “under the hood” of IZEAx to support future growth initiatives.
Shares of IZEA have been on a steady uptrend in 2015 rising over 100%, including adding another 2.94% in today’s trading as the stock closed at $0.44.