Ecommerce will account for 10% of all retail sales in the United States by 2008, valuing the sector at $230 billion, according to forecasts from Forrester Research.
The report predicts that an additional five million homes will shop online in the next five years, taking the total to 63 million US online shopping households by 2008. In addition, the percentage of these with permanent, high-speed broadband connections is also growing rapidly.
US ecommerce sales for Q2 2003 hit $24 billion, pretty much flat when compared with Q1 this year, but on target to hit the $96 billion full-year spend forecast by Forrester. The Q2 spend is about 20% up on Q2 2002.
Meanwhile, Forrester is predicting that UK online retail sales will rise by 46% this year. This is significantly lower than figures from the Interactive Media in Retail Group, which is forecasting an 84% jump in UK online sales to £14 billion (see UK High Street Sales Fall As Online Commerce Doubles).