Business-to-Consumer (B E-Commerce (2C) - Online Spending Growth Continued In 2001

ONLINE SPENDING GROWTH CONTINUED IN (2001)

Consumers spent a reported $3.4 billion online in February 2001, according to the National Retail Federation and Forrester Research. That represented a 13.3 percent increase over January, when consumers spent $3 billion online. Those figures compared to $2.8 billion for January 2000 and $2.4 billion for February 2000.

In March 2001 online consumer spending reached $3.5 billion, according to Nielsen/NetRatings and Harris Interactive. The report, based on a survey of 39,000 Internet users, found that more than 81 percent of all adults with Web access had purchased something online since being connected to the Internet. The Nielsen-Harris study found that online travel and apparel accounted for more than half of online spending growth. A similar report from Forrester Research and Greenfield Online agreed on the total level of spending in March 2001, but reported a much lower dollar value of apparel purchases than those estimated by Nielsen and Harris. Both studies agreed that apparel was the most popular small-ticket item purchased online, however.

For the first quarter of 2001, the U.S. Census Bureau reported that e-commerce sales reached $7 billion, excluding online travel services, financial brokers and dealers, or ticket sales agencies. E-commerce sales represented 0.91 percent of total retail sales for the quarter, according to the Census Bureau.

In May 2001 the Boston Consulting Group predicted that online retail sales in North America would grow from $44.5 billion in 2000 to more than $65 billion in 2001. BCG, together with online retail trade association Shop.org, found that the three strongest online retail segments in 2000 were computer hardware and software, books, and travel reservations. The travel segment included air, lodging, car, cruise, and tour reservations. For 2000 travel generated $13.8 billion in online sales, followed by computer hardware and software at $8.2 billion, then books with $1.9 billion in online sales. As a percentage of overall retailing, online sales were projected to increase from 1.7 percent in 2000 to 2.5 percent by the end of 2001, according to the study.