Current Trends

Hi Everyone;

I'm hoping to poll some similar advertisers on paid search, to see how current economic conditions are effecting e-commerce sales activity.

I am an E-Commerce Manager for a small international manufacturer and retailer. We spend around $20k monthly on the top three search engines. Most are either direct product advertising or brand advertising, landing on relevent shopping cart pages for conversion to purchase.

We've had an excellent year through July, then started to see a downturn (higher keyword costs/fewer conversions). I've made October MTD is very volatile, however. I'm seeing much lower conversions, especially on products with a price tag >$100.

I'm very interested in other experienced advertisers - please share your current experiences. Also - I tried to find a website that provides current stats on e-commerce sales, trends, ad costs, etc. - anyone know of any?

Many thanks in advance!

Jeff