Internet Changes Everything

TheStar.com - Internet shopping gaining ground

The promise of Internet Shopping has settle down now. Rather than assuming all shopping would be online, this is a more reasonable view which has credence.

TheStar.com - Internet shopping gaining ground: "Online sales will account for 10 per cent of retail sales by 2008, according to a forecast this month from Forrester Research Inc. About 5 million households will make their first purchase on the Internet each year for the next five years, the Massachusetts-based researcher said. At that time, 63 million households will use computers to shop, the company said"

Online sales will account for 10 per cent of retail sales by 2008
Internet shopping gaining ground
Share 2nd-highest since 1999 survey

Total comes in at $12.5 billion U.S.

WASHINGTON—Internet sales rose as a proportion of all U.S. retail sales in the second quarter compared with the same three months last year, government figures show.

Online commerce totalled $12.5 billion (U.S.), or 1.5 per cent of all sales, during April through June, the commerce department said yesterday. The total was worth about $17.6 billion (Canadian) at yesterday's exchange rate. The percentage of all sales compares with a 1.2 per cent portion in the second quarter of last year and represents the second-largest share of all sales since the survey began in 1999. In the fourth quarter of 2002, Internet commerce was 1.6 per cent of all sales.

"We're feeling good about the third quarter and, of course, feeling good about the full-year results," Margaret Whitman, chief executive of eBay Inc., said in an interview.

EBay, the world's Number 1 Internet auctioneer, said last month second-quarter earnings more than doubled to $109.7 million (U.S.) as more people bought and sold goods on the company's Web sites and used PayPal, an e-mail payment service acquired last year.

The government surveyed 11,000 businesses, including mail-order and online retailers, furniture stores, building-materials dealers, new-car dealers, grocery, department and clothing stores. Online-travel services, financial brokers and ticket-sales agencies were not included.

The government's statistics aren't adjusted for seasonal variations or broken down by industry. Because of that, the government said, the e-commerce figures shouldn't be compared with private-industry estimates.

Online sales will account for 10 per cent of retail sales by 2008, according to a forecast this month from Forrester Research Inc. About 5 million households will make their first purchase on the Internet each year for the next five years, the Massachusetts-based researcher said. At that time, 63 million households will use computers to shop, the company said.

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August 23, 2003 at 09:14 AM in eCommerce | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home