Market research is as vital to a new e-commerce providers success as the technology they're working with, a digital tools and intelligence provider suggests.

Writing on sourcewire.com, Cint claimed that having a full understanding of the wants and opinions of an e-commerce provider's target market is a vital step in offering a robust business model.

It warned that as more retailers leave their bricks-and-mortar stores behind, they can't just crash onto the internet shopping scene expecting things to be the same as a regular mall shopper.

As well as requiring the right tools for the job, such as a Magneto server for e-commerce use, a company must have a clear understanding about how to pull in customers to its site. Secondly - and arguably more importantly - it then needs to convert those visits to sales.

Bo Mattsson, chief executive officer of Cint, explained companies should aim to find out shoppers "spending routines, the times of the day in which they visit the site, the length of time they spend shopping online, [and] their delivery requirements" before getting online themselves.

"Only once thorough insight has been gathered will online retail companies be able to align their business plan with a coherent e-marketing strategy via social media channels, digital advertising, PR or by carrying out a voucher or discount code promotion to attract online users to their site," he argued.

Mattsson's advice comes as a new EU report shows just 14.9 per cent of all UK businesses have sold goods online, leaving the marketplace wide open for new business, enforbusiness.com reports.