Four years after the internet bubble burst, online retailing is set to be the fastest growing area of retailing this Christmas, for the second year in a row.
US research company, comScore Networks, has forecast that online sales for November and December this year – excluding travel sales and auction sites – will grow between 23% and 26% to around $15 billion (£8 billion) in the US, the world’s largest online shopping market.
ComScore Networks predicts that for the full year, online shopping in the US will soar by a massive 25% from $52.9 billion in 2003 to around $66 billion in 2004. This trend is reflected in other developed countries, most notably the UK and Japan.
This growth has been largely fuelled by the dramatic increase in broadband penetration and growing consumer confidence in shopping over the internet. “Continuing efforts by retailers to simplify the shopping process across channels, will translate to substantial gains for online merchants again this year,” said Dan Hess, senior vice president of comScore Networks. He went on to explain that this is an impressive accomplishment given the mixed signals of consumer confidence and a soft economy in general.
However, according to a report in the Financial Times today, it is the shape of online retailing that is considerably different from what was predicted a few years ago. Amazon and eBay aside, the majority of the largest online retailers are now traditional shop or mail-order groups rather than internet start-ups. It is these retailers, who have brought their investment capacity and trusted brand names to internet shopping, that have boosted public confidence.
