Ecommerce Stats

Two interesting Ecommerce stats were published today from a survey conducted by Forrester Research for Shop.org, the National Retail Federation's digital division, compiling data from 170 retailers:

1) For the first time, clothing surpassed computers in U.S. online sales, with online shoppers spending $18.3 billion on apparel, accessories, and footwear last year and $17.2 billion on computers. The gains in online clothing sales were attributed to a range of benefits and incentives, including free shipping, free returns and exchanges, and applications that allow customers to better view products on retail webites; and to a contrast with difficulty in finding products at all in some stores.

2) Even so, Ecommerce is years away from saturation, says the report, with double-digit growth expected for several years to come. The industry's 25 percent growth in 2006 to $220 billion was above expectations of 20 percent and matched growth seen in 2005, fueled not only by better Ecommerce sites but by the proliferation of broadband. Nevertheless, says Scott Silverman, executive director of Shop.org, "At some point it's going to have to slow down." But while growth rates might start decelerating, retailers are still in the early stages of recognizing the positive impact a sophisticated online strategy can deliver, he said. "Retailers are just beginning to see what that potential is," Silverman said. "[And] a lot of them are fairly far behind in terms of having an appropriate investment level to take advantage of that opportunity."