According to a report conducted by research company Forrester Research in the US, the top customer acquisition for online retailers (in the US) is paid search, accounting for approximately 35% of new customers on average.

The research from ‘The State of Retailing 2008 Marketing Report’ highlighted that online commerce is expected to account for around 7% of all sales in 2008, with figures expected to top 300billion in five years. In addition the report stated that 53% of online retailers’ marketing budgets are spent on customer acquisition compared to 21% on retention.

Following on from paid search was organic web traffic (with 18% of new traffic), with affiliate marketing and email accounting for 7% each. However whilst paid search accounted for the highest customer acquisition, email was the most widely used online marketing tactic with around 92% of respondants saying that it was included as part of their marketing mix. Of the respondants, 79% said they would be including their paid search budgets for the forthcoming year.