By Jane Lee

Actinic, the ecommerce software specialist, has published its first quarterly survey of UK small and medium enterprises (SMEs) which highlights a healthy increase in revenue of 15% in the three months to June 2010 when compared to the same period in 2009. However, e-retailers have had to increase their order volumes substantially by 39% to achieve this growth as the average order value has dropped by 17%.

The research shows that although online sales are growing faster than in the high street, the average shopping cart value has declined slightly from £87.09 in Q2 2009 to £72.35 in Q2 2010. This decrease means e-retailers had to work harder to achieve the increase in revenue with promotional offers, discounted lines or focusing on lower value items. On average an extra 262 orders were processed by each e-retailer during the quarter when compared to the same period the previous year.

Jez Hall, director of garden machinery supplier http://www.mowermagic.co.uk comments: “We have noticed a shift in customer purchasing behaviour for the second quarter of 2010, due to the economic climate. Our range of garden machinery is still selling well but we have experienced a significant increase in spare part sales as customers, make do and mend, rather than replace garden equipment. This trend has helped our bottom line as the margins we can achieve with spare parts can be higher than selling the larger ticket items such as lawn mowers.”

He adds, “Without wanting to put a dampener on this year’s long hot summer, the lack of rain does mean gardens are not flourishing. However with our sales revenues up 12% on the second quarter of 2009 figures, we are not complaining.”

Nick Kington, managing director at Actinic says, “This is another impressive performance by online sellers in the SME market and in line with Sales Index figures reported by the IMRG in June. Despite the economic climate many Actinic retailers are seeing very positive signs that consumer confidence and online spending in particular is on the increase.”

About Actinic

Founded in 1996, Actinic is a British company specialising in helping small and medium retailers trade, both online and offline, using its ecommerce and electronic point of sale (EPOS) packages. Actinic offers ecommerce products for web designers and self-builders, including both web-based and desktop solutions. www.actinic.co.uk