Ecommerce Sales Hit New High In 2003
US online retail sales increased by 25% to almost $56 billion in 2003, according to figures from BizRate.com.
The shopping search engine estimates that American consumers spent a total of $18.38 billion online in the fourth quarter of which $8.59 billion was outlayed in the month leading up to Christmas.
BizRate does not take into account travel, auction or event ticket sales and found that the average purchase price fell from $134 in 2002 to $113 last year. However, online retail purchases increased by 47% pushing total spend up from $44.94 billion to $55.93 billion.
In its autumn outlook, eMarketer predicted that online retail sales would total $55.0 billion for the full year, rising to $72.6 billion in 2004 (see US Ecommerce Forecasts From eMarketer).
| US Online Retail Sales, By Quarter ($ bn) | |||
| 2002 | 2003 | % Change | |
| Q1 | 9.78 | 12.33 | 26 |
| Q2 | 10.11 | 12.41 | 23 |
| Q3 | 10.02 | 12.85 | 28 |
| Q4 | 15.04 | 18.38 | 22 |
| Full Year | 44.94 | 55.93 | 25 |
| Source: BizRate.com, January 2004 | |||
