Online sales grew more than 50 percent in 2003, soaring past the $100 billion level and turning increasingly profitable, according to a report from Shop.org and Forrester Research.
Forrester and Shop.org, a division of the National Retail Federation, say their study is the only e-commerce report that includes direct input from 150 retailers, many of which shared otherwise classified information.
Those retailers say online sales represent an ever-larger portion of overall sales. Although quarterly figures from the U.S. Census Bureau show online sales making up less than 2 percent of all retail activity, the Shop.org report says such sales accounted for 5.4 percent of total sales in some categories, including travel, sporting goods, computers and accessories, and health and beauty items.
Read the full story at E-Commerce Times.
