Online Retail Sales Grow In Q2
US online retail sales increased by 15% year on year in the second quarter of 2003, according to BizRate.
Mediapost reports figures from the shopping comparison site which show that online retail expenditure rose from $10 billion in Q2 2002 to $11.6 billion in Q2 2003. Growth has therefore slowed since the same time last year when BizRate claims there was a 28% jump in sales.
The slowdown is attributed to downward pressure of online price competition because the number of orders surged from just over 80 million in the second quarter of 2002 to almost 105 million in the same period this year.
A breakdown of the last three months shows that online sales grew by $21 million between April and May only to fall by $12 million in June. Forecasts show that US online retail spending is on course to top $50 billion for the first time in 2003 (see INSIGHTanalysis: US Ecommerce Estimates & Forecasts).
